The Chinese (Xinhua) agency confirmed that Egypt faces a “historic opportunity” to solve the problem of overpopulation that it has suffered for decades, through the national project for the development of the Egyptian family, which was launched by the government and provided it with all the factors of success..
The agency indicated that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi launched the national project for the development of the Egyptian family, which included several axes to manage the population increase, which the government considered a “national security issue”, with the aim of reducing childbearing rates and improving the demographic characteristics and quality of life for citizens..
In this regard, the demographic expert, Dr. Amr Hassan, said that “the launch of the national project for the development of the Egyptian family is a historic opportunity to close the population increase file, which Egypt has opened since 1965 during the era of the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, when the Supreme Council for Family Planning was established.“.
Hassan, a former rapporteur of the National Population Council, added, “We are now in the year 2022, meaning that this file has been open for 57 years, and there are countries that started with us and finished this file 15 years ago, which means that Egypt is behind, but the state is able to succeed in This file, in light of the strong political will, and this is evident in the statements of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi“.
He added, “The national project for the development of the Egyptian family is characterized as a comprehensive development project, not just family planning and health, and it includes five axes, including the economic empowerment of women and the implementation of economic projects in which they work. It is also a project that targets the family and not individuals, unlike all previous projects that targeted women only.” The project includes several axes, namely the axis of economic empowerment, the axis of service intervention, the axis of cultural, awareness and educational intervention, the axis of digital transformation, in addition to the axis of legislative interventions..
And the Egyptian expert added that “the project uses for the first time a weapon that the Egyptian state did not use before, which is the weapon of positive incentives, whereby families committed to the project will receive financial incentives and rewards.“.
He believed that “giving financial incentives to women, training two million women in project management and making reproductive health facilities free of charge, will encourage women to control childbearing, because when women work, their income will be better and they will not think of having three and four children.”“.
He added, “There is also a new axis in the national project that will be implemented for the first time, which is the axis of digital transformation, where there will be data mechanization, follow-up and evaluation of procedures, which will lead to overcoming previous problems, and help in the governance of the population file and thus achieve the desired success.“.
Hassan expected “the project’s success in achieving its goals due to the availability of success factors, which are, firstly: the political will, and secondly: an institutional framework that manages the population file, and thirdly: the existence of a clear strategy and plan, and fourth: funding“.
He said, “We look at the population in Egypt as one of the elements of the comprehensive strength of the state, but this principle is not absolute, but rather conditional that the rates of population increase do not exceed the state’s ability to provide basic services of appropriate quality, and that the rates of population increase do not affect the average per capita share of natural resources, especially water and energy. and agricultural land, and commensurate with the ability of the national economy to achieve a high level of human development and reduce unemployment rates“.
The population expert added, “In order to improve the quality of life of the Egyptian citizen, the rates of population growth must be reduced in order to achieve the missing balance between economic growth rates and population growth rates.“.
He warned that “the continuation of population growth at its current levels will lead to a decline in the return on development efforts, and the per capita share of spending on health, education, housing and transportation, as well as its share of agricultural land, water and energy, will decrease, and the process of reducing unemployment, illiteracy and food sufficiency will be difficult.” Continuing high fertility rates will not only affect the quality of life in the future, but will also constitute a threat to Egyptian national security“.
He continued, “We are now faced with two options, either regulating reproduction or increasing poverty, and Egypt has a huge surplus of population that exceeds its current capabilities, because the Egyptian society reproduces in an amazing manner that prevents it from enjoying the standard of living of modern societies.”“.
He concluded, “Egypt is now facing a golden opportunity to decisively confront the problem of overpopulation, as there is a political will to solve this chronic problem, especially since President El-Sisi has repeatedly highlighted the need to solve this problem, and he has a great ambition and a clear goal, which is to reduce the annual increase rate to 400,000.” Nesma, which is a big dream, if it comes true, that will contribute to solving many of Egypt’s problems“.
For his part, the economic expert, Dr. Walid Gaballah, said that the launch of the national project for the development of the Egyptian family is very important at this time to confront the high population census that devours economic growth..
Gaballah, a member of the Egyptian Association for Political Economy, said that “this project comes within the framework of the state’s efforts to improve the lives of citizens and improve their standard of living by launching small and micro projects. It is an integrated project that contributes to limiting population growth and raising citizens’ awareness of its dangers.”“.
He added that “the project is concerned with empowering women economically to obtain all their rights and participate in economic activity in a positive way, which contributes to increasing the rate of economic growth, and provides training opportunities for regarding two million women, as well as a financial incentives program, which encourages women to control childbearing.”“.
And he added, “I think that what distinguishes this project is the strong political will and the state’s quest for the success of this project, which is not only related to population increase, but is concerned with the development of the Egyptian family, not individuals, and I expect it to succeed in achieving its goals.”“.