Conflicting Objectives in the Egyptian-American Aid Relationship

Egypt has been and continues to be one of the major recipients of development assistance in the third world, yet very little effort has been made to assess the overall impact of this aid on Egypt A symposium was held on December 10th and 11th, 1983 in Oriental Hall at the American University in Cairo, organized by Cairo Papers in Social Science with financial support from the Cairo Office of the Ford Foundation. Egyptian government ministers, officials from representative donors and scholars experienced in development were invited to make formal presentations to the symposium. The essays presented in this issue were all presented at the symposiumhttps://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1900/thumbnail.jp

Capacity building and policy coordination strategies

Meeting: Food Security & Vulnerability: Priority Research Themes for Policy Influence and Impact: IDRC Workshop, 27 November, 2008, Cairo, E

The pharmaceutical industry in Egypt.

This thesis is an assessment of the performance of the Egyptian pharmaceutical industry in the context of am international market for drugs which is dominated by the operation of multinational firms. Chapter I begins with an analysis of the determinants of demand for drugs, followed by a definition of terms and a classification of pharmaceutical products according to their therapeutic usage and the technical processes involved in their manufacture. Section 3 of Chapter 1 describes the structure of the international market for drugs, exploring the major factors responsible for a significant rate of concentration in the industry, an excessive amount of expenditure on innovations and promotion, and unreasonably high prices. Section 4 of Chapter I singles out the specific problems concerning devleloping countries in their acquisition of drugs and examines the arguments so far presented on the subject. Chapter II traces the development of the Egyptian pharmaceutical industry from its early start in a free enterprise environment and through the 1950s when government control gradually became total. Section 1 of Chapter III describes the changing pattern of supply of drugs by multinational firms in various markets. This is followed in Section 2 by a detailed analysis of the operation of multinational firms in Egypt, with special emphasis on their comparative gain from particular forms of investment. Section 3 of Chapter III identifies the costs and benefits derived by the Egyptian economy from the operation of multinational pharmaceutical firms, with a quantitative judgement of figures obtained for the two major kinds of foreign operations in Egypt: subsidiaries and license agreements. Chapter IV gives an assessment of the performance of the nationalised domestic sector of the Egyptian pharmaceutical industry over the period 1960 to 1970/71, using indices for production, value added and profits as basic indicators. The price structure for drugs is also examined for its influence on the profitability of domestic firms and on the production indices for the industry. In Section 3 of Chapter IV the policy of GOPCA, the centralised government body in control of the Egyptian market for drugs, is assessed for its influence on the present and future growth of the industry. Section 4 of Chapter IV is devoted to a close study of the problems which the industry has experienced with backward integration, as portrayed in the operation of the primary producing pharmaceutical chemicals plant, El Nasr. Chapter V summarises the results of this study

Heba Handoussa Oral History

Heba Handoussa, a 1966 graduate of The American University in Cairo, was a faculty member teaching economics from 1977 to 1993, and served as Vice Provost in the early 1990s. Growing up in a prominent family (her father a renowned physician who treated Umm Kulthum, a friend of the family, and her mother from an elite background), Handoussa describes aspects of the household like language, recreation, neighbors, and servants (like her Slovenian nanny). She recalls their farm in the Delta and how her family managed to avoid the financial ruin that came to others due to Nasser-era policies. She points to changes for women in Egypt by sharing stories of female relatives (some who joined Huda Shaarawi in abandoning the face veil) on topics like social interactions, dress, and education; she relates her own experiences attending a French language Catholic nun’s school. Admitted to undergraduate study at AUC in the early 1960s despite modest high school grades, Handoussa recollects faculty she studied with, campus social life, and a student body inclusive of the children of families made poorer by government sequestration but also President Nasser’s daughter. She speaks of her subsequent graduate education in London (and interaction with other foreign students there), and her return to Egypt in the mid-1970s where she worked with the government investment ministry and did part-time teaching at AUC. A full time faculty member from 1977, she provides a sketch of AUC’s Economics, Political Science, and Mass Communication Department at AUC and its leading faculty (with anecdotes about interactions with figures like economist Galal Amin). Faculty issues like unequal treatment and compensation with respect to full-time and part-time faculty and foreign and Egyptian faculty are addressed too. She offers insight into AUC students (whom she socialized with as a young professor), including their academic level (better in later years than when she attended) and career paths (embracing opportunities, like banking, made available due to Sadat era economic infitah). Handoussa discusses her position as Vice Provost from 1990 to 1992), including her goals and responsibilities, such as for research (which gave her insight into the obstacles caused by government bureaucracy). She tells of leaving the Vice Provost position when excluded from senior administrative deliberations. Handoussa gives a detailed account of her post-AUC career, including her role in founding the Economic Research Forum (ERF) for Arab countries in 1993, and her position on the Egyptian parliament’s Shura Council, where she made inquiries into matters like the Toshka desert development project. She also speaks about the part she played in setting up the Egypt Network for Integrated Development supporting Egyptian handicraft makers, especially rural women, drawing on her longstanding interest in local crafts

