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- First survey in Egypt to document quantitatively and qualitatively
corporate engagement for development
- Existing and potential partnerships reviewed and assessed.
- Concrete model presented for future engagement.
- New role of each sector outlined: government, private sector, and civil
society
- Mapping of proposed future actions.
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- Extensive literature review
- Quantitative survey: Questionnaire administered to managers in 574
formal private sector companies of various sizes.
- Qualitative survey: In-depth interviews with managers in 44 of those companies.
- Roundtable discussions with members of BEBA, German Arab Chamber of
Industry and Commerce, American Chamber of Commerce, and Federation of
Egyptian Industries.
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- The picture on the macroeconomic level reveals that real GDP growth
reached 7.1%
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- MDG #1 - Poverty and Hunger: The 2005 Egypt Human Development Report
shows that in absolute terms and percentages the poor in Egypt have
increased.
- MDG #2: Education: Upper Egypt - a striking overlap between poverty and
illiteracy in the governorates of Upper Egypt.
- MDG #3: Gender: Alarming low female literacy level (56.2% in 2004). Women constitute only 23.9% of the
total labor force.
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- MDG #4: The infant mortality rate (per 1000 live births) dropped from 30
in 2001 to 22.4 in 2004.
Similarly, the under-five mortality rate (per 1000 live births)
fell from 39.1 in 2001 to 28.6 in 2004.
- MDG #5: Maternal mortality figures also show an improvement.
- MDG #6: The battle against bilharzia, and trachoma continues.
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- MDG #7: Environment: Cairo has 4 of the 30 largest mega slums in the
world (2003 UN Report)
- MDG #8: Partnerships for Development
- Companies prefer to operate on their own rather than in association with a wider network of companies
- Partnerships between NGOs and the private sector are not facilitated by
a sufficiently networked NGO sector working sectorally or geographically
- Regulations restrict NGO networking and coalition building
- Difficulty in identifying credible partners and projects
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- Significant finding: the importance of partnerships and neutral brokers
to act as intermediaries to facilitate these partnerships.
- Two-party partnerships
- Partnerships with universities and schools
- Partnerships with intermediaries such as business associations
- Public private partnerships (PPPs), with quasi-governmental agencies or
ministries
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- Business Associations: ABA, Assiut BA, Sohag BA, Ismailiya BA, Port Said
BA, Dakahleya BA, etc.
- Chambers of Commerce: Am Cham,
German Arab Chamber of Commerce, BEBA, FEI, etc.
- International NGO’s: Ashoka, Save the Children Foundation (Injaz)
- PPPs: Egypt Education Initiative
- UNDP: Global Compact, UN
- Academia: Gerhart Center, AUC
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- Offering and supporting literacy classes.
- Establishing, renovating and / or equipping hospitals and clinics or
specialized medical units within them (e.g. kidney dialysis, neonatal
health, X-ray …
- Distributing meals, financial support during religious occasions such as
Ramadan and other feasts.
- Organizing health campaigns, vaccination programs.
- Building mosques and churches which support community development
centers where basic services (education, health, computers, vocational
training, culture and arts) are offered at nominal fees.
- Establishing charitable foundations.
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- Village adoption schemes involving range of services
- Interest-free and micro loans to employees but sometimes geared
specifically towards women
- Specialized banking and other products for poorer customers, such as
low-cost, easy installment housing plans which do not require down
payments
- Water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure for poor areas
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- Promoting and marketing local crafts.
- Creating environmentally sustainable businesses for the underprivileged.
- Providing knowledge and expertise to initiate and support socially
sustainable agricultural, feeding, and food development programs
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- Corporations: Vodafone, P&G, Unilever, Emak Academy, Mansour Group,
Mobinil, El Nekheily Brothers.
- Foundations: Sawiris, Vodafone, Lead, Al Maghraby, The Egyptian Food
Bank.
- Cemex, Infosys, Casas Bahias.
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- Internal Compliance: evidence that Egyptian companies with international
exposure are beginning to adhere to local laws and seek accreditation to
international standards in areas such as labor rights, health and safety
and the environment.
- Eighty-nine percent (89%) of companies surveyed had some form of
certification or guarantee for internal compliance to appropriate
standards.
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- Targeting short term ‘projects’ rather than long-term national goals.
- Implementing outreach that is driven by public relations and image
building
- Focusing on popular themes and sectors to gain publicity and visibility
rather than address real human needs.
- Making un-informed decisions based on
limited knowledge of poverty issues and the development sector
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- Assign dedicated CSR executive/personnel to plan and implement well
designed initiatives
- Seek and identify credible partners and projects
- Plan corporate engagement for the long term seeking to engage the poor
in their core business and value chain
- Work through intermediaries and neutral brokers
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- Compete individually for corporate funds
- Present development problems in a fragmented manner focusing on narrow,
‘project’ orientations
- Fall into the PR trap and detract from substantive development
objectives
- Inefficient and non transparent management practices
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- Collaborate on sectoral and/or regional issues
- Seek support from the private sector to professionalize NGO sector
management capability
- Inform the private sector about the MDG’s and development work
- Familiarize corporations about severity of situation and range of
options for corporate engagement
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- Egypt is rich with good models at the grass roots. Models of best
practice are ready to go to scale at a national level and in partnership
with the private sector
- Literacy as empowerment &
lifelong learning: Caritas
- Micro credit: Association for the
Enhancement and Development of Women (ADEW), Alliance for Arab Women and
the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS)
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- Income-generation linking
learning to earning: The Integrated Care Society, Association for
the Protection of the Environment (APE) in Manchiyet Nasser, Bashayer
NGO in Helwan, the Association of Upper Egypt (Akhmim and Hagaza)
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- On site sanitation: CARE, Save the Children and Danish Aid Agency
Danida, have had years of experience installing on-site sanitation
systems in small, rural communities; proven models of micro-credit for
the financing low-cost solutions
- Women’s Legal Literacy: The Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Aid NGO
(CEWLA) and Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) provide legal aid,
counseling and advocate for women’s legal causes.
