Egypt’s youth can give a powerful impetus to development if conditions in their country are improved, says the Human Development Report for 2010 just released by the United Nations Development Program.
The report stresses that young people need a society which provides good education and appropriate job opportunities. The youth should be able to cover their marriage and home expenses as well as have the freedom to express themselves, the report adds.
The report–prepared by a team of specialized independent writers, and a number of thinkers and experts led by Egyptian government advisor Heba Handousa–says the high percentage of uneducated youth (27 percent) in the 18-29 age bracket and the disparity between education standards and the needs of the job market explain why youth in Egypt are unable to secure a better life.
The report adds that 20 percent of the Egyptian population is poor and find difficulty enrolling in schools. Poor youth accept any job, whether seasonal or temporary, to alleviate the effects of poverty as they usually cannot wait for more permanent and better-paying jobs. According to the report, 90 percent of those unemployed in Egypt are below the age of 30.
A chapter in the report is devoted to examining poverty, describing a phenomenon in Egypt which the authors call the “inheritance of poverty”: This phenomenon is particularly acute among youth in rural areas.
Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said in a recent report that Egyptian children in living in informal settlements suffer from protein-deficient diets, as they mostly eat carbohydrates and high-calorie meals.
The meals of the poor in Egypt primarily consist of bread and carbohydrates as they are cheaper than protein-rich foods, fruits and vegetables. This is largely the result of widespread unemployment and the high costs of foodstuffs.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
