opportunities in basic housing services, early childhood development, or nutrition and hunger opportunities. Finally, the last part examines the extent to which the evolution of opportunity indices (national and regional) is consistent with the trends in public expenditure by sector and its distribution across regions.

# **_4.1 Opportunity Gaps for Children in the Most Unfavorable Circumstances_**

The first step to assess the link between circumstances and the inequality of opportunities is to examine the access gaps between children in _favorable_ circumstances (90th percentile of circumstances, P90 hereafter) and children in moderately _unfavorable_ circumstances (percentile 30 of circumstances, P30 hereafter). We address three questions. How large are the opportunity gaps and how did they evolve during the decade? Which sectors present the largest opportunity gaps for children in the most unfavorable circumstances? Which sectors have managed to improve access to opportunities by reducing the opportunity gaps for children in unfavorable circumstances? The opportunity gaps for all 16 opportunities are summarized in Table 6 and Figure 7.

**Table 6. Opportunity Gaps between Percentiles P90/P30, Egypt, 2009 and 2000**

||||**_Acce_**|**_ssprob_**|**_ability_**<br>|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**_Opportunity_**||**_2009_**|||**_2000_**||**_Change_**<br>|
||**_p90_**|**_p30_**|**_gap_**|**_p90_**|**_p30_**|**_gap_**|**_in gap_**|
|Complete primary education on time|0.99|0.76|0.23|0.97|0.80|0.18|0.05|
|Complete secondary education on time|0.92|0.51|0.41|0.86|0.55|0.31|0.10|
|School attendance, 9-15|1.00|0.88|0.11|---|---|---|---|
|Water|0.99|0.87|0.12|1.00|0.77|0.23|-0.11|
|Sanitation|0.91|0.20|0.71|0.98|0.25|0.73|-0.02|
|Lighting energy source|1.00|0.99|0.01|1.00|0.99|0.01|0.00|
|Cooking energy source|1.00|0.99|0.01|1.00|0.85|0.15|-0.14|
|Non-overcrowding, 0-5|0.95|0.60|0.36|0.96|0.47|0.49|-0.13|
|Telephone|0.98|0.69|0.29|0.87|0.10|0.77|-0.48|
|Assisted birth delivery|0.98|0.84|0.14|0.97|0.61|0.36|-0.23|
|Post-natal care, 0-5|0.45|0.26|0.19|0.35|0.17|0.19|0.00|
|Prenatal care, 0-4|0.97|0.75|0.22|0.91|0.51|0.39|-0.17|
|Immunization vaccines, 0-4|0.98|0.84|0.14|0.94|0.87|0.07|0.06|
|Non-wasting, 0-4|0.89|0.75|0.14|0.93|0.87|0.06|0.08|
|Non-stunting, 2-17|0.81|0.68|0.13|0.88|0.70|0.18|-0.05|
|Non-underweight,0-17|0.94|0.86|0.08|0.94|0.84|0.10|-0.02|
|_Aggregate HOIs_||||||||
|IOHa9-15-Housing Services|0.98|0.66|0.32|0.97|0.24|0.73|-0.41|
|IOHa0-4-Housing Services|0.99|0.81|0.18|0.99|0.4|0.59|-0.41|
|IOHa0-4-Nutrition & ECD|0.54|0.04|0.50|0.44|0.08|0.36|0.14|

_Source_ : HIECS 2000 and 2009 surveys, EDHS 2000 and 2008, and authors’ calculations.

_Substantial Opportunity Gaps between Children in Favorable and Unfavorable._ Opportunity gaps between children in favorable and unfavorable circumstances in the year 2009 are considerable if we consider that the for largest opportunity gaps range between 29 and 71 percent. The opportunity gaps shown in Table 6 indicate that in 2009 the eight main obstacles faced by Egyptian children in unfavorable circumstances (P30) that were not obstacles for children in favorable circumstances (P90) are distributed accross all sectors: education, BHS, ECD and nutrition and hunger. The eight largest opportunity gaps in order of magnitude were: sanitation (71 percent), completion of secondary education (41 percent), non-overcrowding (36 percent), access to a telephone (29 percent), completion of primary education (23 percent), access to prenatal care (22 percent), and post-natal care (19 percent) and Non-wasting 0-4.

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