Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 26 of 26
Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Female Disadvantage In The Egyptian Labor Market: A Youth Perspective, Maia Sieverding
Female Disadvantage In The Egyptian Labor Market: A Youth Perspective, Maia Sieverding
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
In this brief, three aspects of female youth’s disadvantage in the labor market are analyzed: low labor force participation, high unemployment, and concentration in the public sector. These issues are closely interrelated and can be addressed through a set of policies that promote family-friendly employment conditions and the formalization of the private sector. The establishment of job search services for female youth is also critical to addressing the gender gap in unemployment.
Youth Perspectives On Entrepreneurship In Egypt: Barriers To Entrepreneurship As A Means To Combat Youth Unemployment, Maia Sieverding
Youth Perspectives On Entrepreneurship In Egypt: Barriers To Entrepreneurship As A Means To Combat Youth Unemployment, Maia Sieverding
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This brief examines a range of factors that Egyptian youth perceive to be barriers to starting their own business, including high risk, limited access to finance, complexity of micro-credit schemes, lack of business and marketing training, and the need for connections in order to succeed. According to results from the Survey of Young People in Egypt, these factors combine to create the view among many youth that entrepreneurship is not a viable means of labor-market entry. Rather, youth see entrepreneurship as either a supplemental income-generating activity while also having a “regular” job, or as a later-life employment option once they …
Social Protection In Egypt: A Policy Overview, Maia Sieverding, Irene Selwaness
Social Protection In Egypt: A Policy Overview, Maia Sieverding, Irene Selwaness
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The need to address the shortcomings of Egypt’s current social protection system as part of a broader process of developing a new social contract between the Egyptian government and its citizens has been noted for a number of years. With a new government recently put in place, Egypt is now at a potential turning point in terms of implementing unfinished reforms to the system or proposing alternative ones. The aim of this paper is therefore to provide an overview and assessment of current public social protection mechanisms and suggest directions for new policy measures. The social and health insurance systems …
The Reproductive Health Of Young People In Egypt, Nahla G. Abdel-Tawab, Noha Roushdy, Maia Sieverding
The Reproductive Health Of Young People In Egypt, Nahla G. Abdel-Tawab, Noha Roushdy, Maia Sieverding
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This Population Council brief presents results from the Survey of Young People in Egypt (SYPE) on reproductive health (RH). The SYPE results underscore the need for: the assessment of state and civil society initiatives to transmit RH information; a national, comprehensive, age-appropriate reproductive health module to be integrated into the educational program; a national campaign on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections that targets young people of reproductive age; the integration of female circumcision into a broader approach to youth reproductive health and bodily rights; specialized reproductive health services for married adolescent girls; and further research on sexuality and reproductive …
Who Is Covered And Who Under-Reports: An Empirical Analysis Of Access To Social Insurance On The Egyptian Labor Market, Rania Roushdy, Irene Selwaness
Who Is Covered And Who Under-Reports: An Empirical Analysis Of Access To Social Insurance On The Egyptian Labor Market, Rania Roushdy, Irene Selwaness
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This working paper investigates the dynamics and determinants of having access to social insurance coverage on the Egyptian labor market among wage and non-wage workers. The results show that men, older, married, better educated, and white collar highly skilled workers are more likely to have social insurance coverage. Access to social insurance is more likely to exist in the public sector and in large private enterprises. Furthermore, acquiring social insurance coverage in the private wage work sector does not often come at first entry; but it takes some time to gain such access. In contrast, experience is not important for …
On Trade Policies And Wage Disparity In Egypt: Evidence From Microeconomic Data, Chahir Zaki
On Trade Policies And Wage Disparity In Egypt: Evidence From Microeconomic Data, Chahir Zaki
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This working paper assesses the extent to which trade barriers, including traditional tariff barriers, non-tariff measures, and red tape, affect wage disparity and employment in Egypt. Using a microeconomic dataset, the author assesses to what extent different trade barriers affected wage disparity and employment in Egypt. This disparity is studied in three dimensions: on gender (males vs. females), qualification (blue vs. white collar workers), and regional (urban vs. rural workers). Findings show that both non-tariff measures and red tape barriers have a higher impact than traditional tariffs on wage disparity and that women, urban workers, and blue collar workers are …
Rethinking The Time Allocation Of Egyptian Females: A Matching Analysis, Rana Hardy
Rethinking The Time Allocation Of Egyptian Females: A Matching Analysis, Rana Hardy
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This study explores the extremely biased division of labor within Egyptian households. The effects of marriage on women’s market and domestic labor supplies are important aspects of this study conducted by the Population Council for its working paper series on gender and work in the Mideast-North Africa region. New explanations for married women’s low participation rates are proposed. A matching model is estimated to determine how selection into marriage alters the time allocation of women. The empirical results show that marriage significantly affects both types of work with married women spending about eight hours less on market work weekly relative …
Safe And Smart Savings Products For Vulnerable Adolescent Girls In Kenya And Uganda: Results From The Uganda Pilot Evaluation, Karen Austrian
Safe And Smart Savings Products For Vulnerable Adolescent Girls In Kenya And Uganda: Results From The Uganda Pilot Evaluation, Karen Austrian
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This presentation was given at the Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference in Washington DC, USA in 2011. It looks at results from a Uganda Pilot Program to provide financial education among girls and increase asset building in the form of Girls Savings Programs. Results from this study saw that savings programs build social, health, and economic assets for girls.
