Hania Sholkamy
American University in Cairo, Social Research Center, Faculty Member
Many developing countries are undergoing rapid socio-economic changes that impact on health and its social distribution. These changes can occur so rapidly that there is a resulting co-existence of diseases of affluence and diseases of... more
Many developing countries are undergoing rapid socio-economic changes that impact on health and its social distribution. These changes can occur so rapidly that there is a resulting co-existence of diseases of affluence and diseases of poverty. Priority setting for nutritional programs has focused on the alleviation of undernutrition in low income settings. However, evidence shows that in many Low-and-Middle Income Countries the prevalence of obesity among women is increasing and can coexist with childhood stunting. This dual burden of poor nutrition contributes to worsening health inequity between the poor and the rich. Global and national policy makers are looking for novel programs to replace social protection mechanisms deemed inefficient. Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs have emerged as an increasingly popular poverty alleviation strategy with some positive results. However, there is evidence they may have a negative impact if the complexity of transition settings is no...
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Research Interests: Social Policy, Development Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Social Justice, Social Protection, and 13 moreHealth, Health Policy, Employment, Social Welfare, Work, Social Stratification and Inequality, Health Services Administration, Pandemic, Medicine and Health, Public Policy, CoVid, coronavirus outbreak, and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
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Chapters discusses the introduction of cash transfers in Egypt and is an ethnographic account of policy implementation and an auto ethnography
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AND NORTH AFRICAThe Population Council seeks to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable balance between people and... more
AND NORTH AFRICAThe Population Council seeks to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable balance between people and resources. The Council, a nonprofit, non-governmental research organization established in 1952, has a multinational Board of Trustees; its New York headquarters supports a global network of regional and country offices. Monographs in Reproductive Health is produced by the Reproductive Health Working Group housed in the Population Council Regional Office for West Asia and North Africa,
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This publication documents the experiences of practitioners and experts with respect to the varied practices of rights in development and how these have addressed gender equality and women’s autonomy in the South in particular. It also... more
This publication documents the experiences of practitioners and experts with respect to the varied practices of rights in development and how these have addressed gender equality and women’s autonomy in the South in particular. It also explores how rights thinking and practice is shaped by actual struggles. The papers in this collection help the reader to see the problematic of delivering on rights through development work in a way that treats and sees women as entities in themselves and worthy of rights, and not simply in relation to a man and as subordinate within gender relations. In order for rights-based approaches to promote the individuation of the female subject of rights and the autonomy of the person where other approaches have more or less failed, much more is needed than what at present constitutes rights-based practice. The authors remind us that in order to practice rights, we need on the one hand to side with, promote and learn from the awareness of those deprived of ...
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This paper questions the degree to which social thinking is guiding social policy in Egypt. The apparent fluctuations in social spending coupled with the lack of clear purpose and benchmarks for social programs attest to a conceptual and... more
This paper questions the degree to which social thinking is guiding social policy in Egypt. The apparent fluctuations in social spending coupled with the lack of clear purpose and benchmarks for social programs attest to a conceptual and political compromise whereby the social is at the mercy of non-social considerations. The evidence that supports our main contention is derived from an analysis that poses and answers two seminal questions: first, to what extent social policies are mainstreamed in the design of macroeconomic policies and integrated in economic and development cycles; second, to what extent the Ministry of Finance can sustain its social spending without adding further pressure on its budget. Our main findings show that social protection is still an afterthought added to macroeconomic policies. Second, with a limited fiscal space, Egypt has to work on the revenue side of the budget to generate additional room for more-comprehensive social spending (whether explicit, s...
c Abstract Objectives: The study documented facility-based obstetric practices for normal labor in Egypt for the first time, to determine their relationship to evidence-based medicine. This paper describes the labor augmentation pattern... more
c Abstract Objectives: The study documented facility-based obstetric practices for normal labor in Egypt for the first time, to determine their relationship to evidence-based medicine. This paper describes the labor augmentation pattern observed. Methods: 176 cases of normal labor were observed by medically-trained observers using a checklist. Ward activities were also documented. Observed women were interviewed postpartum and all findings were shared with the providers for their feedback. Results: Labor was augmented in 91% (165) of the labors observed; this was inappropriate for 93% or 154 women. Reasons for inappropriateness were: oxytocin ordered at the first vaginal exam (41%); in spite of intact membranes (36%), at the time of membrane rupture (42%), in spite of good progress (24%) ,o r a combination of these. The monitoring of oxytocin-receiving women and their babies was inadequate. Conclusions: Labor augmentation and monitoring deviated from evidence-based guidelines. Obsta...
