The Palestine Chronicle
By Mona El-Fiqi
Nations only prosper when they have a common dream that governments
and citizens can work together to fulfill. That, in a nutshell, is the
position adopted by the authors of Egypt's human development report for
2005, entitled A Vision for Egypt.
What the goals of economic policy should be are succinctly outlined
by Heba Handoussa, the report's editor: "A future where quality
services are within the reach of all citizens and where every household
is protected by secure employment, health insurance, a solid pension
system and access to affordable housing."
That the vision is a long way off does not mean that the goals
cannot be pursued: indeed, it lends urgency to the devising of
strategies that bring them closer.
During the launch of the report, issued by the United Nations
Development Program and the Institute of National Planning, Prime
Minister Ahmed Nazif lauded its calls for a new social contract which
includes developing mechanisms to better articulate the rights and
obligations of citizens. Nazif praised the report's emphasis on
balancing economic growth and social security, a concern which he said
the government has already taken on board in its plans for reform in
the next six years.
The authors of the report insist the necessary balance will come
about only if all citizens are empowered to take part in the
decision-making process as Egypt comes to terms with an increasingly
competitive and rapidly globalizing world.
A Vision for Egypt offers a strategic framework for human
development, able to enhance both people's capabilities and the state's
capabilities in the quest to realize Egypt's full potential. It
represents, says Antonio Vigilante, resident representative of the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) , an invitation to forge a
common and explicit understanding within Egyptian society of the nature
and scope of the reforms required: "its many recommendations aim at
enabling Egypt to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, not
only in terms of national average but in every region of the country."
Government officials insist that social concerns already inform all
government decisions. Minister of Planning Osman Mohamed Osman stressed
that continuous improvement in the macro-economic environment and the
government's stress on pursuing the momentum of structural reforms had
enabled the economy to grow from an average of three per cent annually
for the period 2000-2003 to nearly five per cent in 2004-2005 and
almost six per cent this year, while reforms in public spending and a
revision of government investments had enabled the redirection of a
significant portion of the state budget towards health, education,
housing and other public services. In 2004-2005 spending on education,
health, social services, subsidies insurance and pension schemes
amounted to LE76 billion, i.e. 43 per cent of total public expenditure
and around 15 per cent of GDP.
Egypt, said the report, had engineered a 17 per cent rise in its
human development index, which rose from 0.589 in 1994 to 0.689 in
2004, pulling the country out of the lowest ranks. Yet Egypt still
languishes at 119th in international human development league tables, a
result, says the report, of high levels of illiteracy and of population
growth. Egypt ranks in the bottom 10 of international illiteracy tables
despite literacy having been a pressing development issue for three
decades.
In order to improve its human development rankings Egypt must
exceed the minimum targets outlined in the Millennium Development Goals
for 2015. To this end the report suggests comprehensive reforms
including a new social contract whereby, in a paradigm shift, the state
reduces its central control and promotes political, social and economic
participation; economic restructuring better capable of generating
employment and sustained growth; greater emphasis on the values of
participation, entrepreneurship, innovation and transparency within an
enabling environment and, finally, a radical shift away from the
intensive concentration of population along a narrow strip in order to
better utilize scarce agricultural land.
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