BERLIN, Germany — Fatma M., whose surname is withheld for privacy, works on a temporary contract at a factory in Cairo and also cleans offices and homes. “I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, with my own hands so my children never go without, but I am afraid of what happens if I get sick or worn out,” she told The Borgen Project. Here is some information about poverty in Egypt along with updates on SDG 1 in Egypt, which is the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of no poverty.
Rising Prices and Informal Work
One household cannot show what poverty looks like across Egypt, but national data can. The World Bank estimates that 33.5% of Egyptians, about 36.6 million people, lived below the national poverty line in 2021. Fatma’s week illustrates some of the pressures behind those figures and the recent updates on SDG 1 in Egypt, the United Nations goal of ending poverty in all its forms, that could reach households like hers.
The World Bank describes high inflation as a key concern for poverty reduction in Egypt. Food prices rose 54.7% in fiscal year 2024, and food makes up more than 44% of spending among the poorest fifth of households.
“I work a second job, but not for extra income. That job is the difference between being able to live and provide for myself, pay rent, eat and drink and educate the children, or not,” Fatma M. said.
Informal and insecure work is common among Egyptian women. UN Women reported in 2024 that 40.9% of women employed outside agriculture work in the informal sector and 33.9% are in vulnerable employment. Only 15% of women took part in the labor force in 2024, according to International Labour Organization estimates cited by the World Bank.
Cash Transfers for Poor Families
Takaful and Karama is a cash transfer program run by Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity. It rolled out in 2015 with support from $900 million in World Bank loans. By December 2023, it reached 4.67 million households, roughly 17 million people. Women make up 75% of beneficiaries, and 67% of the cash goes to the most lagging regions of Upper Egypt, according to the World Bank.
Takaful payments come with conditions linked to children’s schooling and family health visits. Evaluations that the World Bank cited found that, on average, beneficiary households increased consumption by 8.4% and were 12% less likely to fall below the poverty line in 2018. A 2022 evaluation associated the program with a 21-percentage-point rise in the likelihood of secondary school enrollment.
What the New Labor Law Changes
Egypt’s new Labor Law, Law No. 14 of 2025, took effect on Sept. 1, 2025. It is one of the updates on SDG 1 in Egypt most relevant to factory workers. It allows fixed-term contracts only when the nature of the work requires them. A contract counts as open-ended if it is not written, sets no end date or continues after it expires without a new written agreement. The law also guarantees an annual raise of at least 3% of the insured wage.
Women workers are entitled to four months of maternity leave, up to three times during their working life. Employers with 100 or more women at one site must set up a nursery or contract with one.
The law does not apply to domestic workers. Fatma’s factory job falls under it, but her work cleaning private homes does not.
A Proposed Framework for Domestic Workers
On Sept. 7, 2026, Egypt’s Ministry of Labour held a workshop with the ILO to begin work on a legislative and implementation framework for domestic work. According to the ministry, the proposal aims to register domestic workers, extend social and health insurance to them and create inspection and complaint procedures. It is one of the newest updates on SDG 1 in Egypt, but it is still a draft and has not become law.
Decent Life in Rural Upper Egypt
Rural Upper Egypt has been the country’s poorest region. A United Nations paper using official survey data put its poverty rate at 51.9% in 2018. Basic services also lagged. In 2018, the World Bank reported that almost 90% of urban households were connected to sanitation, compared with 18% in rural areas.
– Shimaa Samy
Photo: Flickr