Realizing the Prospects of the Demographic Dividend in Selected Arab Countries

Background: For most Arab countries, the coming ten years will reveal a real challenge with their changing age structure. Currently, a demographic window of opportunity is unlocked in many of those countries with the increase in the fraction of population in the working-age. Hence, the study investigates the relation between population growth and dependency ratio as demographic indicators and the per capita growth domestic product (GDP). Methods: A  time-series analysis  model  was developed for  Egypt and Morocco versus the Republic of Korea as an economically empowered country that had the same initial conditions in the early sixties. Data exploited are drawn from the World Bank and OECD databases. We adopt an income per capita growth model to analyze the role of demographic factors, mainly working-age share. Results There is a significant relationship between GDP per capita and the proportion of working age population. A significant long-run association between dependency ratio and per capita GDP is confirmed. The reduction of dependency load contributes to GDP per capita growth throughout the study duration by an annual rate of about 9 and 2 percent in Egypt and Morocco, respectively. Conclusion: The decline in the dependency ratio, or alternatively, the raise in the working age population has a favorable impact on economic growth. The paper presents supporting evidence to scale up the effect of age structure alteration and to realize the demographic dividend in the studied countries

What happened to real earnings in Egypt, 2008 to 2009?

Nominal earnings in Egypt did not respond to the increase in inflation between February 2008 and February 2009, resulting in a 12.3 (9) percent decline in average (median) real earnings among 25 to 60 years old workers. Changes in earnings differ significantly by groups: (i) those with higher initial earnings (reported and predicted) suffered the largest declines in earnings; (ii) men lost more than women but after controlling for initial earnings, women lost considerably more than men; (iii) those who were initially in agriculture also had greater declines despite rising food prices

Evaluating the impact of Egyptian social fund for development programs

The Egyptian Social Fund for Development was established in 1991 with a mandate to reduce poverty. Since its inception, it has disbursed about $2.5 billion, of which nearly two-fifths was devoted to supporting microcredit and financing community development and infrastructure. This paper investigates the size of the impact of the Fund’s interventions, whether the benefits have been commensurate with the costs, and whether the programs have been targeted successfully to the poor. The core of the impact evaluation applies propensity-score matching to data from the 2004/2005 national Household Income, Expenditure and Consumption Survey. The authors find that Egypt’s Social Fund for Development programs have had clear and measurable effects, in the expected direction, for all of the programs considered: educational interventions have reduced illiteracy, health and potable water programs have lowered household spending on health, sanitation interventions have cut household spending on sanitation and lowered poverty, and road projects have reduced household transportation costs by 20 percent. Microcredit is associated with higher household expenditures in metropolitan areas and urban Upper Egypt, but not elsewhere. The Social Fund for Development’s road projects generate benefits that, by some estimates, exceed the costs, as do health and potable water interventions; this is less evident for interventions in education and sanitation. The Fund argues that its mission is primarily social, and so should not be judged using a cost-benefit analysis. The Fund support for microcredit is strongly pro-poor; the other programs analyzed have a more modest pro-poor orientation.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,,Rural Poverty Reduction,Housing&Human Habitats,Population Policies

Generalised and Versatile Connected Health Solution on the Zynq SoC

This chapter presents a generalized and versatile connected health solution for patient monitoring. It consists of a mobile system that can be used at home, an ambulance and a hospital. The system uses the Shimmer sensor device to collect three axes (x, y and z) accelerometer data as well as electrocardiogram signals. The accelerometer data is used to implement a fall detection system using the k-Nearest Neighbors classifier. The classification algorithm is implemented on various platform including a PC and the Zynq system on chip platform where both programmable logic and processing system of the Zynq are explored. In addition, the electrocardiogram signals are used to extract vital information, the signals are also encrypted using the Advanced Encryption Standard and sent wirelessly using Wi-Fi for further processing. Implementation results have shown that the best overall accuracy reaches 90% for the fall detection while meeting real-time performances when implemented on the Zynq and while using only 48% of Look-up Tables and 22% of Flip-Flops available on chip

