SDG 1 – No poverty

• Target 1.1 – By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere.
  • Indicator 1.1.1 – Proportion of the population living below the international poverty line by sex, age, employment status and geographical location (urban/rural)
• Target 1.2 – By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
  • Indicator 1.2.1 – Proportion of population living below the national poverty line, by sex and age
  • Indicator 1.2.2 – Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
• Target 1.3 – Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
  • Indicator 1.3.1 – Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex, distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, newborns, work-injury victims and the poor and the vulnerable

SDG 2 – Zero hunger

• Target 2.1 – By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.
  • Indicator 2.1.1 – Prevalence of undernourishment
  • Indicator 2.1.2 – Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)
• Target 2.2 – By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.
  • Indicator 2.2.1 – Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age
  • Indicator 2.2.2 – Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)
  • Indicator 2.2.3 – Prevalence of anaemia in women aged 15 to 49 years, by pregnancy status (percentage)

SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-being

• Target 3.1 – By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births.
  • Indicator 3.1.1 – Maternal mortality ratio.
  • Indicator 3.1.2 – Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel.
• Target 3.8 – Achieve universal health coverage (UHC), including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.
  • Indicator 3.8.1 – Coverage of essential health services (defined as the average coverage of essential services based on tracer interventions that include reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases and service capacity and access, general and safe).
  • Indicator 3.8.2 – Proportion of population with large household expenditures on health as a share of total household expenditure or income.

SDG 5 – Gender Equality

• Target 5.4 – Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.
  • Indicator 5.4.1 – Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location.

SDG 10 – Reducing inequalities

• Target 10.1 – By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average
  • Indicator 10.1.1 – Growth rates of household expenditure or income per capita among the bottom 40 per cent of the population and the total population
• Target 10.2 – By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
  • Indicator 10.2.1 – Proportion of people living below 50 per cent of median income, by sex, age and persons with disabilities

The Karama programme in Egypt is an Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) component of the larger Takaful and Karama (T&K) programme, providing essential monthly income to vulnerable groups who are unable to work. Its core mission is to offer social protection and a dignified life (the meaning of Karama in Arabic) to the poor elderly (age 65+), persons with severe disabilities, and orphaned children. Karama provides a fixed monthly transfer to its beneficiaries. The values received by the elderly, disabled, orphaned (received by caretakers of orphans living with extended family, not children living in institutional orphanages) and unmarried women over 50 years old are as follows:

• Persons with disabilities: EGP884
• Elderly people aged 65 and above: EGP884
• Orphans: EGP705
• Unmarried women aged 50 and above: EGP705

Launched in January 2015, the Takaful and Karama (T&K) programme is a cornerstone social protection measure by the Government of Egypt, designed to mitigate the adverse effects of economic crisis and meant to address longstanding macroeconomic issues as well as contribute to the fight against poverty and inequality. The programme is a national, targeted social safety net, implemented by the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS) and co-financed by the government and the World Bank. The entire T&K initiative is one of Egypt’s largest investments in human capital development.

The T&K system, which manages Karama, was developed using the latest technologies and innovative tools to ensure the poor receive their cash transfers accurately and quickly. This involved implementing a large-scale Management Information System (MIS) and Information Technology platform. This comprehensive system is essential as it links numerous databases to ensure integrity throughout the programme—from registration and poverty scoring to payment delivery and grievance redressal. The system utilizes mobile solutions for household registration and features a fully automated backend. This automation handles crucial functions, including cross-database checking, eligibility verification using the Proxy Means Test (PMT), smart card issuance, accurate cash calculation, financial aid distribution, and grievance application processing.

The programme uses a dual targeting mechanism to identify the most vulnerable: Geographical Targeting identifies governorates with high poverty incidence using poverty maps, and the PMT is then used to identify the poor households within those selected districts. The PMT employs poverty predictors based on data from the 2012–2013 Household Income, Expenditure and Consumption Survey (HIECS).

1.      Cost-Effectiveness and Redistribution: Well-designed UCTs like Karama are a cost-effective and efficient alternative to poorly targeted subsidies. They are effective at redistributing income to the poor who are unable to work (elderly and persons with severe disabilities) and improving their living conditions.

2.      Targeting Efficiency: International experience confirms that robust, dual-targeting mechanisms (geographic and PMT) are an efficient way to identify and reach the poorest households, which form the beneficiary base for all Karama recipients.

3.      Specialized Assessment for Vulnerable Groups: The program demonstrates that for specific vulnerable groups, PMT targeting alone is insufficient. The successful inclusion of persons with disabilities depended on integrating a dedicated functional disability assessment model and linking the MIS with the health sector.

4.      The Role of Technical Assistance (TA): Integrating a TA component was essential for building the complex systems that Karama relies on. This includes the MIS, the payment systems, and the specialized disability assessment and grievance mechanisms, which are necessary to manage a large-scale social pension and disability benefit.

