Over the past 10 years, Egypt has expanded its Takaful and Karama welfare programme to improve the economic conditions of the country’s more vulnerable social groups.
It launched the conditional cash-transfer programme, which means “solidarity and dignity”, 10 years ago to mitigate the effects of economic reforms on vulnerable families.
Receiving support through the programme requires beneficiaries to ensure their children’s school attendance and to follow up on healthcare services. More recently, more conditions were introduced to raise social awareness, such as the prohibition of early marriage for girls.
The programme was launched with an initial reach of 1.7 million families and a total disbursement of LE5 billion. At present, it supports 4.7 million families, with cumulative allocations rising to LE41 billion.
Minister of Finance Ahmed Kouchouk said during an event this week to mark the 10-year milestone for the programme that its budget may surpass LE55 billion in 2025-26 following President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi’s directive to increase the monthly support by 25 per cent, raising it to LE900.
The programme has served 7.7 million families to date, according to Minister of Social Solidarity Maya Morsi, also addressing attendees at the event. Beneficiaries of the programme are granted a comprehensive social-protection package, which includes exemptions from educational fees, access to universal health insurance, and integrated service cards for persons with disabilities, in addition to benefits offered through the Decent Life initiative.
The LE55 billion earmarked for the upcoming fiscal year is equivalent to Egypt’s total spending on subsidies between 2011 and 2017, said Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli at the anniversary event. The programme was meant to cushion the impacts of the structural reforms Egypt launched in 2014 for the most vulnerable groups through expanding social safety net coverage and increasing food commodity allocations via ration cards, among other measures.
According to a World Bank report, the Takaful and Karama programme, comprising both conditional and unconditional cash support, is one of Egypt’s heaviest investments in human capital development. It was launched in 2015 with the support of $400 million from the World Bank and is implemented by the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
Madbouli noted that social protection is a foundational pillar of the state, pointing out that Egypt currently operates 22 social-protection programmes with a total annual cost of LE635 billion.
Seventy-five per cent of Takaful and Karama programme beneficiaries are women, many of whom have utilised the support to invest in their children’s education and healthcare, said Stephane Guibert, World Bank country director for Egypt, Djibouti, and Yemen.
He added that with economic shocks becoming a recurrent reality, social protection is no longer a response to poverty, but a tool for building a more prosperous future.
Expanding cash transfers and efforts to improve education and health are vital to overcoming illiteracy and enhancing children’s well-being, he added. The programme is more than a safety net; it is a catalyst for economic empowerment and skills development, he stressed.
During the event this week, Morsi announced the launch of a high-level international platform for social protection to be hosted annually by Egypt in cooperation with the World Bank.
The platform is meant to recognise the achievements of countries in strengthening social safety nets and fostering innovation. It aims to provide a space for decision-makers, development experts, and international organisations to exchange best practices in social protection.
Hania Al-Sholkami, associate research professor at the Social Research Centre of the American University in Cairo and one of the architects of the programme, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Takaful and Karama programme faces a host of challenges, including society’s need for a more adaptable social-protection system.
“The socioeconomic landscape has evolved,” she noted, “and the issue now extends beyond the traditionally defined poorest segments. What we require is a flexible model of social protection that promotes work and safeguards people from poverty and unforeseen shocks such as job loss or reduced agricultural productivity.”
“Egypt must fundamentally rethink its targeting strategies and delivery mechanisms for the coming decade,” she added, lauding the high-level platform as a means towards this end.
Elena Panova, the UN resident coordinator in Egypt, told the Weekly that the main challenge facing the programme is that it needs to make sure that all people in need are covered. It needs to provide not just a safety net, but also the opportunity for people to get out of poverty, so that it does not create dependency, and beneficiaries are able to leave the programme.
She believes that the programme needs to continue and needs to expand vertically and horizontally to make sure that it addresses the problem of the increasing cost of living. But “most importantly we need to think how people can get out of poverty,” she said.
She said that the programme will remain because, like other developing countries, Egypt will always have to care for vulnerable groups.
Panova said at the event this week that “today we mark a pillar of Egypt’s social protection and the realisation of the promise that no Egyptian will be left to face poverty alone.”
Panova pointed to the UN’s contribution to the adoption and expansion of the programme, which aims to protect and care for children, promote positive behaviour and self-reliance, and achieve economic empowerment.
“We are working to improve the emergency response mechanism of the programme,” she said, noting that Egypt has made tangible progress in the field of social protection, although poverty remains a dynamic challenge.
Panova believes that the Takaful and Karama programme must be expanded to cover people from infancy to retirement and that policies must be designed to effectively respond to shocks.
“We are proud of our partnership in developing social protection programmes in Egypt and in identifying gaps and obstacles,” she said, adding that the UN stands ready to support Egypt to ensure that social protection becomes not just a safety net, but also a pathway to economic empowerment and resilience.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 15 May, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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