Social Protection System

Artists in Egypt enjoy one of the social security and medical insurance means as per one or more of the following programs:
- Artists who work at one of the art troupes affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and are treated as personnel of the State's administrative apparatus get the social security and health care programs provided by the State to all personnel. The total number of government personnel in the last census of 2017, issued in 2020, was around 4.7 personnel.
- Artists, writers, journalists, and media personnel affiliated to arts syndicates, the writers' union, media syndicates such as the journalists syndicate, etc. get social security and health care on account of joining the syndicate.
- The third program is the most recent and was introduced as a presidential program during the past four years. It is meant to benefit any Egyptian citizen unincluded in any of the social security and health care programs.
- Thus, almost all personnel in the cultural milieu are included in health care and social security programs whether through the art troupes affiliated to the Ministry or their syndicates, or the new presidential program of social and health care. Artists in Egypt also benefit from one of the Ministry of Culture's agencies that is primarily concerned with providing funding and partnerships with CSOs and was established specifically for this purpose; namely, the Cultural Development Fund. The latest reports indicate that the Cultural Development Fund has administered, organized, and supported many artistic and cultural festivals in cinema, theater, and plastic arts, where such festivals promoted these arts and enhanced their development, such as the Cairo National Festival for Egyptian Cinema, the National Festival of Egyptian Theatre, the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre (CIFET), the Aswan International Sculpture Symposium, and the Children Film Festival over the 28 years since its establishment and to date. In the interest of achieving comprehensive cultural development, the fund also provided financial support to numerous bodies, institutions, and cultural and artistic centers, both governmental and non-governmental.
The most prominent associations with which the fund has collaborated over the past four years are: Misr Al Khair Foundation, The Egyptian Artists Foundation for Culture and Arts, Al-Balad Al-Youm Foundation, Awaldna Foundation, Sayed Darwish Association, Association of Farid El-Atrash Lovers, Arab Association for Science, Culture and Development, Egyptian Cultural Heritage Organization (ECHO), Salwa Alwan Cultural Foundation, the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW) Egypt Future Foundation, Saad Zaghloul Association, and the Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London, which finances programs that teach traditional and heritage crafts and arts in Al-Fustat Ceramics Center.