17 April 2003

Cairo: Egypt’s Human Development Report (HDR), published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), reports that the country needs its citizens to become actively involved in civil groups, including volunteer organizations, to improve the quality of life.

Civil groups are mostly composed of volunteers working in local communities to improve living conditions. Most Egyptians belong to "productive family" civil group, or groups of family-run enterprises. Also popular are charity and religious groups and organizations that advocate common causes such as reproductive and consumer rights, drug abuse prevention and caring for the youth.

The Report’s key finding states that citizens should be able to participate and influence Government’s decision-making process to achieve its development goals -- alleviate poverty, lower unemployement rates, improve literacy and strengthen local political participation.

One of the main avenues to get involved and be heard is by joining volunteer organizations because they serve as a link between ordinary citizens and the Government. These groups, by working directly with the people and by advocating their needs, are capable of "easing the situation for the marginalized to participate".

Participation, according to the Report, is "both a goal of human development and also a means for achieving it". The Report also acknowledges the obstacles in achieving public participation. In general, there are established political, cultural and social systems that need to be overcome. Specifically, some of the factors that hinder civil groups’ and civil society’s participation include the concentration of decision-making in a few hands, the weakness of democratic practices inside civil organizations, the decline of women’s participation and lack of funding and volunteers.

UNDP’s Global Human Development Report is published annually. It focuses on key global development issues, provides new measurement tools, innovative analyses and often, controversial policy proposals.

The Global Report is written by an independent team of experts and contains analytical framework and inclusive approach carried over into regional, national and local Human Development Reports. To date, there are 420 national Human Development Reports published in 135 countries.

Useful links:

Read Egypt’s Human Development Report

Read UNDP’s Global Human Development Report 2002

Read more about volunteerism in Egypt