Within the framework of the activities of the Decentralization Program Responsive to Citizen Rights, which is implemented in cooperation between the German Hans Seidel Foundation (Egypt Office) and Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, the proceedings of the expanded workshop that was held under the title (2014 Constitution and New Horizons towards Decentralization) were concluded on Sunday.
The workshop was conducted on January 18th and 19th 2014 in Cairo, in the presence of a selected group of experts, concerned parties, media representatives, local leaders, executive officials, and local civil work actors.
The workshop aimed at discussing the new constitutional framework for local administration and its relation to the political, legislative, economic, procedural and administrative climate for the local administration system, public services and utilities with local nature in Egypt during the next period.
The workshop discussed a set of important axes in relation to the new constitutional context for local administration. The first one of those axes was an analytical insight on the articles of Local Administration in the 2014 Constitution, presented by Dr. Khaled Ameen, Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the University of Cairo and the American University in Cairo; the second axis was Public Policies, Budgets, Legislations and their relation to the new constitutional context by Dr. Lobna Abdel Lateef, Professor of Economics at Cairo University, when the Constitutional Development and Necessary Amendments for the Local Administration Law was tackled by Mr. Ayman Okeil, Cassation Lawyer, and Dr. Ali Elsawy, Professor of Political Science at Cairo University.
The third axis addressed an insight for Local Development Management and Public Utilities Under Decentralization presented and discussed by Dr. Khaled Fahmy Abdel Aal, former Minister of State for Environmental Affairs, Dr. Mohamad Barakat, Professor of Rural Development at the University of Ain Shams, and Mr. Walla Gad Elkareem, Researcher in Local Development Programs Evaluation.
The fourth axis discussed the Role of Media in Supporting Decentralization and was presented by Dr. Sameh Fawzy, Director of the Center for Development Studies - Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and Ms. Hala Morgan, the Media Expert.
The fifth axis handled the role of Non-Governmental Organizations in supporting decentralization and was discussed by Dr. Khaled Abdel Fattah, Professor of Development Sociology at Helwan University, Mr. Hagag Nael, Director of the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists, and Dr. Bahaa Fekry, Head of the National Network for Supporting Decentralization.
The sixth axis tackled the role of political parties in empowering youth participation in local governance mechanisms, and was tackled by Mr. Khaled Telima, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, and Mr. Hossam Eldeen Ali, Spokesman of the Conference Party
It is worth mentioning that the workshop reached a set of visions and recommendations including the necessity for the establishment of a Supreme Body affiliated to the Cabinet to facilitate the transition to decentralized regime, along with launching an independent think tank to produce scientific material, studies, policy briefs, and training manuals respecting decentralization application scenarios, as well as expanding the role of civil society organizations in terms of increasing community awareness on decentralization and providing training to local officials and strengthens transparency initiatives.