Ghada Barsoum

Youth Exclusion in Egypt: In Search of 'Second Chances'

Egypt is at a stage in its demographic transition with a marked youth bulge, a period in which the proportion of youth in the population increases significantly compared to other age groups. The objective of this paper is to look closely at youth in Egypt with the lens of exclusion as a guiding conceptual framework. The crux of the exclusion framework is that while some experience a successful transition to jobs, financial stability and personal independence with the ability to form families of their own; others experience unemployment; end up with dead-end low-paying jobs, and defer forming families due to the high financial costs of this important life transition in Egypt. With Egypts economic revival, which began in 2004, there has been a notable improvement in labor market conditions. However, the youth continue to be a most disadvantaged group in terms of higher rates of unemployment, lower earnings, and limited job security and stability, with the majority of new entrants finding jobs within the informal economy. The youth also experience a virtual devaluation of their education credentials compared to earlier cohort. Work opportunities are inter-related with the other dimensions of youth exclusion that we address in this paper: education and learning; potentials for forming families and channels for exercising citizenship. Exclusion is a cumulative process, with each of these life transitions having an overlapping impact on the others. This paper shows that youth exclusion is highly gendered. While female school enrollment rates have significantly increased in the past few decades; there remains a significant minority of girls deprived of schooling particularly in rural Upper Egypt. Similarly, while labor market conditions have improved for most groups, recent analysis shows some alarming trends in female employment, with many out-of-school young women aged 15-29 being economically inactive; and with a significant proportion of those who are economically active being unpaid family workers. Young women are also four times as likely to be unemployed as young men.

The Public Sector as the Employer of Choice among Youth in Egypt: The Relevance of Public Service Motivation Theory

ABSTRACT Young people in Egypt want to work in the public sector, even if they get less pay there than at the private sector. This article seeks to explain the attractiveness of public-sector jobs to this group, embedding this experience within the literature and theorization on public service motivation (PSM) and discussing its relevance. Issues of trust, respect, and social status are reflected in the discourse of interviewed youth about this job preference. A generation-held and culturally-ingrained appreciation among the educated to work in the public sector also contributes to this sector preference. Qualitative and quantitative data also show that extrinsic benefits of job security and stability are also pivotal to this preference. The analysis in the article suggests a holistic reading of motivational factors to join the public sector in contexts of job scarcity and labor surplus.

Striving for job security

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it seeks to voice the concerns of educated youth in Egypt as they describe their work options and preferences. Second, it seeks to highlight the gravity of the policy gap in addressing work informality, drawing on some of the international experience in this field. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative research in the form of in-depth interviews, desk-review of policies, and descriptive statistical analysis of a recent national survey of labour in Egypt. Findings – A large proportion of educated youth work within the realm of informality and there is a clear policy gap in addressing this issue. Contrary to what would be expected, young people value access to social security and work stability. They face systemic hurdles related to access to such benefits. Because of the legacy of guaranteed government hiring of the educated in Egypt, young people express a great appreciation of work in the government, for virtually being the only employer offering...

‘Job opportunities for the youth’: Competing and overlapping discourses on youth unemployment and work informality in Egypt

Employment informality, or employment without access to work contracts and social insurance, is the norm for Egypt’s working youth, including educated youth. Despite the policy focus on youth as a demographic group, particularly after the country’s recent political developments, informality and precariousness remain largely absent from the policy discourse in Egypt. Youth unemployment rates continue to be the main yardstick for youth welfare in the country. Drawing on Bacchi’s ‘What is the Problem Represented to be?’ (WPR) approach, the analysis in this article seeks to elucidate the implicit assumptions in this policy approach. The article juxtaposes the policy discourse on youth unemployment and informality to that of interviewed educated youth working informally. The two discourses overlap in assigning the state a central role in providing jobs in the public service for youth and in marginalizing the potential to address issues of employment precariousness outside such jobs. They are in discord, however, when young people articulate strong feelings of injustice when these prized jobs are not made available.

