Evaluating the Effectiveness of UNICEF's Development Programs in Egypt

UNICEF's development programs in Egypt have been successful in improving the lives of children and women. The organization has partnered with the government to promote civic education, providing young people with knowledge, skills, and attitudes for active citizenship. The expected benefits include employment opportunities and improved labor life. Additionally, UNICEF's programs have led to increased participation of school and college students in community activities. Furthermore, the data suggests that the condition of children and women has improved, and surveillance systems have been expanded in villages.

MANAGEMENT OF
DEVELOPMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
UNICEF conduct many development programs in its members developing countries.
Egypt is one those country where they work for the economic as well as social development of
people. Present report is based on the UNICEF development programs in Egypt. UNICEF is
committed to doing all kind of sustainable development in country in partnership with
government, civil society, business. In Egypt UNICEF is working on the development on the
child programs and education. After the development programs Egypt shows significant progress
in south- east of country. Our report is review of UNICEF programs and its development in
Egypt.
MAIN BODY
The United Nations children's fund (UNICEF) is part of united nation which provides
humanitarian and development assistance to children and mothers in developing nations. The
UNICEF is working for young child survival and development, gender equality, child protection
and early childhood programs. In Egypt UNICEF programs are majorly focused on the young
child development programs (Lee-Rife and et.al., 2012). The areas where UNICEF is working in
Egypt are as follows.
Education
Egypt has made significant progress towards achieving the education goals for young
children. According to the census in 2006, before UNICEF interventions, 1.4 million children
dropped out from the pre -school education. Most of the children are from poor families and live
in rural area. The quality of education remains a challenge and students suffers from the rigid
conventional styles of teaching skills. The school buildings are not fit to use and also lack of
water and sanitation facilities.
After the intervention of UNICEF and long term partnerships with the Ministry of
Education in EGYPT has resulted in modeling best practices to scale up the national capacity
(Green, Richards, and Hussain, 2016). The education programs is divided in three parts.
Early childhood development: The aim of these programs is to improve school between 4-5 age
group. UNICEF supports ministry and local NGOs to improve performance of teachers and
developing standardized teacher's performance.
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Community based education: UNICEF has established community based education for primary
school children. This programs targets on the school children in rural area main focus on the girls
(Romani, and et.al., 2015 ). The initiative includes child friendly schools model that is safe,
healthy, gender sensitive and community involvement.
Inclusive education: The inclusive education aims to enhance the capacity of local level to plan
and implement school based reforms. It is more comprehensive approach to promote education
for children with disability and girls, through respected for differences. Benefits of this programs
are as follows:
 Community based quality education scaled up.
 Children with disability benefiting from this programs.
 New enrollment in community schools with more than 4500 children.
 National strategy is adopted for the children education.
Young child survival and Development
Current status of mother and child health
Over the past twenty years, positive advancements have been made by Egypt. Although,
this progress is beginning to plateau. Hence, this indicates that significant efforts need to be
made by the government of Egypt so that the benefits that are being lost could be saved. There
has been growth in the fertility rate. It has increased from 3 to 3.5 births per woman. The country
has made significant progress on the maternal and child health. Health and development of
children has been placed at the fore front of the government’s agenda. The child mortality under-
five was reduced by 70% and maternal mortality reduced by 73%. Currently, there are 9 out of
10 deaths of children under the age of five before child's first birthday.
UNICEF programs and initiatives
To reduce these challenges the UNICEF take initiatives and introduce the new born, child
and maternal health services and family and community health seeking Behavior programs under
the young child survival and development initiatives. UNGEI (United Nation’s Girls Education
Initiative) is an initiative that has been taken by UNICEF. This aims at reducing the gender gap
in primary and seciondary schools. It also aims to coordinate the strategies for girl’s education.
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Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of these programs are those women and children who live in rural
Egypt and are not aware about the health practices related to women and children. Females will
more specifically be benefitted by these initiatives. This is because these initiatives will not only
make them empowered but also improve their health. Further, it will have several benefits for the
children. This is because educated mothers will go a long way in adopting ways for improving
their as well as other people’s health.
