# combination of a scale and a distribution effect.

# **2.2** **_HOI Indicators for Egypt_**<sup>13</sup>

This paper measures the living conditions of infants, children, and youth, to provide a richer description than the one given by monetary measures of poverty alone. From this perspective, the HOI is an instrument that allows us to detect situations of inequality and/or exclusion between individuals in the first stages of the life-cycle, specifically associated with circumstances beyond the individual's control. At the same time, the measure of the HOI represents the first step for the recurrent measurement of the living conditions of Egyptian infants, children, and youth and for the evaluation of progress in access or equality of opportunities as a result of public policy programs at the national, regional, and municipal levels.

This study covers 16 opportunity indicators for children, which can be classified into four groups or sectors: education (three), basic housing services (six), early childhood healthcare (four), and nutrition (three) – see Table 1. These 16 indicators cover human development milestones at the three stages of the life cycle between birth and 17 years of age. All 16 opportunities take into account two criteria: relevance to wellness and quality of life for children and youth, and their responsiveness to public policies. These opportunity indicators are measured at the beginning and end of the decade, in 2000 and around 2009. All nine education and basic housing service opportunity indicators are obtained from the 2000 and 2009 Household Income, Expenditure and Consumption Surveys (HIECSs).<sup>14</sup> And all seven early childhood and nutrition opportunity indicators are estimated from the 2000 and 2008 EDHSs .

_Education._ While one of the three opportunities for education is associated with attendance, the other two are associated with quality or performance. The indicator for attendance is school attendance for children between 9 and 15 years of age. The performance indicators include finishing primary schooling on time, at age 13-15; and finishing secondary general or technical on time, at age 19-20.

_Basic Housing Services._ Six human opportunity indicators represent adequate access to basic household services for the dwelling: water, sanitation, lighting energy source, cooking energy source, non-overcrowding, and telephone. Criteria for adequate access are: for water, connection to public network; for sanitation, connection to public network; for lighting energy source, electricity; for cooking energy source, use of gas bottles, natural gas, or electricity; and for telephone, access to a fixed or mobile telephone. Access to these services is measured for children between the ages of 0 and 17. The sixth indicator is non-overcrowding and is measured as the opportunity to live in a home that is not overcrowded for children between the ages of 0 and 5.

_Early Childhood Development._ This group includes four opportunities that are associated with key factors of development and growth during early childhood (under age 5): access to assisted birth delivery (0-5), access to post-natal care (0-5), access to prenatal care (0-4), and access to immunization vaccines (0-4). Access to assisted birth delivery is defined as birth delivery assisted by a healthcare professional. Access to post-natal care 0-5 is defined as access to at least one prenatal checkup by a healthcare professional. Prenatal care for children under 5 is defined as access to at least one prenatal checkup by a healthcare professional. Finally, access to immunization and vaccines is defined as those children who have access to a vaccination card.

> 13 This section draws on the definitions of indicators used by Velez et al. (2010) for the case of Colombia.

> 14 For 2000, one of the education indicators (school attendance) was not available. Thus, the number of opportunity indicators for 2000 is 16.

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