RGP Cycle Two Grantees and Projects
Sarah Sabry: Poverty Alleviation in Cairo’s Informal areas: The role of the state and non-state actors
Urban poverty is on the rise and informal areas/slums have expanded phenomenally to become a central feature of urban poverty worldwide and in Egypt. In parallel to this growth, poverty alleviation is being increasingly privatised as many states reduce their role in welfare provision, with the private sector and what is commonly called ‘civil society’, especially NGOs and faith-based organisations (FBOs), filling the gap. In Egypt, the government has assigned civil society a growing role in poverty alleviation, but little is known about the work of FBOs and NGOs or their impact on the urban poor. Nothing is known about how their work has evolved since Egypt’s uprisings started in 2011. This research updates previous research which took place in 2008, three years before the uprisings. It aims to conceptualise the role of the welfare state, NGOs and FBOs in the lives of the urban poor and to see how this role might have changed since 2008. The research questions will be addressed using multiple methods.
Sarah Sabry works on urban poverty, informality, social policy, civil society and the welfare state in Egypt and the Arab world. She holds a PhD in development studies from SOAS, University of London and is currently a Research Associate/Academic Guest at the University of Zürich. Sarah has extensive professional expertise in development, especially field research, grant-making and project management. She has previously been a consultant to various organisations including the Ford Foundation, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Arab Human Rights Fund. Past positions include chairing the board of a local Egyptian NGO working on poverty reduction and supporting the establishment of the Community Service programme at the American University in Cairo. Sarah has taught about the Political Economy of Development at SOAS and the politics, economics and society of Contemporary Egypt at the University of Zurich.