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- Egypt has signed and ratified major international instruments fighting
corruption. It reinforces their
implementation through the Egyptian Penal Code.
- The Ministry of Investment and Egypt’s UNDP country office have embarked
on a challenging program to support transparency and anti-corruption
measures by establishing a transparency center at the Ministry.
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- Co-design strategies with companies, and civil society particularly
those related to basic needs of the largest consumer group: the poor
- Provide direction for pro-development programs, encourage growing role
of NGOs and amend legislation to empower them
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- Identify best practice and replicate / scale up successful models.
- Provide reliable baseline data on Egypt’s performance on MDGs/ poverty
indicators.
- Give tax breaks and other incentives to private sector partners
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- Workers are aware of their rights, state legislation establishes minimum
standards for workers in areas such as wages, industrial safety, job
security and worker compensation, unemployment and welfare measures are
in place and compliance is monitored by both the public and state
- MNC’s: Brand value, a desire to comply with clear and enforceable laws
and consideration of an alert, organized, well-informed public
represented by strong, articulate pressure groups
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- Egyptian companies: operate in an environment where compliance is mostly
voluntary; trade unions not as
developed as in other countries legal, labour and environmental
infractions are monitored by government agencies working hard to build
their capacities; NGOs unable to
access information or use it freely and publicly to the point of
monitoring companies’ labour and environmental violations; general
context in which companies operate is one where levels of education
remain low
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- It will take a very long time for corporate accountability to prevail in
Egypt. Meanwhile the 2015 deadline for achieving the MDGs approaches
- Alternative ways needed to engage companies in the country’s development
through effective, indigenous models, tailored to large, medium and
small enterprises with the clear and focused purpose of achieving the
MDGs
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- The search for new models springs
from the Egyptian private sector’s combined sense of corporate
responsibility towards the business and the economic and social
condition of the poor
- The aim will be growing the business while sharing the fruits of
prosperity with the masses still living below the poverty line
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- The poor in the non industrialized world own few assets besides their
labor, depend on the informal economy for survival. This economy employs millions of
unskilled, semi-skilled, illiterate youths, adults, and children. The sector has grown exponentially in
Egypt
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- If the informal economy provides livelihood opportunities for those that
have no other means to survive and youths acquire technical, business
and market skills in that market in an unstructured and unplanned manner
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- Would it be possible to link businesses to that sector in a manner that
will create a full menu of options for
youths to match their skill set and level of education with
livelihood and learning opportunities in the private sector?
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- Vocational education and teacher training and methods in Egypt no longer
match the speed of labor market developments
- Private sector partners give generously to educational causes. Support for such a model would
perpetuate this giving but re-direct it towards workplace learning
programs, informal workshops, small rural and underserved communities
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- The model proposes that businesses do not give randomly but specifically
support sectors and learning programs linked to their production,
distribution and sourcing, i.e. align core business and community
investment
- The model proposes that formal companies invest in the community of
small businesses and workshops which belong to their same sector and
link up to them in a core business activity
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- Synergies between education, youth, work and investment:
- Livelihoods: The informal economy provides livelihood opportunities for
those that have no other means to survive
- Core Business and Value Chain: Companies align their core business
interests by investing in informal sector enterprises in their sourcing
and distribution value chains
- Learning Labs: move away from a centrally driven school-dominated model
towards turning informal sector workshops into learning labs linked to
the market
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- Large Firms include SME’s in their value chain, transfer technical know
how, specs, quality, business skills, marketing channels, information
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- Curriculum revolves around: technical, vocational, business, life
skills, alphabet literacy, health and safety, culture and the arts –
i.e. offers whole learning content for unskilled and semi skilled youths
within a context of lifelong learning; new opportunities to Learn and
Earn in existing businesses and relevant market related occupations.
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- A number of foundations, banks, and manufacturing firms have already
made strategic choices of the sectors, segments, and regions in which
they will operate.
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- A number of business associations
have set up CSR committees (AAIB, Mobinil, Vodafone).
- Family and corporate foundations have sprung up (Sawiris, Mansour, Lead,
Vodafone, Maghraby al Nour).
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- The concept of Social Entrepreneurship has been introduced (SEKEM,
Ashoka)
- Core business engagement models have been recognized internationally
(EQI and Sekem)
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- A number of companies are taking into account their wider impacts along
the value chain. They incorporate
consideration of how standards can be raised among suppliers,
distributors and in the market place.
- Areas of significant potential in Egypt, e.g. food-processing and small
farmers, the hotel industry - community-based handicraft producers; the
automotive industry - road safety; food export industry - greater
compliance with international health and hygiene standards amongst rural
suppliers and in the home.
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- Contractors and banks extend credit for sanitation and housing needs.
- Sourcing for Agribusiness from small farmers.
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- Consumer Goods sector uses small, low cost entrepreneurial SME’s for
distribution
- Large companies outsource and subcontract small firms
- Tourism sector promotes indigenous crafts
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