Survival of small-scale manufacturing in Cairo during structural adjustment results from a long-term study

Abstract EN

The structural adjustment policy in Egypt has caused a dramatic decline in demand for many goods produced in the handicraft sector.

A long-term study between 1986 and 1998, of 2,415 workshops in six quarters of Cairo determined that the majority of the small enterprises were able to secure their economic survival due to their flexibility in production and their informal employment strategies, which included the reduction of permanent male wage labor in favor of low-paid women and children or unpaid family members.

In some handicraft branches it was also evident that the highly praised credit program for the support of small enterprises, while helping to raise the level of technology in small-scale manufacturing, at the same time destroyed more jobs than it created, due to the flooding of the market with similar products.