POPULATION MINISTER FOCUSING ON FAMILY PLANNING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 002157

SIPDIS

FOR NEA/ELA, DRL/NESCA AND G/IWI

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2029
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL SOCI KWMN KIRF ELAB EG
SUBJECT: POPULATION MINISTER FOCUSING ON FAMILY PLANNING

REF: A. CAIRO 2083 B. CAIRO 575 Classified By: Ambassador Margaret Scobey for reason 1.4 (b).
1.KEY POINTS -- (SBU) On November 8, Minister of State for Family and Population Moushira Khattab told the Ambassador and USAID Mission Director that family planning is her top priority. Her public awareness campaign will stress the economic costs of large families and religious authorities' support for family planning. -- (C) Khattab was pleased that President Mubarak accepted her input on addressing family planning, violence against women and health at the recent ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) conference. -- (SBU) Khattab was concerned that the GOE is not making progress on combating child labor by keeping children in school. -- (SBU) Khattab welcomed the October arrests of marriage registrars for conducting under-age marriages (ref A).

2.(C) Comment: Minister Khattab has received issue-oriented assistance from USAID on most of the major issues she is working on: family planning, family health, combating female genital mutilation, and family justice. However, Khattab continues to ask for additional assistance from USAID as she does not have sufficient financial and personnel capacity to implement her broad-ranging agenda. End comment. -------------- Family Planning --------------

3.(C) Minister Khattab stressed that family planning is her "key priority," consuming about 90 percent of her time. Khattab feared that the birth rate could be over 2 million for 2009, and noted that the Health Ministry does not have the time to focus on family planning. She noted that her ministry is launching a "Two Children Per Family" campaign to raise public awareness about family planning.

4.(SBU) Khattab said she will need to present empirical evidence to the public and the GOE on the costs incurred by large families. Through such methodology, she asserted, her ministry will be able to make a case to the Finance Ministry that paying for condoms is in fact a cost-saving measure. Khattab wants her ministry to have the resources to give doctors incentive pay to provide reproductive care to the poorest villages.

5.(SBU) Khattab was confident about the effectiveness of citing religious rulings from both Muslim and Coptic authorities in support of family planning. She said the Sheikh of Al-Azhar has ruled that family planning is permitted for health or economic reasons. Khattab noted that her ministry is conducting training with preachers from the Ministry of Awqaf (religious endowments) on how to advocate for family planning in their speeches. -------------- Success at the NDP Conference --------------

6.(C) Khattab praised the "strong boost" she received from the October 30-November 1 ruling National Democratic Party Conference, which emphasized family planning in speeches by the President and the Prime Minister. She said both President Mubarak and NDP Assistant Secretary-General Gamal Mubarak called her in advance of the conference to ask for her input. Khattab was pleased that NDP officials also took her advice on stressing the issue of violence against women, the dangers of smoking and drug use, and nutrition. "I'm the biggest winner out of the party conference," she said, noting that some in the NDP had opposed family planning. -------------- Difficulties Combating Child Labor --------------

7.(SBU) Khattab voiced concern that the GOE is not "making headway" on combating child labor. She noted that her ministry views child labor as a human rights issue, and assessed that keeping children in school is "the key" to making progress. She called for an integrated GOE approach to the problem that would include the Education Ministry CAIRO 00002157 002 OF 002 monitoring and preventing school drop-outs. -------------- Progress on Child Marriage --------------

8.(C) Khattab welcomed the October arrests of marriage registrars for registering under-age marriages (ref A) as an important step in implementing the 2008 criminalization of child marriage. Khattab said she has the support of the Justice Minister and the Public Prosecutor on this issue, although the Justice Minister initially thought the GOE would meet too much cultural resistance to proceed. She said the GOE has been focusing its arrests on under-age marriages between Egyptian girls and Arab tourists, but is now working to arrest Egyptian men for marrying under-age girls. Scobey