Stakeholders and collaborators
UNICEF work with the long partnerships with the ministry of health and population in
Egypt to expand the health programs in their country. The other stakeholder of this programs are
ministry of the education and other corporations of the related to the social welfare as well as
Human Rights commission.
Methodology
The methodology for implementing these program in to track the neonatal mortality in
selected areas where the health and maternal services are not good. The program focus on the
improving and adopt the quality health services. Survey also forms an important part of the
methodology. Various surveys are undertaken by the government for gaining information about
the current status and thus implementing appropriate strategies in suitable and needy areas.
Monitoring and evaluation methods
To monitor these programs the UNICEF focus on the strengthening information systems
on data related to mother and child health and enhancing monitoring systems. Through the
surveillance system the UNICEF can evaluate the causes of mortality rate and helps to provide
the relevant health services.
Impact
According to the health ministry of the Egypt after introduced these programs there is
average reduction in the 38% in neonatal mortality rate and under five children health quality
also increases.
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The young child survival and development programs aim to reduce the maternal and
child mortality especially in Egypt's most deprived areas. In this program, new -born are targeted
using a continuum of care approach. This approach aims on building health care systems,
promoting communication changes for maternal health as well as gender equality. With the help
of UNICEF, the programs expanded with the baby friendly hospital, polio eradication, and
integrated management of childhood illness. The barriers in this programs are inadequate quality
of health services and lack of trained staff. Poor health practice by families and poor health
advice (Elhady and et.al.,2016). The expected results of this programs is that the malnutrition
among the children is reduced by 30% in targeted areas. Around 500,000 pregnant women and
250,000 children are benefitted from this programs by quality integrated maternal and child care
as well as infant and child feeding. Eight new secondary hospitals and around 140 primary care
facilities are develop. Around 2000 health providers acquire better knowledge in integrated
perinatal and child health care. Additional 20 primary care hospitals in two districts of Qulioubia
and Gharbia have improved health services and certified as baby friendly.
Child protection
Many children in Egypt suffer from the violence, exploitation, human trafficking as a
result thousands of children are living in stress and caught in juvenile justice system. According
to the UNICEF, around 80% children aged between 13 to 17 years reporting at least from of
physical, emotional, or sexual violence. Some of the children are trafficked for seasonal or
temporary marriages, slavery or forced marriages and trafficking of the organ and sexual
exploitation. In Egypt, child protection system is lack of qualified workforce like social workers,
judges, police. The child protection program includes activities at policy level and communities
to build the services of child protection and promoting child rights. This also involved
consolidating the community based child protection. On the national level the main focus is to
introduce of helpline and encouraging social workers on child protection. The programs prevent
violence against children with engagement of government and religious leaders. After
introduction of this program the child protection committees open different centers in different
districts and also a national budget and human resources to implement those committees in is
place. A comprehensive and sustainable legal assistance program for children with social
support. In Egypt UNICEF established schools under the child protection policy.
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Nutrition
Egypt is included in one of the world's highest number of malnutrition. Proper nutrition
during the pregnancy gives life to a healthy child and with poor nutrition lead to irreversible
conditions. The cause of malnutrition is complex in Egypt. Initiation of breastfeeding within one
hour of birth was not improved. Lack of vitamin and mineral lead many other deficiencies. The
programs focus on the provide high quality nutrition services such as supplementation and
promoting breast feeding practices (Khatab, Adegboye and Mohammed, 2016). Developing the
Nutrition surveillance systems. Establish a nutrition unit in every hospitals. The community
based nutrition program in upper villages of Egypt. Supporting national vitamin A program for
women and children. Through this UNICEF reduced the chronic malnutrition among the children
and also community based nutrition knowledge is developed. The infant and young child feeding
practices is improved in families and people consume iodized salt. Certified health facilities and
baby friendly facilities help to improve the children life.
