Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development announces pillars of 21/2022 social welfare plan

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development announced the objectives of the fiscal year 21/2022 plan in the field of social welfare; it is the fourth year of the Medium Term Plan for Sustainable Development (18/2019-21/2022).Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, indicated that the development vision for social care and protection services crystallizes around the establishment of a solid, cohesive, and productive Egyptian society that achieves social justice and economic development.El-Said explained that in the interest of the state to activate the mechanisms of care and social protection programs, the draft general budget for the year 21/2022 allocated a subsidy of EGP 283.4 billion to social protection, compared to actual allocations of EGP 200 billion in the year 19/202 with an increase of 41.5%.On the basic programs of care and social protection, they include the social protection program, which aims to extend social safety nets to include poor families and the most vulnerable groups to protect them from all economic, social, and health risks, and to provide them with basic services to ensure reducing development gaps between the population at the level of the regions and governorates of the Republic.The social protection program includes some sub-programs, namely the conditional and unconditional cash support program, the relief program for individual and public catastrophes and disasters, and the social insurance and pension program.The goals of the social protection program during 2021/2022 are to reach 4 million poor families benefiting from cash support programs, 100% of relief centers that meet the minimum level of relief devices and equipment of various kinds, 18 million workers who have been covered by social insurance, and 10.5 Million increase in the value of pensions for eligible and beneficiaries.About the social care program for the careless, it aims to provide good and appropriate care services for groups without care to rehabilitate empower, and integrate them into society and the labor market, in the implementation of the principles of human rights and equal opportunities.

The social and economic development program also aims to rehabilitate the able-bodied groups of women and youth and employ their skills in alignment with the needs of the labor market in all heritage, environmental, agricultural industries, and community service to improve the standard of living and promote sustainable development.It also includes the basic programs for social care and protection, the Partnerships Development Program, which aims to develop external relations and promote effective partnerships between all concerned parties to contribute to achieving the goals of sustainable development 2030, and the Institutional Development Program, which aims to develop the administrative apparatus of the Ministry of Social Solidarity.The developments in the values ​​of the monetary support provided to the Takaful and Karama programs, and the number of beneficiaries, reflect the growing role played by the state in providing social protection through its adoption of Takaful programs, Karama, Mastoura, Awareness, and others, and from initiatives, where the cash support for the Takaful and Karama and Social Security pension programs has developed to EGP 19 billion.
These activities have resulted in the poverty rate trending down for the first time in 2020/19 to 29.7%, and it is targeted that, with the continued effectiveness of protection and social care programs, the poverty rate will continue to decrease during 2021/2022.