Race to sustainability? Egypt’s challenges and opportunities to 2050

Rapid population growth and increasing water scarcity will test all aspects of Egypt’s economic development.

Egypt is breaching the boundaries of sustainable development with its rapid population growth and increasing water scarcity. These two factors will test all aspects of the country’s economic development. This report presents Egypt’s challenges and opportunities on its current development trajectory followed by a set of seven sectoral interventions that could set the country on a path of inclusive and sustainable development to 2050.

About the authors

Stellah Kwasi is a researcher in the African Futures and Innovation Programme at the ISS, Pretoria. Before joining the ISS she was a research affiliate at the Frederick S Pardee Center for International Futures at the University of Denver, Colorado.

Jakkie Cilliers is the founder of the ISS, chairperson of the ISS Board of Trustees, and currently heads the programme on African Futures and Innovation at the Pretoria office of the ISS. He stepped down as executive director in 2015.

Kouassi Yeboua is a senior researcher in the African Futures and Innovation Programme at the ISS, Pretoria. He has published on various aspects relating to foreign direct investment in Africa, and served as lead author on recent ISS studies on the long-term development prospects of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Horn of Africa.