In numbers.. How did the country deal with population increase (Infographic)

The overpopulation crisis will remain the primary cause of other major crises in Egypt, and the biggest obstacle that swallows all development work relentlessly, losing a lot of its impact. Let those actions be as if they had never existed. Therefore, the state has taken upon itself in recent years the responsibility to confront this crisis by all possible means. And that was under the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who repeatedly demonstrated the seriousness of this crisis, and it was necessary to address it.

Over the past years, Egypt established the "National Population Strategy", which aims to control population growth, in light of the persistence of high fertility rates, and the economic and social challenges that have emerged with them, and affect the quality of educational and health services provided to citizens.

The strategy works on 5 main axes, namely economic empowerment, service intervention, cultural, media and educational intervention, digital transformation, and legislative intervention.

Within this strategy are cultural performances that contain clear messages about the necessity of family planning and the danger of overpopulation, as a number of theatrical performances were presented that illustrate the negative effects resulting from the large number of children, by creating attractive situations for the viewer that make them think about messages, without fabricating, and avoiding preaching and intimidation methods, Focusing on the many social misconceptions that push many families towards increasing childbearing, in a light, attractive and acceptable comic way that easily reaches the viewer, in order to correct these misconceptions.

Also, during the strategy, thousands of projects were funded for women beneficiaries of the family planning program who committed themselves to applying its rules and standards, training and qualifying a large number of them on entrepreneurship and financial education, as well as raising the efficiency and developing health units in integrative hospitals at the level of the Republic.

The state has also made all family planning methods available to everyone free of charge, and has worked to raise the Egyptian citizen’s awareness of the basic concepts of the population issue and its social and economic effects, by formulating cultural messages that are broadcast through campaigns, and launching awareness programs for young people on correct reproductive concepts and behaviors.

In cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund, and with funding from the European Union, many doctors and nurses have been trained to integrate reproductive health services with family planning services, and training is conducted on reproductive rights, prenatal care, pre and postpartum counseling, and nutrition for women during pregnancy and lactation. Maternity, prevention, health education and breastfeeding support, early diagnosis of breast cancer, as well as family planning services.

A number of family planning clinics for NGOs located in the poorest governorates with the highest fertility rates were established, equipped and operated, namely, Beheira, Giza, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minya, Qena, Sohag, Assiut, Luxor, and Aswan, in addition to the Asmarat neighborhood.

The legislative aspect of the population issue played a major role through the Ministry of Justice reviewing and following up laws related to the age of marriage law, and issued a law criminalizing underage marriage, increasing the penalty for early marriage for girls, and child labor.

The state was also able to adopt the 2 Kefaya project, which is supervised by the Ministry of Social Solidarity, with which many parties participate in order to achieve its goals of promoting the concept of family planning, and correcting misconceptions in order to be convinced of the necessity and even inevitability of family planning.

The project objectives are achieved by restoring the role of civil society, increasing the demand for family planning services, and providing family planning services by developing infrastructure and providing human resources for family planning clinics.

The population of Egypt, according to the Mobilization and Statistics Authority, on February 22, 2022, had reached 103 million.