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Four anthropologists argue the relevance of bodily experiences and conditions for the understanding of social processes in Egypt today. Based on current ethnography that describes beliefs and practices concerning spiritual health,... more
Four anthropologists argue the relevance of bodily experiences and conditions for the understanding of social processes in Egypt today. Based on current ethnography that describes beliefs and practices concerning spiritual health, physical beauty, infertility, and physical health, the authors engage with the creation of identity in both urban and rural Egyptian settings. Each study attempts to transcend the limitations of health and ill-health as simple physical experiences and to make explicit the social and political significance of such conditions and processes. Throughout the studies, Egyptian citizens express their locations, cultures, identity, and beliefs through their enactment of physical conditions and through their many quests for therapies. The consideration of available medical resources and the strategic investments undertaken to utilize them provide ample commentary on the social situation of individuals and the changing dynamics of Egyptian society. The focus of this...
UKaid from the Department for International Development with co-funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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Page 1. New Bodies. Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. PLANNING THE FAMILY IN EGYPT This One HX4Q-FS6-R624 Page 6. Modern Middle East Series, Number 21 Sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies The University of Texas at Austin Page... more
Page 1. New Bodies. Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. PLANNING THE FAMILY IN EGYPT This One HX4Q-FS6-R624 Page 6. Modern Middle East Series, Number 21 Sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies The University of Texas at Austin Page 7. ...
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... The purpose of this design is to gage the familiarity of par-ticipants with the basics of qualitative methods and to ... Teaching Qualitative Methods to Researchers 33 ... Anthropological demography needs a vibrant companion called... more
... The purpose of this design is to gage the familiarity of par-ticipants with the basics of qualitative methods and to ... Teaching Qualitative Methods to Researchers 33 ... Anthropological demography needs a vibrant companion called demo-graphic anthropology to support its projects. ...
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In 2014, Egypt's Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) documented an increase in the total fertility rate (TFR) to 3.5, up from a low of 3.0 recorded by the 2008 EDHS. The increase has been anecdotally attributed to the social upheaval... more
In 2014, Egypt's Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) documented an increase in the total fertility rate (TFR) to 3.5, up from a low of 3.0 recorded by the 2008 EDHS. The increase has been anecdotally attributed to the social upheaval following Egypt's January 2011 revolution, but little is known about when fertility first began to increase and among which sub-groups of women. Using birth histories from seven rounds of EDHS (1992-2014), this study reconstructed fertility rates for single years from 1990-2013 and examined patterns of childbearing in five-year birth cohorts of women. We found that the decline in fertility reversed in 2007, earlier than postulated, plateaued and then increased again in 2013. The increase in TFR coincided with a convergence of fertility rates across education levels, and there is evidence of a shift toward childbearing at younger ages among more educated women, which may be inflating period measures of fertility.
Research Interests: Fertility, Multidisciplinary, Humans, Female, Male, and 3 morePLoS one, Health surveys, and Cohort Studies
Abstract Women activists, politicians and policymakers including international development experts are seeking to harness the power of the divine. The rationale is simple: if people are driven by faith, then let us use faith to drive them... more
Abstract Women activists, politicians and policymakers including international development experts are seeking to harness the power of the divine. The rationale is simple: if people are driven by faith, then let us use faith to drive them towards social and political change. This article problematises the instrumentalisation of religion, arguing that there are many risks in pursuing this route as a way of addressing gendered injustices. It also calls for a different approach to disentangling women’s engagement with religion as politics, as morality and as personal piety, using women’s hair as a case in point. This is set against the discussion of the proliferations of religiosity that are shaping the subjectivities of men and women and changing the Egyptian polity.
