61 research outputs found
Heba Handoussa Oral History
No full textHeba Handoussa, a 1966 graduate of The American University in Cairo, was a faculty member teaching economics from 1977 to 1993, and served as Vice Provost in the early 1990s. Growing up in a prominent family (her father a renowned physician who treated Umm Kulthum, a friend of the family, and her mother from an elite background), Handoussa describes aspects of the household like language, recreation, neighbors, and servants (like her Slovenian nanny). She recalls their farm in the Delta and how her family managed to avoid the financial ruin that came to others due to Nasser-era policies. She points to changes for women in Egypt by sharing stories of female relatives (some who joined Huda Shaarawi in abandoning the face veil) on topics like social interactions, dress, and education; she relates her own experiences attending a French language Catholic nun’s school. Admitted to undergraduate study at AUC in the early 1960s despite modest high school grades, Handoussa recollects faculty she studied with, campus social life, and a student body inclusive of the children of families made poorer by government sequestration but also President Nasser’s daughter. She speaks of her subsequent graduate education in London (and interaction with other foreign students there), and her return to Egypt in the mid-1970s where she worked with the government investment ministry and did part-time teaching at AUC. A full time faculty member from 1977, she provides a sketch of AUC’s Economics, Political Science, and Mass Communication Department at AUC and its leading faculty (with anecdotes about interactions with figures like economist Galal Amin). Faculty issues like unequal treatment and compensation with respect to full-time and part-time faculty and foreign and Egyptian faculty are addressed too. She offers insight into AUC students (whom she socialized with as a young professor), including their academic level (better in later years than when she attended) and career paths (embracing opportunities, like banking, made available due to Sadat era economic infitah). Handoussa discusses her position as Vice Provost from 1990 to 1992), including her goals and responsibilities, such as for research (which gave her insight into the obstacles caused by government bureaucracy). She tells of leaving the Vice Provost position when excluded from senior administrative deliberations. Handoussa gives a detailed account of her post-AUC career, including her role in founding the Economic Research Forum (ERF) for Arab countries in 1993, and her position on the Egyptian parliament’s Shura Council, where she made inquiries into matters like the Toshka desert development project. She also speaks about the part she played in setting up the Egypt Network for Integrated Development supporting Egyptian handicraft makers, especially rural women, drawing on her longstanding interest in local crafts
Employment Creation and Social Protection in the Middle East and North Africa
No full textThis book describes and analyzes
critical aspects of the labor market and social protection
in the Arab world. The authors address the interrelationship
between labor, human development, and social well-being in
the Middle East and North Africa region -- an interaction
that is viewed against the backdrop of a globalization
process that is a crucial shaping factor in national and
international relations alike. The authors scrutinize the
implications for workers of the new forms of insecurity
being ushered in by the globalization era. At the forefront
is the issue of social protection, which creates several
dilemmas for policymakers, since formal social security
covers only a small percentage of the labor force. The idea
of social reinsurance, which would integrate the informal
sector and allow for social dialog, emerges at various
levels, and there is general agreement that any such dialog,
or new social contract, must include government, the private
sector, and civil society
Economic transition in the Middle East : global challenges and adjustment strategies / edited by Heba Handoussa.
No full text"Based on papers presented at a conference organized by the Economic Research Forum and held in Rabat in 1995, as well as at an earlier conference organized in 1992 by the American University in Cairo" -- pref.Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-262) and index.vii, 275 p.
Keynote speech.
No full textKeynote Speech by Professor Heba Handoussa to the 2007 African Economic Conference, Addis Ababa, 15-17 November 2007
Less poverty in Egypt?
No full textIn this paper, the impact of alternative development strategies on growth and poverty is assessed in an economywide framework, using Egypt as a case study. The analysis is guided by the following question: By pursuing a development strategy different from the one actually pursued since the late 1970s, could Egypt's government significantly have improved the status of its poor? To address this question, a dynamic, recursive, Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model is used to simulate Egypt's economy for the period 1979-1997. The model is built around a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for 1979. The results indicate that pro-poor redistribution of land and human capital assets could have been a particularly effective tool had Egypt prioritized more strongly to improve the welfare of the poor and reduce inequalities. Such policies could have been implemented without any noticeable negative impact on growth or aggregate welfare. The results also suggest that, for Egypt, there was no contradiction between more rapid growth, largely a function of more rapid productivity growth, and improved welfare for the poor. The present analysis confirms the finding of earlier analyses that, compared to pro-manufacturing policies, pro-agricultural policies have a more positive impact on household welfare in general and the poor in particular. There is a significant synergy between a pro-agricultural shift in productivity growth, improved market access for agricultural exports, and reduced transactions costs in foreign trade.Agricultural development. ,Development policies. ,Mathematical models. ,Social accounting. ,Poverty Egypt. ,TMD ,
Time for Reform: Egypt\u27s Public Sector Industry
No full textPolitical Economy may be seen as an attempt to cultivate a new intellectual and practical direction in examining the issues and problems of the Middle East. The authors of this volume are concerned as to how the social -relations of historically specific structures in the Middle fast originate, operate and change. It is otvious that before facts are gatheed a theoretical and epistemological stance must be taken so as to assemble and analyze those particular facts relevant to speciftc issues and problems. The first two articles of this volume whi-ch are presented by Enid Hill and H.M. Thompson are concerned precisely with this point. The third essay is historical and is bas·ed on the premise that an understanding of the present includes a comprehension of the process of economic and political transfonnation. As Abdel Aziz Ezz el Arab argues, the legacy of the -Mam1uks remains with the Egyptian people even today as they struggle for the development of their nation. The last two articles by Gouda Abdel Khalek and Heba Ahmed Handoussa develop a poignant critical analysis of two issues \u27that are of tremendous significance to Egypt as the country moves into the decade of the 1980\u27s, i.e., the Open Door Economic Policy and Egypt\u27s public sector. The structural transformation of Egypt during the next ten years or so will depend-partially on how and in whose interests these issues are resolved.https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1807/thumbnail.jp
Higher education in Egypt
No full textEgypt's policy on higher education, the author argues, must take account of the realities of declining government budgets and employment and increasing reliance on the private sector, which must become more competitive internationally. Education in Egypt must increase Egyptians'ability to cope with economic disequilibria: to respond quickly and effectively to changing technological and market opportunities. The Government of Egypt's strategy for achieving this goal is to stabilize the number of university students and raise the quality of instruction. This fundamentally sound strategy, pursued since the mid-1980s, has required considerable courage of policymakers, who are struggling to correct a longtime, inequitable misallocation of educational resources. The Nasser regime greatly expanded higher education and guaranteed jobs to university graduates. As a result of rapidly growing enrollment in the 1970s and 1980s, the quality of education seriously deteriorated. Classes are too big and resources too scarce for anything but professorial salaries, so learning amounts to little more than memorization and repetition. The system does not foster the development of synthesizing, problem-solving, or creative thinking abilities. And with tertiary institutions over-enrolled, academic success requires the use of tutors, whose fees are beyond the reach of students of modest means.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Tertiary Education
Capacity building and policy coordination strategies
No full textMeeting: Food Security & Vulnerability: Priority Research Themes for Policy Influence and Impact: IDRC Workshop, 27 November, 2008, Cairo, E
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