Women's Job Search Behavior In The Egyptian Labor Market, Somaya Abdel Mowla
Women's Job Search Behavior In The Egyptian Labor Market, Somaya Abdel Mowla
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This study evaluates the difference between male and female job search behavior in the Egyptian labor market and the changes in this behavior between 1998 and 2006, in order to examine the effect of transition toward a market-oriented economy on job search activity. The paper also investigates the determinants of women’s job search behavior. The results reveal three alarming facts that raise worries about women’s labor force participation and their future labor market outcomes: women were less active job searchers than men, the gender gap in job search has widened, and this gap is even wider when excluding registration in …
Factors Of Career Mobility In Egypt By Gender, May Gadallah
Factors Of Career Mobility In Egypt By Gender, May Gadallah
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This Population Council working paper describes the opportunity cost of women’s participation in the labor market in Egypt, a critical determinant of not only participating in the labor market, but also of continuing in it. The paper observes career mobility and job-to-job turnover by gender; it also looks at career development over a period of time and analyzes the impact of different factors on career development. The importance of the results increases with the privatization trend in the Egyptian economy. Findings show that 90 percent of women work in the public sector where career paths are similar regardless of gender; …
Female Wages In The Egyptian Textiles And Clothing Industry: Low Pay Or Discrimination?, Amirah El-Haddad
Female Wages In The Egyptian Textiles And Clothing Industry: Low Pay Or Discrimination?, Amirah El-Haddad
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This Population Council working paper analyzes data collected from a survey of firms and workers in the textiles and clothing sector in Egypt. These data allow for the explanation of the sector’s gender wage gap by poorer endowments, and relegation of women to low-paying firms and occupations; and by within-firm and within-occupation differential in returns. There is a pay gap in this sector, with men receiving an hourly wage 29 percent higher than that of women, partly because women are concentrated in the lower paid occupations, with a clear glass ceiling in effect, and outright discrimination occurs. The largest of …
Transition From Higher Education To The Labor Market: Unemployment Among Graduates From The Gender Perspective In The Palestinian Territory, Saleh Alkafri
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This research highlights and identifies the factors affecting the low potential of female graduates entering the labor market in the Palestinian Territories, despite their achievements in education. The results show that employers’ attitudes limit the occupations and activities that women can engage in, and delays in obtaining work often lead women out of the labor market. However, the report also shows that the problem of unemployment among graduates is worse in specific areas and disciplines where education and training do not match the requirements of the labor market. Given this general trend, Palestinian decisionmakers face extraordinary challenges to provide opportunities …
Women's Economic Resources And Bargaining In Marriage: Does Egyptian Women's Status Depend On Earnings Or Marriage Payments?, Rania Salem
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This working paper reports on a study using Egyptian survey data to determine whether the effect of women's work on their status is mediated by the material transactions that accompany marriage. This perspective posits that marriage payments made to the bride, as well as assets she herself brings to the marriage, enhance her bargaining position. Analysis of the 2006 Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey panel data is used to explore the associations between women’s labor market activity, earnings, absolute and proportional marriage payments, and a measure of women’s status within marriage, namely their decisionmaking power. Consistent with the existing literature, …
Tap And Reposition Youth (Try): Providing Social Support, Savings, And Microcredit Opportunities For Young Women In Areas With High Hiv Prevalence, Annabel Erulkar, Judith Bruce, Aleke Dondo, Jennefer Sebstad, James K. Matheka, Arjmand Banu Khan, Anne Gathuku
Tap And Reposition Youth (Try): Providing Social Support, Savings, And Microcredit Opportunities For Young Women In Areas With High Hiv Prevalence, Annabel Erulkar, Judith Bruce, Aleke Dondo, Jennefer Sebstad, James K. Matheka, Arjmand Banu Khan, Anne Gathuku
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) was a multiphase initiative undertaken by the Population Council and K-Rep Development Agency (KDA), the oldest and largest microfinance institution in Kenya. The overall aim of the project was to reduce adolescents’ vulnerabilities to adverse social and reproductive health outcomes, including HIV infection, by improving their livelihoods options. The project was launched in low-income and slum areas of Nairobi, Kenya, where rates of HIV infection are alarming and where young women are disproportionately affected.