Social policy
Poverty is widespread in Egypt and has increased with time. The biggest concern about
poverty is in rural Egypt where income of people is very low. The poverty of Egypt is
combination of low wages, education and lack of social protection policies. The UNICEF's social
policy is focus on the development infrastructure and development of research on children's
living conditions (Mikhail, Sallam, and Ismail, 2014). For these UNICEF support national
partners to collect data and conducts studies on child poverty. Support a study on child poverty
in slums and urban areas. The benefits of these program is UNICEF get regular updates of the
national child poverty and understands the impact of policy reforms on child poverty. New
researches on the child sensitive social protection are add in the social budgets.
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
In Egypt rural households drink unsafe water and there lack of public sewer systems
also. Lack of the safe water and proper sanitation services as well as poor hygiene contribute
diseases (Cummins, and Chai, 2014). UNICEF raising awareness on better hygiene and
environmentally friendly practices. Its interventions focus on the hand washing with soap ,
proper disposal of the waste water and human waste. These programmes are carried during the
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community gathering including festivals and meetings. As a results new house hold water
connections realized with safe water.
Adolescent development and participation
Rapidly growing young population in Egypt needs inspiration to face huge challenges of
their adulthood the labor market is one on them. The risk of being unemployed increases with
education. The teaching process in school do not encourages students to be part of active
learning. UNICEF aims to enhance the capabilities of female and male to increases their
opportunities for civic works (Brown and et.al., 2013). The Egypt government introduced the
civic education at young people with knowledge, skills and necessary attitudes for active
citizenship. UNICEF supports efforts to build the capacity of youth and promotes more students
unions. Young people discuss on the child and youth rights using the social media. The expected
benefits from these program is provide employment to young people and improve labor life.
Unions of schools and colleges children and their participation in the communities increased
adolescent among them. With more improved data and policy is available to young people.
Lesson learned
Through the young child survival and development programs the condition of the child
and women in country has improved and surveillance system also expanded in the villages.
CONCLUSION
From the above report we can say that UNICEF development program in Egypt is one
right path. The development programs meets its goals in every area. Promoting to the child
health, nutrition, and hygiene practices at household and community levels is main component of
the program. UNICEF aims to encourage healthy life styles among the communities of the
Egypt. The partnerships between the government of Egypt and UNICEF is strengthened the
capacity of development of country. The all program conduct by the UNICEF improved the life
of people in Egypt. However, UNICEF need to raise more funds and donor so the people of
Egypt can meet the standards goals of the Egypt.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brown, D. W &. et.al., (2013). A Review of Target Population Estimates and Implied Infant
Mortality Rates from National Immunization Programmes during 2000-2010. The Open
Public Health Journal. 6(1).
Cummins, M., & Chai, J. (2014). A Global Stocktake of UNICEF's Programme Activities on
Public Finance for Children. Available at SSRN 2573257.
Elhady, G. W., Ibrahim Rizk, H. I., & Khairy, W. A. (2016). Impact of Cash Transfer Programs
on Health Status of Beneficiary Families. A Community Based Study, Old Cairo,
Egypt. Health Science Journal. 10(1)
Green, A., Richards, I., Smith, S. & Hussain, I. (2016). Embedding evidence based course design
principles in curriculum design in a UK and Egyptian University. Journal of Perspectives
in Applied Academic Practic. 4(2). 46-54.
Guedes, A, & et.al., (2016). Bridging the gaps: a global review of intersections of violence
against women and violence against children. Global health action. 9.
Khatab, K., Adegboye, O. & Mohammed, T. I. (2016). Social and demographic factors
associated with morbidities in young children in Egypt: a Bayesian geo-additive semi-
parametric multinomial model. PloS one, 11(7), e0159173.
Lee-Rife, S.& et.al., (2012). What works to prevent child marriage: a review of the
evidence. Studies in family planning, 287-303
Mikhail, M. & et.al., (2014). Education: A Step into the Future. The Undergraduate Research
Journal, 3.
Romani, L.,& et. al., (2015). Prevalence o f scabies and impetigo worldwide: a systematic
review. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 15(8). 960-967.
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