Behind the World Bank operation: Takaful and Karama, Egypt's cash transfer scheme, and its universal health insurance

Background

Egypt's World Bank operation carries a social protection pillar, and that pillar rests on two standing Egyptian programmes.
The first is Takaful and Karama, Egypt's conditional and unconditional cash transfer scheme for poor households.
The second is the Universal Health Insurance System, the scheme meant to bring the whole population under health cover.
Under the World Bank operation, Takaful and Karama beneficiaries are automatically enrolled in the Universal Health Insurance System.
Automatic enrolment matters because it removes a separate application step for the households least able to complete one.
This is how two existing schemes are linked rather than a new scheme being created.
For exam purposes Takaful and Karama is the cash transfer and the Universal Health Insurance System is the health cover; the reform joins them.