Promoting Domestic Workers Access to Social Insurance in Egypt

ILO Convention No. 189 defines, domestic work as:’ work performed in or for a household or households. A domestic worker is any person engaged in domestic work within an employment relationship.’ Domestic workers are classified as workers in the informal economy. According to ILO Recommendation 204 of 2015, the informal economy refers to "all economic activities carried out by workers and economic units who are not covered, in law or practice, by formal arrangements wholly or inadequately." Recommendation 204 included domestic workers among the categories of informal work by paragraph (c) of Article 4 as follows: c) Employees in informal employment in or for the enterprises of the formal sector or in economic units in the informal economy or for their account, including but not limited to sub-contracting and supply chains or as wage domestic workers employed by households. . Globally, 75.5 million people work as domestic workers, 76.2% of whom are women. Most of them (82%) live in developing countries, 55% are concentrated in East and Southeast Asia. Domestic workers in the Middle East account for 20% of total employment. 80% of domestic workers work in the informal economy without adequate social protection or insurance coverage and without respecting decent work standards . At the regional level, the total number of domestic workers in the Arab region stands at 6.6 million, according to ILO estimates, they represent 12.3 percent of the total number of workers. Most of domestic workers are migrants, and most of them suffer from several violations and the absence of decent work measures . According to the 2018 Labor Force Survey, there are approximately 457,000 domestic workers in Egypt (CAPMAS, 2018), but little is known about the characteristics of the workers and the challenges they face given the severe gaps in the literature on Egypt. Furthermore, domestic work in Egypt does not receive the required attention at the national level. Despite the intersection of this issue with several other files such as combating the worst forms of child labor, providing social protection for informal workers, and combating illegal migration and human trafficking, the issue of domestic workers still needs to be studied in a more focused way that highlights the different challenges faced by those workers, including the legal , financial and administrative challenges. In response to Social Insurance Law No. 148 of 2019, the Egyptian Government has increased efforts to extend the social protection umbrella to informal workers. According to the social insurance law, domestic workers are considered to be informal workers and they are covered by long-term benefits. They are also eligible for contribution subsidy from the government. However, the actual coverage of domestic workers under the social insurance system is very low due to several challenges, including financial and administrative barriers. This project focuses on supporting the Egyptian government to address those barriers and extend social insurance to domestic workers. Moreover, due to the lack of inclusion of domestic workers in any of the databases available for informal workers, the scarcity of studies on social conditions, and the absence of a regulatory framework for them, it has become essential to look more deeply at the needs and views of domestic workers regarding social protection. Therefore, the project’s main objective is to identify the working conditions and needs of domestic workers, focusing on their awareness of various social protection programs and their willingness to participate in contributory social protection programs.The project builds on previous efforts conducted by ILO to support the government in extending the social protection coverage, , especially after the COVID-19 crisis. ILO has conducted a study in 2025 to highlight the main challenges and opportunities of extending social protection to domestic workers as part of the informal sector.

Project symbol

EGY/25/06/DEU

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Cairo

Start date

01/12/2025

End date

30/11/2026

Total allocation

218148

Total expenditure

Status

Active

572

Development Partners

Germany, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Country/Countries

Egypt

Outcomes

Outcome 7: Universal social protection