Disparity in growth rates between Upper and Lower Egypt has been dramatic. While national per capita income averaged 3 percent growth annually beginning in the mid 1990s, and growth rates in metropolitan areas approached 8 percent -- Upper Egypt experienced negative per capita growth rates during the same period. By 2001, Upper Egypt accounted for 37 percent of the country's population, but 65 percent of the population lived below the poverty line. Yet rural development programs under similar conditions throughout Egypt recently experienced some significant successes. The most notable success was a participatory approach to rural development planning introduced in the framework of the 1994 National Program for Integrated Rural Development -- known as Shorouk or Sunrise.