Population Aging And The Rising Cost Of Public Pensions, John Bongaarts
Population Aging And The Rising Cost Of Public Pensions, John Bongaarts
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Rapid population aging is raising concerns about the sustainability of public pension systems in high-income countries. The first part of this study identifies the four factors that determine trends in public pension expenditures: population aging, pension benefit levels, the mean age at retirement, and the labor force participation rate. The second part presents projections to 2050 of the impact of demographic trends on public pension expenditures in the absence of changes in pension benefits, labor force participation, and age at retirement. These projections demonstrate that current trends are unsustainable, because without reforms population aging will produce an unprecedented and harmful …
Women Street Vendors: The Road To Recognition, Monique Cohen
Women Street Vendors: The Road To Recognition, Monique Cohen
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This issue of SEEDS explores the experience of women working and organizing as urban street vendors at a time when both the volume of demand and the number of vendors are expected to grow. As municipalities seek to change laws that affect how street vendors ply their trade, it is clear that vendors must have a seat at the table. Local-level organizational efforts need to be consolidated at the national level to cement vendors’ hard-earned gains as rights in national laws and policy. A 1995 meeting in Bellagio conceived an international alliance of street vendors—StreetNet—which aims to promote the exchange …
Empowering The Next Generation: Girls Of The Maqattam Garbage Settlement, Marie Assaad, Judith Bruce
Empowering The Next Generation: Girls Of The Maqattam Garbage Settlement, Marie Assaad, Judith Bruce
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This edition of SEEDS explores the challenge of extending earning opportunities and access to valued social roles to young women in the garbage settlement of Maqattam, Egypt. This edition furthermore underscores the degree to which livelihood programs must confront the social circumstances—such as health, marriage, and cultural and family traditions—that play a major role in shaping girls' current and future economic prospects.
The Muek-Lek Women's Dairy Project In Thailand, Aruna Rao
The Muek-Lek Women's Dairy Project In Thailand, Aruna Rao
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This issue of SEEDS describes a project that was started in 1985 to encourage the growth of a new agricultural sector, dairy farming, in Thailand. While the major aim of the project was to increase incomes of rural families in the Muek-Lek Land Reform Area in Saraburi Province, Central Thailand, it also sought to integrate women into dairying activities, and offer these women, whether married or single, access to credit. The Muek-Lek Dairy Project is unique in that it channeled government resources and secured commercial bank financing to make women the key participants in a relatively new and growing agricultural …
The Port Sudan Small Scale Enterprise Program, Eve Hall
The Port Sudan Small Scale Enterprise Program, Eve Hall
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Euro-Action ACORD (EAA) is a consortium of 20 European and Canadian aid agencies working in refugee farming settlements in Central and Southern Sudan, and with various rural development projects in other parts of Africa, which responded to a request from the Sudanese Commissioner of Refugees to work in Port Sudan. This was the first time the agency considered working with poor urban people, and staff were determined to understand the economic and social forces which governed life in the slums. The program noted a number of findings that will help determine its future: reaching out to women where they live …
The Women's Construction Collective: Building For The Future, Ruth Mcleod
The Women's Construction Collective: Building For The Future, Ruth Mcleod
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This edition of SEEDS focuses on a project developed to integrate low-income women into Jamaica's construction industry. In two years, 34 women passed through the project's basic training and skills upgrading courses. More than 90 percent of these women became employed, the majority as masons and carpenters. The story of how this field was identified as a potential source of income for women, and how the project developed and evolved in response to changing circumstances, presents many useful lessons. These should be of particular interest to those seeking to identify employment areas where women's participation is feasible and in helping …
Developing Non-Craft Employment For Women In Bangladesh, Marty Chen
Developing Non-Craft Employment For Women In Bangladesh, Marty Chen