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ABSTRACT: Background:Little is known of common normal labor hospital practices in Egypt or of their relationship to evidence-based obstetrics. This study documented facility-based practices for normal labor and delivery in Egypt for the... more
ABSTRACT: Background:Little is known of common normal labor hospital practices in Egypt or of their relationship to evidence-based obstetrics. This study documented facility-based practices for normal labor and delivery in Egypt for the first time by categorizing 44 practices observed in a busy obstetric teaching hospital according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Technical Working Group on Normal Birth classification of normal birth practices. Methods:A multidisciplinary approach combined directly observing practices that were applied to individual laboring women and their newborns, observing ward activities, interviews, and focus groups. One hundred seventy-five normal births were observed in their entirety, over 28 days and nights, by medically trained observers using an observation checklist that documented 537 variables for each woman. Mothers were interviewed postpartum, and findings were shared with practitioners for their feedback. Observed practices were categorized according the 1999 WHO classification of 59 practices for normal birth, depending on their usefulness, effectiveness, or harmfulness. Results:There was infrequent use of beneficial practices that should be encouraged and an unexpectedly high level of harmful practices that should be eliminated. Some beneficial practices were applied inappropriately, and practices of unproved benefit were also documented, some of which are potentially harmful to childbearing mothers and their babies. Conclusions:Hospital practices for normal labor were largely not in accordance with the WHO evidence-based classification of practices for normal birth. The findings are worrying, given the increasing proportion of hospital-based births in Egypt and the country's improved but relatively high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. Obstacles to following evidence-based protocols for normal labor require examination. (BIRTH 32:4 December 2005)
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IntroductionSocio-economic inequalities in basic maternal health interventions exist in Egypt, yet little is known about health-seeking of poor households. This paper assesses levels of maternal health-seeking behaviours in women living... more
IntroductionSocio-economic inequalities in basic maternal health interventions exist in Egypt, yet little is known about health-seeking of poor households. This paper assesses levels of maternal health-seeking behaviours in women living in poor households in rural Upper Egypt, and compares these to national averages. Secondly, we construct innovative measures of socio-economic resourcefulness among the rural poor in order to examine the association between the resulting variables and the four dimensions of maternal health-seeking behaviour.MethodsWe analysed a cross-sectional survey conducted in Assiut and Sohag governorates in 2010¿2011 of 2,242 women in households below the poverty line in 65 poorest villages in Egypt. The associations between four latent socio-economic constructs (socio-cultural resourcefulness, economic resourcefulness, dwelling quality and woman¿s status) and receipt of any antenatal care (ANC), regular ANC (four or more visits), facility delivery and private s...
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An account of methodological mess in the region's research culture
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ABSTRACT
... The purpose of this design is to gage the familiarity of par-ticipants with the basics of qualitative methods and to ... Teaching Qualitative Methods to Researchers 33 ... Anthropological demography needs a vibrant companion called... more
... The purpose of this design is to gage the familiarity of par-ticipants with the basics of qualitative methods and to ... Teaching Qualitative Methods to Researchers 33 ... Anthropological demography needs a vibrant companion called demo-graphic anthropology to support its projects. ...
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Planning the Family in Egypt: New Bodies, New Selves. Kamran Asdar Ali. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. xii + 233pp., notes, bibliography, index.
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In focusing on Ain el-Sira, a low-income neighbourhood of Cairo, this article challenges development theorists' ideas that civil society as a development partner is best able to promote women's empowerment, community development and... more
In focusing on Ain el-Sira, a low-income neighbourhood of Cairo, this article challenges development theorists' ideas that civil society as a development partner is best able to promote women's empowerment, community development and justice. This article contests that development can avoid the machinations of the state or ignore the power imbalances that litter the relationships between state, civil society, citizens and donors! In Egypt, where the state relegates its development duties to civil society, women in Ain el-Sira experience service initiatives which are duplicated, microcredit loans they often cannot afford to repay, and benefit criteria which are strict and limiting. Programmes remain unchanged for years and long-term plans to relieve the burdens of disempowerment and destitution are non-existent. To achieve real gendered justice which provides women with the assets and capabilities to make choices requires citizenship rights. This can only be gained by engaging critically with state and civil society dynamics and challenging the structures that obstruct empowerment.
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Chapters discusses the introduction of cash transfers in Egypt and is an ethnographic account of policy implementation and an auto ethnography
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A major objective of this edited collection is to document the experiences of practitioners and experts with respect to the varied practices of rights in development and how these have addressed gender equality and women’s autonomy in the... more
A major objective of this edited collection is to document the experiences of practitioners and experts with respect to the varied practices of rights in development and how these have addressed gender equality and women’s autonomy in the South in particular. This publication explores whether the field of development is actually able to deliver on rights in a way that advances a gender equality agenda and treats and sees women
as entities in themselves, worthy of rights, and not simply in relation to a man and as subordinate within gender relations.
Edited by Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay and Shamim Meer.
with contributions by Cathi Albertyn, Sarah Bradshaw, Ana Criquillion, Vilma Castillo A., Goya Wilson, Jashodhara Dasgupta, Hania Sholkamy and Everjoice Win.
Published by Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) KIT Publishers in 2008
Free download of the book is available at:
http://213ou636sh0ptphd141fqei1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/gender/wp-content/uploads/publications/1456_GenderRghtsDev-web.pdf
as entities in themselves, worthy of rights, and not simply in relation to a man and as subordinate within gender relations.
Edited by Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay and Shamim Meer.
with contributions by Cathi Albertyn, Sarah Bradshaw, Ana Criquillion, Vilma Castillo A., Goya Wilson, Jashodhara Dasgupta, Hania Sholkamy and Everjoice Win.
Published by Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) KIT Publishers in 2008
Free download of the book is available at:
http://213ou636sh0ptphd141fqei1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/gender/wp-content/uploads/publications/1456_GenderRghtsDev-web.pdf
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Like others, I prematurely wrote about January 2011