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The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it seeks to voice the concerns of educated youth in Egypt as they describe their work options and preferences. Second, it seeks to highlight the gravity of the policy gap in addressing work informality, drawing on some of the international experience in this field.

Qualitative research in the form of in-depth interviews, desk-review of policies, and descriptive statistical analysis of a recent national survey of labour in Egypt.

A large proportion of educated youth work within the realm of informality and there is a clear policy gap in addressing this issue. Contrary to what would be expected, young people value access to social security and work stability. They face systemic hurdles related to access to such benefits. Because of the legacy of guaranteed government hiring of the educated in Egypt, young people express a great appreciation of work in the government, for virtually being the only employer offering job stability and social security in the labour market.

This paper addresses a gap in the literature on youth employment in Egypt, where there is a dearth of research focusing on the lived experience of employment precariousness. The majority of studies in this field relies on statistics with little qualitative research voicing the views of this group.

Reforms are more urgent than timely to extend social security and other measures of social protection to workers within the informal economy.

The paper builds on primary data and provides insights about the way educated youth perceive their working conditions and options. The paper also provides a discussion of the social security system in Egypt, its coverage, and possible reform approaches.

This paper aims to argue for the benefit of aligning the two policy objectives of youth inclusion and population regulation in Egypt. This alignment is mainly informed by the literature that identifies structural development issues as central to population regulation. These development issues relate to greater access to education, particularly to female youth, access to the labor market, access to family planning services and delayed age at marriage. These development issues are also at the heart of a youth‐focused policy agenda that would foster their successful transition to adulthood.

The paper provides stylized data on the situation of youth in Egypt along the youth‐ and population‐related parameters identified in the paper and surveys population policies in Egypt in view of recent changes related to the country's democratic transition.

There is great benefit in aligning the objectives of population regulation and youth integration policies in post‐January 25 Egypt. This alignment will revive the population‐focused policy agenda, which is ostensibly absent from the policy discourse, using an already vibrant discourse seeking to include youth as part of Egypt's democratic transition.

The paper contributes to the debate on youth and population issues in Egypt amid a highly volatile political scene and draws on the experience of post‐revolution Iran in terms of population policies.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the competing and overlapping discourses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Egypt, a setting with a serious knowledge gap on CSR.

This study is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with key players in the field of CSR in Egypt conducted in the fall of 2013 and early 2014. Informants included in this study were CSR staff members at major multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Egypt, key partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the field of CSR, media and public relations agents that are partners with MNEs in launching CSR media campaigns about CSR activities.

The paper identifies three themes in the discourse on CSR among some of the key field players including CSR practitioners at MNEs, NGOs and media specialists. First, CSR is seen as a western version of a long standing philanthropic tradition, that is rooted in religion. The comparison between CSR and indigenous religious practices discredits CSR as a vulgarized form of giving that seeks to take more than give. Second, the surmount challenges of poverty and unemployment place heightened expectations on CSR to seriously address these challenges. It is in view of these challenges that CSR is accused of doing “bad” development, which is the third theme identified in the data.

There is a dearth of research on CSR in Egypt, which largely remains a setting less explored in terms of CSR. This paper problematizes the connection between CSR and development. It also highlights the importance of studying CSR in different contexts.

The findings in this paper are relevant for the design of CSR programs in contexts of countries in the south.

CSR is a normative practice, understanding the views of its practitioners and criticisms of the field is central to its development and maturity.

Paper builds on original data collected by the authors. It addresses a lacuna of research on CSR in the Middle East region, particularly Egypt.