National Dialogue identifies 6 root causes of overpopulation in Egypt

CAIRO – 25 May 2023: Bad population distribution, early marriage, recurrent pregnancies, customs and traditions, Illiteracy, and poverty are root causes of overpopulation in Egypt, said Talaat Abdel Qawi, member of the National Dialogue’s Board of Trustees.

His comments were given during a discussion held by the Committee for Population Issues at the National Dialogue on Thursday.

“The population issue is one of the most important topics on the agenda of the National Dialogue because of the serious gap between the economic growth and population growth,” he said.

He added that solutions to to overpopulation boil down to political will, decentralization, a clear strategy, women empowerment, age of marriage is 18, resolving the issue of child labor, and resolving the issue of dropping out of school.

The session tackled economic reasons behind overpopulation and potential of comprehensive development, and the new generation, said Neveen Ebeid, rapporteur of the population committee.

Ebeid added that a funding issue hampers family planning strategies, noting that family planning campaigns were most successful when the National Population Council was independent.

Maha Wanis, a reproductive health specialist at UNFP, said the state advises widening pregnancy spacing while the media conveys messages on the so-called importance of big families.

“Partnerships between state institution on the population issue would help unify the message,” she adding, noting that sending messages on family planning is already countered by entrenched ideas and beliefs in the awareness of Egyptians.

She highlighted that teaching reproductive health is avoided in schools due to customs.

For his part, Abu Bakr Al-Gindy, former head of CAPMAS, said that of overpopulation is more important than the economy and terrorism. He revealed that family planning services are lacking in areas with the highest rates of births, and that the poorest women are those with the most children.

The Educational Committee of the National Dialogue also held its discussion on the pre-university education system, on Thursday.

The official National Dialogue page on Facebook called on citizens to share their opinions and answers to a set of questions, to be submitted to the dialogue management and session officials to be discussed and included in the sessions' recommendations.

The questions included citizens' vision of the highest priorities regarding the development of the educational process.

“We share everything in order to reach the best solutions, because the country needs every opinion and vision. We will be pleased if you shared your opinions and answers to these questions, to be submitted to the dialogue management and the officials of the sessions to be discussed and included in the recommendations of the sessions." The National Dialogue page stated.

Tuesday, was the fifth day of the National Dialogue, of which included four sessions, held under the theme “Reasons Behind Decline of Industrial Contribution in GDP,” while the others had as topic "Analysis of Investment Climate between Reality, Opportunities, and Challenges."

The moderator of one of the sessions said that the share of the manufacturing sector in the GDP dropped to 16 percent, which is quite low, as the percentage in modern states must be at least 3 percent.

Member of Homeland Guardians Party Ahmed Bahaa El Din Shalaby said that the emphasis now is mostly on the availability and procurement of raw materials necessary for different industries.

Participant in National Dialogue session on manufacturing stressed the necessity of offering lands for mining as that would help with extracting raw material needed in many industries reducing imports of such goods