5.      Automation and Transparency: Automation is critical for enhancing transparency and strengthening the MIS. For Karama, this ensures that eligibility (based on age, disability, or orphan status) is verified against national databases, combating corruption and ensuring programme integrity.

6.      Harmonization of Policies: To build an integrated social safety net, Karama’s function as a social pension and disability benefit must be harmonized with other policies (e.g., old-age social solidarity pensions) to prevent duplication and cover gaps.

7.      Secured Delivery System: Implementing a secured system (e.g., secured EMV cards) is necessary to ensure reliable cash delivery to beneficiaries, many of whom (elderly and disabled) may have mobility challenges.

8.      Generating Ownership: Government buy-in and financial contribution are crucial for the sustainability of a national social pension and disability programme like Karama.

9.      Community and Social Accountability: Establishing social accountability committees empowers communities to monitor assistance and hold the programme accountable, which is especially important for protecting the rights of vulnerable beneficiaries who may be non-verbal or isolated.

10.  Strategic Communication: Communication for development (C4D) is vital to ensure that eligible citizens (e.g., guardians of orphans, families of disabled individuals, or the elderly) are aware of their rights, understand the eligibility criteria, and know how to apply or appeal a decision via the GRM.

Child and family support/benefits; Conditional cash transfer (CCT); Disability benefits; Social pension

World Bank

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

United Nations Children’s Fund

International Labour Organization

socialprotection.org

International Food Policy Research Institute

The governance of Egypt’s Takaful and Karama (T&K) programme is best characterized as a centrally implemented, nationally targeted social safety net programme with international co-financing. This structure is typical for managing large-scale, poverty-alleviating policies in middle-income countries. The programme operates under a highly centralized governance model, which ensures the uniform application of rules and benefits across all 27 governorates. The primary implementing and administrative authority is the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS), a central government agency. The programme’s design, management, and rapid expansion are driven nationally, reflecting strong commitment and “buy-in” from the Egyptian government, which co-finances the initiative.

A crucial aspect of T&K governance is its co-financing by the World Bank (through the IBRD). This partnership introduces a significant layer of external governance and oversight. The World Bank’s involvement provides substantial financial resources and mandates adherence to international standards for monitoring, evaluation, and project management. This partnership often includes a dedicated Technical Assistance (TA) component, which focuses on institutional capacity building, ensuring a focus on best practices, data integrity, and continuous system improvement (e.g., strengthening the Proxy Means Test or Grievance Redress Mechanism).

Finally, while centrally managed, the effective governance model recognizes the necessity of local oversight to ensure accountability on the ground. Lessons learned from implementation point to the importance of establishing local governance structures, such as social protection committees. These committees empower communities to monitor the assistance and promote local accountability, ensuring the programme functions effectively at the beneficiary level.

T&K has experienced rapid expansion. As of December 2023, the T&K programme has achieved the following results: 4.67 million households enrolled (of which, 75 percent are women); around 17 million direct and indirect beneficiaries. The Karama programme prioritizes women and, as of 2024, 88% of enrolled households are headed by females. Additionally, a new functional disability assessment model has been implemented, shifting the focus from a purely medical approach to a rights-based model to ensure fair access to Karama benefits. As of 2024, 17% of Karama beneficiaries are elderly, 82% are disabled, and 1% fall into both categories. (World Bank, 2024)

T&K has been institutionalized within the government of Egypt through a legislative decree and a dedicated budget line in the national budget which has been steadily growing from EGP 3.6 billion ($ 71.7 million) in 2015 to EGP 41 billion ($ 81.4 million) in 2024. The project is supported by two International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loans totaling $900 million. The project has also ​received parallel financing in the amount of approximately $3 million through the United Kingdom Trust Fund over the course of its implementation. The project also received a small contribution from the Nordic Trust Fund (to support disability assessments) and from the Partnership for Economic Inclusion (to support FORSA). (World Bank, 2024)

The Unified National Registry (UNR) serves as the central MIS for the entire social protection sector and is operationally critical for the Karama component Instead of tracking school attendance (as with Takaful), the MIS validates Karama beneficiaries by:

1.      Verifying Age: Linking to the national civil registry (National ID database) to automatically confirm individuals who are 65 or older.

2.      Verifying Disability: Linking to Ministry of Health databases to manage the functional disability assessment process, store medical eligibility results, and issue integrated service cards.

3.      Preventing Duplication: Cross-checking all applicants against databases for Social Pensions and general employment pensions to ensure no beneficiary is receiving duplicate government support.

The Takaful and Karama programme does not have a single official website, but the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS) is the primary implementing agency, and its website is the most authoritative source for information on the programme: https://www.moss.gov.eg/ar-eg/Pages/advert-details.aspx?AdID=18