Employment, Budget Priorities and Microenterprises

There have been several systematic inquiries into the functioning of Egypt’s labor market over the past few decades, and the various approaches and perspectives have reinforced a consensus view in the diagnosis of the country’s labor problems. This paper starts out by noting that beyond the convergence of views on symptoms and causes, much of the availabl

Time for Reform: Egypt\u27s Public Sector Industry

Political Economy may be seen as an attempt to cultivate a new intellectual and practical direction in examining the issues and prob­lems of the Middle East. The authors of this volume are concerned as to how the social -relations of historically specific structures in the Middle fast originate, operate and change. It is otvious that before facts are gatheed a theoretical and epistemological stance must be taken so as to assemble and analyze those particular facts relevant to speciftc issues and problems. The first two articles of this volume whi-ch are presented by Enid Hill and H.M. Thompson are concerned precisely with this point. The third essay is historical and is bas·ed on the premise that an understanding of the present includes a comprehension of the process of economic and political transfonnation. As Abdel Aziz Ezz el Arab argues, the legacy of the -Mam1uks remains with the Egyptian people even today as they struggle for the development of their nation. The last two articles by Gouda Abdel Khalek and Heba Ahmed Han­doussa develop a poignant critical analysis of two issues \u27that are of tremendous significance to Egypt as the country moves into the decade of the 1980\u27s, i.e., the Open Door Economic Policy and Egypt\u27s public sector. The structural transformation of Egypt during the next ten years or so will depend-partially on how and in whose interests these issues are resolved

Nutritional supplement of Lepidium sativum L. seeds alleviates metabolic disorders and inflammatory responses in high-fat diet-induced obese rats via modulating AMPK/SREBP-1c of PPARγ signaling pathway

Background: Obesity is a multifactorial chronic non-communicable disease that affects more than one- third of the world population. It represents a burden on human health in both developed and developing countries. Nowadays there is an urgent need for effective natural alternatives to manage obesity. This study aimed at exploring the fundamental molecular processes and contributive pathways of the hydroalcoholic extract of Lepidium sativum, L. seeds (LP) to manage weight gain with its accompanied metabolic complications in a high-fat diet-induced obesity animal model. Methods: Different doses of the hydroalcoholic extract were investigated for adipogenesis inhibition in liver tissues through Peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARγ) transcriptional activity and mitochondrial phosphorylation of 5′AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) using western blot. Sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)-1c which plays a role in regulating cellular free fatty acid homeostasis via fatty acid oxidation and lipogenesis was evaluated using RT-qPCR gene analysis. Furthermore, Analyses of alterations in body weight and serum biomarkers such as triglycerides, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), insulin, leptin and adiponectin were used to assess the anti-obesity effect. The protective seeds’ impact on hepatic tissues was further assessed by histopathological examination. The bioactive metabolites profiling was conducted via HPLC/ESI/PDA/MS-MS. Results: LP effectively modulated PPARγ transcriptional activity via activation of mitochondrial phosphorylation of AMPK. Moreover, RT-qPCR gene analysis presented suppression of nuclear expression of SREBP-1c in dose-dependent method related to control group. Furthermore, it was revealed that LP moderated serum lipid profile, glycemic profile, leptin, and adiponectin. In addition, it reduced liver injury through decreasing ALT and AST enzymes in serum, upregulating liver antioxidant enzyme glutathione, and downregulating oxidative stress manifested in decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. The anti-inflammatory activity was confirmed by declining in proinflammatory cytokine leukotriene B4 (LT-B4). Conclusion: This study is the first to report the potential impact of nutritional supplementation of Lepidium sativum seeds (400 mg/kg) to alleviate metabolic disorders and inflammatory responses in high-fat diet-induced obese rats via modulating AMPK/SREBP-1c of the PPARγ signaling Pathway

Economic transition in the Middle East : global challenges and adjustment strategies / edited by Heba Handoussa.

"Based on papers presented at a conference organized by the Economic Research Forum and held in Rabat in 1995, as well as at an earlier conference organized in 1992 by the American University in Cairo" -- pref.Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-262) and index.vii, 275 p.