Our first week at the 81st United Nations General Assembly left me with many reflections, but perhaps some of the most interesting conversations were happening beyond the formal UN and government sessions. Across New York, NGOs, philanthropies, foundations, researchers and businesses were gathering in parallel: debating, challenging assumptions and asking

Pausing to see the bigger picture In July 2023, we developed our five-year strategy built on the idea that good intentions alone are not enough. We shifted toward becoming an evidence-based organization that tests innovative solutions and scales what works, focusing on two main goals: reducing multidimensional poverty and empowering

  Introduction: Egypt’s Environmental Imperative A cradle of civilization is now confronting existential climate threats. Egypt faces substantial climate pressures despite being a relatively minor contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions.[1] The country’s already hot and arid climate is experiencing increasing environmental stresses, with far-reaching implications for national development. With

Many low and middle-income countries (63% of lower-middle-income countries, 36% of upper-middle-income countries) experienced a significant rise in domestic food prices.[1] In Egypt, 14.4% of the population face food insecurity....

Water scarcity casts a long shadow across the globe, threatening human health, economic development, and environmental sustainability. The UN World Water Development Report estimates that by 2050...

One of the biggest global challenges is the gap between needs and available resources1. The inequitable distribution of resources makes this gap much deeper, thus many organizations worked on achieving equitable distribution which does not only mean giving everyone the same resources....

For more than a decade and a half, the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development has prioritized the cause of children without parental care (CWPC) in Egypt.

When we initially embarked on co-writing this blog, our aim was to delve into the pressing issue of global poverty and explore innovative ways for philanthropy to alleviate suffering worldwide. However....

The choice of a funding organization as to where it will direct its resources is crucial and hence our strategic directions allow us to reflect these fundamental decisions within Sawiris Foundation’s funding and work cycles....

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is witnessing a decline in food security due to the repercussions of the wars in Ukraine, the war in Sudan, the protracted crises in Yemen....

Households in Egypt are often eager to enroll their children in tertiary (i.e., university) education. Like many countries worldwide, Egyptian parental aspirations for children are centered around the achievement of titles such as “doctor” or “engineer”. Meanwhile....

As Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) endorses effective altruism as a philosophy, the link between our work and academia is closer than ever. As an evidence-based organization....

Our social and economic systems are heavily dependent on natural resources and their relative abundance and predictability. This hospitable exchange between human and nature....

Several programs working on poverty alleviation focus purely on economic interventions to support the ultra-poor households in building a sustainable income....

In 2015, the United Nations convened in New York to coin the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to improve the wellbeing and prosperity of people all around the world. It was during that same year that Sawiris Foundation undertook the necessary internal restructuring to create the partnerships department, in

The Egyptian government continues to plan for the expansion and wider access to higher education through promising infrastructure planning of public and private universities as well....

Collecting data and conducting impact evaluations allow us to identify what works and what does not. This has revolutionized resource allocation and funding in the development and philanthropic world...

According to (Disrupt Africa 2021) a mere 6.4% of the 562 tech start-ups currently operating, are headquartered outside of Greater Cairo, indicating a heavy geographic centralization of the sustainability conditions of the start-ups market in Egypt....

Last month, Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) hosted a seminar on March 9 to present and discuss initial insights from the Bab Amal program and the possibility of scaling up the program in Egypt....

The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the inconsistencies in setting priorities for most of the globe and provides a lesson about the importance of respecting research to inform decision-makin....

In 2020, the World Bank estimated that between 88 to 115 million people would be pushed back into extreme poverty, defined as living under 1.90USD/day....

Many marginalized communities in Egypt face multiple barriers to resources and opportunities that affect their ability to overcome poor living conditions or cater to their most basic needs....

بناءً على أحدث التقديرات للفقر متعدد الأبعاد، فإن 5,2 في المائة من سكان مصر البالغ عددهم 102 مليون نسمة يعانون من فقر متعدد الأبعاد، مما يعني أنهم محرومون من ثلث احتياجاتهم الأساسية على الأقل في التعليم والصحة ومستويات المعيشة [1]. ولقد بين برنامج الأمم المتحدة الإنمائي في تقريره الأخير لعام

Recently, there have been positive improvements in reducing poverty in Egypt....

Sawiris Foundation for Social Development hosted a seminar on Sunday, September 12 in collaboration with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Middle East and North Africa based at The American University in Cairo to discuss...