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Too often when development planners or practitioners plan income-generating schemes for women they consider only handicrafts. While in some situations craft production may provide a secure source of income for women, in many cases it results in poor returns and proves more complicated an undertaking than expected. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is one agency that has developed a successful program of non-craft employment opportunities for women. Some 10,000 poor women have been engaged by BRAC in viable economic schemes: 9,000 in non-craft production. This issue of SEEDS reviews BRAC's experience in developing non-craft employment opportunities and participatory associations …
The Working Women's Forum: Organizing For Credit And Change, Marty Chen
The Working Women's Forum: Organizing For Credit And Change, Marty Chen
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This issue of SEEDs tells the story of how the Working Women's Forum came into being in Madras, India and how it has brought together more than 13,000 poor, urban women around the issue of credit. It also describes how the Forum has not only provided its members with access to funds, but has expanded to include support services such as child care, education, health, and family planning and how the sense of strength and purpose that has grown up among the members is helping them to tackle the political and social problems that affect their lives.
Women And Handicrafts: Myth And Reality, Jasleen Dhamija
Women And Handicrafts: Myth And Reality, Jasleen Dhamija
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This issue of SEEDS reviews handicrafts as a means of providing income to women. In some instances, crafts are a solid source of income and can also provide women with a link to their own cultural heritage. In most instances, however, crafts production concentrates women in an area that is labor intensive and exploitative, providing a meager income for long hours of work. Handicrafts can be a means of increasing income for women in some settings, but only under the conditions outlined in this report, since crafts are specialized activities which have limited markets and offer limited potential as a …
Hanover Street: An Experiment To Train Women In Welding And Carpentry, Peggy Antrobus, Barbara Rogers
Hanover Street: An Experiment To Train Women In Welding And Carpentry, Peggy Antrobus, Barbara Rogers
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The Hanover Street Project, formally known as the United Women’s Woodworking and Welding Project, is an experiment in training women for jobs usually held only by men. Begun in 1976, this was the first such program of the Jamaica Women's Bureau, established by the government during International Women's Year to ensure that women participate fully in Jamaica’s development. The project demonstrated that low-income women can learn non-traditional skills and can work together to improve their lives. Through trial and error, the project is providing the Women's Bureau with a wealth of information about teaching technical skills, working with other government …
Village Women Organize: The Mraru Bus Service, Jill Kneerim
Village Women Organize: The Mraru Bus Service, Jill Kneerim
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The Mraru Women's Group in rural Kenya, like many community women's organizations around the world, is an example of a deeply rooted tradition of association and self-help among women. In 1971 the group began to gather its resources to solve a common problem—transportation. They raised money, bought a bus, and began a public transport service that made money; they now face other difficult questions such as reinvesting profits, serving members' broader needs, and maintaining a strong economic base. The Mraru Women's Group has shown unusual creativity and persistence in identifying common needs and organizing to meet them. They have also …
Market Women's Cooperatives: Giving Women Credit, Judith Bruce
Market Women's Cooperatives: Giving Women Credit, Judith Bruce
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
In 1972, the Nicaraguan Foundation for Development (Fundación Nicaraguense de Desarrollo—FUNDE), one of two programs sponsored by the Nicaraguan Institute of Development, became aware of market women's need for credit. This issue of SEEDS describes FUNDE's experience in developing savings and loan cooperatives to meet this need. This summary stresses the human aspects of the process as much as the financial and technical ones. The project has been successful because the cooperatives have built upon the existing market women's culture, utilizing all the subtle and complex interpersonal relationships established over the years. In essence what the cooperatives have done is …