Child Poverty and Disparity Trends in Egypt during 2000-2008

Dina Armanious, Cairo University
Heba Laithy, Al-Azhar University, Cairo

The trends in child poverty during 2000 - 2008 will be analyzed in this study for the first time in Egypt, for all eight dimensions; namely; income aspect of poverty, as well as seven other dimensions of deprivation. This study introduces for the first time in Egypt trends and changes applying the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative Measures for children less than 18 years. The main sources of data are the Household Income and Expenditure Surveys and the Egypt Demographic Health Surveys for 2000, 2005 and 2008. The results of the study shows that more than half of all children live in income-poor families and the situation has worsened over time. Education-deprivation has decreased over time, food-deprivation reached alarming levels in 2008. The education level of mothers is the most important explanations for most kinds of deprivations. Oxford measurements decreased between 2000 and 2008 in urban and rural areas.