Local institutions and Egyptian rural development

Poverty means hunger and malnutrition. Malnutrition leads to sickness and general ill-health. Disease, in turn, debilitates and reduces human output, which then aggravates the tendency toward greater poverty. To break this vicious circle requires energy and knowledge and change, aspects of development that unfortunately are lacking in most of the rural villages of Egypt. To remedy this situation requires a prodigious effort -- for Egypt must tackle ill-health and ignorance, increase agricultural and industrial production, provide welfare services, and emancipate the rural communities from the habits and social structures of bygone centuries. The size of such a task is tremendous, for it requires the government to go into the villages, to awaken, inspire, and, in the early stages, to lead. The central government must enlist the enthusiastic support of the village communities to provide the labor for self-help projects and to participate in the introduction of services such as education and health. Development is primarily a form of communication and persuasion. The fundamental purpose of community development in Egypt is to generate within the fellahin a clear desire for change, which, through progressive adaptation of modern techniques, will lead to their achieving a higher standard of living.