The celebration was attended by Dr. Moustafa Madbouly, Prime Minister; Engineer Ibrahim Mahlab, former Prime Minister; Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population; a host of current and former ministers; Elena Panova, UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt; Gareth Bailey, British Ambassador to Cairo; Stephan Gumpert, Country Director for Egypt and Yemen at the World Bank; members of the House of Representatives and Senate; representatives of the World Bank; the National Alliance for Civil Development Action; civil society organizations; foreign organizations in Egypt; partner organizations; and a host of public figures.
Dr. Morsy stressed that on this day ten years ago, the idea received support that was transformed by the political will of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi into tangible reality, and was led by effective successive governments, starting with former Mahlab. Egypt will not forget the late Prime Minister, Engineer Sherif Ismail, all the way to Madbouly, as this program lived more than half its life in governments headed by his country, and he spared no effort to support the program.
She added that over the years, Egypt have witnessed how female Ministers of Social Solidarity have assumed this responsibility, starting with Minister Ghada Waly, the originator of the idea and who bore the burden of developing the program and its birth even before she assumed the ministry, and ending with Nevine El-Kabbaj, who has exerted exceptional efforts in expanding and growing the program. Under their leadership, "Takaful and Karama" remains a symbol of care for the most needy families across the country.
Morsy paid tribute to Dr. Ali Moselhi, who, during his tenure, oversaw the implementation of the program's pilot model for the first 400 families in the Ain Al Sira area. She also paid tribute to the dedicated Ministry of Social Solidarity team that charted the initial steps of this ambitious national project, from the first family to receive a Takaful and Karama card, to the gradual and phased expansion of the first million families and the expansion to all governorates of the republic. She also paid tribute to the first change from Takaful and Karama cards to Meeza cards, achieving financial inclusion. We will not forget the true partnership with local, international, and national partner institutions that believed in the program's messages and objectives, and we extend our gratitude and appreciation to them.
She explained that Egypt have all witnessed an acceleration in the program's expansion and the definition of its criteria to include the successive developments over the decade, including increased spending, increased numbers of beneficiaries, increased cash support, geographic expansion in access to beneficiaries, and the development of the complaints system to include modern technology to respond to citizens' requests.
Takaful and Karama began in 2015 with 1.7 million beneficiary families. Over the past 10 years, the figures show clear bias. The program has served a total of 7.7 million families, and 3 million families have left the program over its lifetime due to improved living conditions or the emergence of poverty. The current number of families benefiting from the program today stands at 4.7 million. All of these families benefited not only from conditional cash support, but also from a protection package, most notably food subsidies for commodities and bread, exemptions from education expenses, equal educational opportunity assistance for university and postgraduate degrees, comprehensive health insurance services, healthcare programs, state-funded treatment, services provided by the Integrated Services Card Program for people with disabilities, literacy certificates, and priority access to presidential initiatives, most notably the "Decent Life" initiative for infrastructure development services, the "100 Million Healthy Lives" initiative, the "Women's Health: Egypt's Health" initiative, and the "New Beginning" initiative, among others, in addition to numerous awareness-raising and capacity-building activities.
The program's journey was not without difficulties and challenges that required decisive responses, especially with the sudden emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic challenges, among others. At that time, the immediate inclusion of new families and the conversion of the cash withdrawal system to "Meeza" cards were implemented, demonstrating "Takaful and Karama's" ability to respond to shocks and emergency crises, and that this program has pillars capable of being activated and expanded in times of dire need.