Assessment of poverty and equality of opportunities among Egyptian youth

Investing in youth is the best investment Egypt can make. Youth's well-being determines to a great extent the country's well-being. This study is the first ever attempt to measure the level of poverty and the equality of opportunities among Egyptian youth 18-29 years. It analyzes poverty from a
multi-dimensional perspective, and not only from the perspective of lack of income or low consumption. This study provides a comprehensive, mixed method analysis of the current situation of the nearly 33 percent representing 5.9 million youth aged 18-29 years today who live deprived of their rights to be youth. The main objective of this study is to examine the level of poverty
(monetary and non-monetary) among youth 18-29 years, calculating the Multidimensional Poverty and assessing the inequality of opportunities among youth utilizing the Human Opportunity Index (HOI).
 
The analysis of income poverty shows that youth are more likely to experience poverty than older age groups and 'younger young' are at substantially higher risk of poverty than the folder young'. Poor youth have low educational attainments and especially the girls. Unemployment rate for the poor youth is lower than the non poor, at any age. Unemployment rates continue to be high for secondary and university graduates particularly for the poor.
 
Education deprivation followed by healthcare deprivation is the most prevalent severe deprivation among youth aged 18-29 years in Egypt. Youth of illiterate parents are more likely to have poorer health, to drop out of school themselves and to work rather than attend school. The prevalence of
information, water and sanitation deprivation among rural youth is more than that in urban areas, and youth with the least wealth are most likely to experience deprivations.
Overall, youth in rural areas are least likely to have the opportunity to complete secondary and university education on exact age as well as to attend school/university than those in urban areas. Most youth in urban areas and the majority of youth in rural areas has the opportunity to use safe
drinking water. Difference between opportunities in urban and rural areas, as measured by HOI, is in general driven by a difference in access (coverage effect) rather than in the degree of equality of opportunity. Completion of university education on exact age depends on a great extent on the properties of youth themselves. Accordingly, attention of the government to the education sector
should be promoted, whether the secondary or university education and particularly for university education. Literacy education programs, as well as vocational training centers should be promoted
to illiterate youth and household heads.
Key Words: Youth poverty, Multidimensional Poverty, Monetary and Non-monetary approach,
Income Poverty, Deprivations among youth, Bristol approach, Human Opportunity