Youth Exclusion in Yemen: Tackling the Twin Deficits of Human Development and Natural Resources

Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East region and one of the poorest in the world. Its population, already overwhelmingly young, is expanding rapidly, creating an explosion in the number of youth aged 15 to 29. A large youth population can provide the ideas and manpower necessary to foster economic growth and stimulate social development - but only if adequate resources and institutions are in place to help them do so. With a dwindling supply of natural resources, low levels of human development, high levels of poverty, and policies and institutions that work against youth instead of for them, Yemen faces significant challenges in helping youth reach their full potential.The situation in Yemen is particularly challenging because of the twin deficits that the country faces in both human development and natural resources. Yemen ranks 138th out of 179 countries and territories on the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index and 148th on combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment (UNDP 2008). Yemen also faces one of the largest gender gaps in human development in the world. For instance, in gross primary enrollment rates it ranks as the country with the fifth largest gender gap in the world (UNDP 2007). These human development challenges are compounded by severe limits on essential natural resources, such as water and arable land, for a rapidly growing population that is still predominantly rural.

Youth‐focused active labour market programmes in a constraining welfare regime: A qualitative reading of programmes in Egypt

Active labour market programmes (ALMPs) are at the core of welfare regimes in many countries across the world. This study addressed youth-focused ALMPs in Egypt, a country with high youth unemployment and a plethora of programmes ostensibly addressing this issue. Building on interviews with implementers, programme documentation and a publically accessible inventory of programmes in Egypt, the analysis locates ALMPs within the countrys overall welfare system and the politics of programme targeting, design, governance and implementation modalities. The legacy of state ‘protective’ policies and the fragmented multiplicity of players within the field constrain the effectiveness and outreach of these programmes. Analysis of implementation modalities also shows that there is a pervasive lack of programme coordination, activity documentation, management for results, and pathways to achieving sustainability and programme institutionalisation. Key Practitioner Message: • Egypts fragmented ALMPs field must be integrated and coordinated within the countrys broader welfare system • Programme documentation • management for results • rigorous evaluation and sustainability plans must be seriously addressed

The allure of ‘easy’: reflections on the learning experience in private higher education institutes in Egypt

Abstract Private institutions are increasingly visible in the higher education landscape of Egypt. Many of these institutions, however, are within the ‘demand-absorbing’ category, offered at relatively lower fees and requiring lower test scores for admission. Building on interview data, this paper looks at how the graduates of some of these institutes reflect on their learning experience. In the discourse of these graduates, the learning experience is described as ‘easy’ and less demanding. This ‘easy’ education is accepted, justified and even celebrated. Credential fetish and the social status associated with a higher education degree are central to the perpetuation of the allure of ‘easy’. However, ‘easy’ education is also condemned for its compromised quality and low status. The paper seeks to situate these competing and overlapping discourses on private institutes within the analysis of the structure of the education system in Egypt and the global neoliberal tide for education reform.

“We don’t want school bags”

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the competing and overlapping discourses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Egypt, a setting with a serious knowledge gap on CSR. Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with key players in the field of CSR in Egypt conducted in the fall of 2013 and early 2014. Informants included in this study were CSR staff members at major multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Egypt, key partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the field of CSR, media and public relations agents that are partners with MNEs in launching CSR media campaigns about CSR activities. Findings – The paper identifies three themes in the discourse on CSR among some of the key field players including CSR practitioners at MNEs, NGOs and media specialists. First, CSR is seen as a western version of a long standing philanthropic tradition, that is rooted in religion. The comparison between CSR and indigenous religio...

The alignment of the policy objectives of youth inclusion and population regulation in post Arab‐Spring Egypt

Purpose – This paper aims to argue for the benefit of aligning the two policy objectives of youth inclusion and population regulation in Egypt. This alignment is mainly informed by the literature that identifies structural development issues as central to population regulation. These development issues relate to greater access to education, particularly to female youth, access to the labor market, access to family planning services and delayed age at marriage. These development issues are also at the heart of a youth‐focused policy agenda that would foster their successful transition to adulthood.Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides stylized data on the situation of youth in Egypt along the youth‐ and population‐related parameters identified in the paper and surveys population policies in Egypt in view of recent changes related to the countrys democratic transition.Findings – There is great benefit in aligning the objectives of population regulation and youth integration policies in post‐Janu...

Egypt’s Many Public Administration Transitions: Reform Vision and Implementation Challenges

ABSTRACT This article discusses Egypt’s many transitions toward public administration reform. It argues that some of these transitions have collided with an existing large and complex bureaucracy and a legacy of state-led development, such as the protracted and contentious process related to the civil service regulation reforms. Similarly, despite decades of decentralization efforts, state budgeting praxis remains centralized and concentrated. While attracting private investment for job creation and economic growth is a key priority to Egypt, state centrism overshadows the experience. Other transitions, however, have thrived at a much faster pace, such as the adoption of e-government.