The politics behind transportation reform in Egypt

While transportation is a popular “apolitical” avenue for international development “the impact is negligible in the end...development is done in a piecemeal and fractured way,”the head of Cairobserver Mohamed El Shahed tells CityLab’s Miriam Berger. The emphasis is on building big, extravagant new cities in the desert and wide roads and highways—all of which bring the government a façade of prestige without actually benefiting average people. Big investors backing these projects with loans keep Egypt entrenched in a “neoliberal network of prioritizing profits over real reform,” writes Berger