تحليل اقتصادي قياسي لمشكلة الفقر بالمناطق الريفية بمحافظة البحر الأحمر

Poverty is considered one of the most serious economic and social problems that threaten many developing countries, including Egypt, in the current period. The problem of the study represents by the rise in the percentage of the poor people in Egypt from 16.7% in 2000 to 29.7% in 2020 according to the national (absolute) poverty line, and from 2.9% in 2000 to about 6.2% in 2020 according to the abject poverty line, in addition to fact that about 64.4% of poor people in Egypt concentrates in the rural regions. Consequently therefore, the study generally aimed at identifying the various aspects and dimensions of the poverty phenomenon in the countryside of Red Sea Governorate, in order to help the decision-makers on how to determine the priorities for developing the poorest rural areas, and then draw the effective economic and social policies and plans to alleviate poverty. The study used both descriptive and quantitative statistical analysis methods, depending on the published and unpublished secondary data (time-series data) from its various sources, and also depending on the field data through a random sample of 315 rural households.
The findings of the study indicated that about (65.7%) of the households in the study sample suffer from absolute poverty (under the absolute poverty line), and about (14.6%) of them suffer from abject poverty (under the abject poverty line), which means that about (80.3%) of the total households in the sample falling below the poverty line, while the non-poor households represented only about (19.7%) of the total households of the sample.
Estimating poverty indicators, the findings indicated that poverty ratio (The Head Count Index) amounted to about 0.710, and the poverty gap index reached about 0.118, while the poverty intensity index was estimated at about 0.020, which reflects the low levels of life, and the highly widespread of poverty phenomenon in the countryside of Red Sea Governorate.
The results also showed that the most important determinants of poverty in the countryside of Red Sea Governorate are represented in (farm income, household size, the number of educational years for the head of the household). These three variables together explained about 76.4% of the total changes occurred in the poverty gap in the study sample. The study concluded with a set of recommendations, the most important of which is: the necessity to increase the investments oriented to the poorest areas in Red Sea Governorate, and the importance of drawing a comprehensive and effective national strategy to confront (poverty, illiteracy and unemployment), activate compulsory education law, improve the educational level of individuals according to the needs of the labor market, activating the national program of family awareness.