The effect of water and sanitation on child mortality in Egypt

This paper assesses water and sanitation’s impacts on child mortality in Egypt. The analysis is conducted using a three-part model specification, comprising discrete choice to model the child prospects of dying during the neonatal period. The remaining parts uses transition models to model infant and childhood risk of death where unobserved heterogeneity is accounted for. The results show that access to municipal water decreases the risk and sanitation is found to have a more pronounced impact on mortality than water. The results suggest that increasing awareness of the Egyptian population relative to health care and hygiene is an important feature to decrease child’s mortality risk. Moreover, gender discrimination is found to be of an important effect beyond the neonatal period

Water and Health in Egypt: An Empirical Analysis

This thesis is an empirical work dealing with water issues in Egypt where the emphasis is put on the analysis of the relationship: inadequate water quality and health impacts. The first chapter includes a general discussion of water resources in Egypt and other developing countries. This chapter briefly also deals with water tariffs and sustainable water pricing in Cairo. In the second chapter the impacts of water and sanitation on child mortality in Egypt are assessed. The analysis is conducted using a three-part model specification, comprising discrete choice to model the child prospects of dying during the neonatal period. The remaining parts use transition models, in which unobserved heterogeneity is accounted for, to model infant and childhood risk of death. The results show that access to municipal water decreases the risk, and sanitation is found to have a more pronounced impact on mortality than water. The results suggest that increasing the awareness of the Egyptian population relative to health care and hygiene is an important means to decrease the risk of child mortality. Moreover, gender discrimination is found to have an important effect beyond the neonatal period. In the third chapter, controlling for the Egyptian households’ choice of health infrastructure (i.e., sanitation facility and water accessibility) is done by means of a discrete choice approach consistent with the random utility model. Evidence of the importance of the indirect effect of the source of drinking water on neonatal mortality is found, but generally the indirect effect is negligible. Furthermore, changes in wealth and educational levels are assessed taking into consideration a priori the choice of health infrastructure. The analysis suggests that wealth and education contribute loosely to the child mortality reduction. The fourth chapter analyzes the impact of better water quality on health improvements using two stated preference methods: choice experiments and the contingent valuation method. These methods were administered to a random sample of 1500 households in metropolitan Cairo, Egypt. The results show that both methods give quite the same welfare measures. Moreover, households in metropolitan Cairo do have a positive willingness to pay for reducing health risks owing to water quality that amounts to roughly double their current water bills. This finding suggests that the willingness to pay is rather small compared to the likely cost

Child mortality, wealth and education: direct versus indirect effects

Controlling for the Egyptian household choice of health infrastructure (i.e., sanitation facility and water accessibility) is done by means of a discrete choice approach consistent with the random utility model. Evidence of the importance of the indirect effect of the source of drinking water on child mortality is found. Furthermore, changes in wealth and education levels are assessed taking into consideration a priori the choice of health infrastructure. The analysis suggests that wealth and education contribute to the child mortality reduction

Economic Incentives And Environmental Regulation - Evidence from the MENA Region

This unique book explores a wide range of environmental issues centred on the Middle East and North Africa region, where environmental degradation and impacts of climate change are known to be more critical than in other parts of the world

Using stated preference methods to evaluate the impact of water on health: the case of metropolitan Cairo

This paper analysis the impact of better water quality on health improvements using two stated preference methods: choice experiments and the contingent valuation method. These methods were administered to a random sample of 1500 households living in metropolitan Cairo, Egypt. The results indicate that households living in Metropolitan Cairo have a positive but rather small willingness to pay for reducing health risks owing to water quality

The effect of water and sanitation on child mortality in Egypt

This paper assesses water and sanitation’s impacts on child mortality in Egypt. The analysis is conducted using a three-part model specification, comprising discrete choice to model the child prospects of dying during the neonatal period. The remaining parts uses transition models to model infant and childhood risk of death where unobserved heterogeneity is accounted for. The results show that access to municipal water decreases the risk and sanitation is found to have a more pronounced impact on mortality than water. The results suggest that increasing awareness of the Egyptian population relative to health care and hygiene is an important feature to decrease child’s mortality risk. Moreover, gender discrimination is found to be of an important effect beyond the neonatal period.Child mortality; Household environment; Transition models; Unobserved heterogeneity; Middle East; Egypt