From the proceedings of the First Conference of "NGOs Initiative for supporting decentralization"

Dissemination of the culture of decentralization change from the bottom to the construction of good building

19/07/2009

 

Decentralization looks like lush green tree trying to plant it for the first time in the soil of the local administration of Egyptian, which need the care of all the forces of society and its members and its organizations to be established and grow and prosper to cover the country within its shadow to protect it from its blazing sun of centralization for many years and caused the exclusion of many groups from participating in public affairs one of the most important of these groups was women, it then community should support its participation at all local and national political levels .

In this context Maat Foundation for Peace and Development and Human Rights in collaboration with the Sharqia Youth Association for Development a huge conference in the city of Zagazig on Saturday, July 18, 2009 under the title "The challenges of decentralization  ... Women and popular participation in local council".

The conference comes within the activities of "NGOs Initiative for supporting decentralization" (NINSD) which announced its launch at the beginning of the month of July, the Network seeks to build a mechanism to support the trend towards decentralization and the creation of citizens in local communities to new situations, as well as upgrading the capacity of the local parties which will perform decision-making when the actual implementation of the decentralization, it also seeks to build the capacity of civil society organizations at the local level in support of decentralization on the one hand and to deal with its administrative, legislative, political and economic variables on the other.

Participated in the conference by speaking and present the working papers Prof. Dr. Mohamed Mohamed Bayoumi Deputy dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zagazig and Adviser of Sharqia Governorate for Human Development, Professor Dr Fatimah El-Sherbini Professor of Economics at Zagazig University and Rapporteur of National Council for Women in Sharqia Governorate, Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim Abdel-Hamid Chairman of the Regional Association of NGOs in Sharqia Governorate, in addition to Mr. Ayman Okail the lawyer and Human Rights activist Chairman of the Board of Trustees of "Maat" foundation, Professor Ayman Farouk, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of "Her Majesty" foundation, Mr. Ahmed Abdel-Meguid Chairman of the Board of Sharqia Youth Association.

The event started with an opening speech and presenting guests by Mr. Ahmed Abdel-Meguid who conducted the conference, he then gave the floor to Professor Ayman Aqeel Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Maat foundation who presented a working paper entitled" civil society and support the decentralization a vision of the role of NGOs Initiative for supporting decentralization" address the activities and projects of "Maat" in the framework of local development and local elections focusing on citizen's voice project and voter's voice project, then he mentioned economic, administrative and political challenges which face decentralization in Egypt explaining the possible roles played by civil society organizations to support decentralization and good local governance.

Then Okail announced the basic regulations of NGOs Initiative for supporting decentralization network explaining the objectives and mechanisms of the network, he pointed out that the number of member organizations in the network is 31 organizations so far from various governorates of the republic.

Then MR. Ayman Farouk commended the idea of the initiative of network civil society organizations saying it is indicative of the success of the civil society speaking on the philosophy and Maat activities within the framework of partnership and networking with other organizations, Farouk declared the establishment of a network support the efforts of NGOs in supporting the decentralization in cooperation between "Maat" foundation an "Her Majesty" foundation, network of media professionals to support the decentralization, the networks are so complementary together and it is indispensable to one from the other, and constructive cooperation and coordination of efforts between the two of them would definitely be in favor of decentralization.

Professor Dr Fatimah El-Sherbini the Rapporteur of National Council for Women in Sharqia Governorate talked about the situation of women's participation in local and the impact on the transition to decentralization, began by noting that the philosophy of decentralization is closely linked to economic and social progress and the growth of the burden of state and the growth of civil society all of that are an important variables began to appear in the era of the eighties and nineties, all these variables was included in the context of human development indicators.

Professor Dr Fatimah El-Sherbini revealed that the focus of the reports of human development is now focused on the issues of women's participation in local development and political life support of the cause of democracy with its wide definition which is the participation of individuals in making the future of their home, which is totally incompatible with the low participation of women in all political organizations at the local level and national level, pointing out that the localities are the first school for the political exercise which should support the participation of women in it to become eligible to contest in a political competition on higher levels, in the end of its speech recommended the need to make a major effort to instill the idea of participation and voluntary work, starting from childhood to university education, and support young women in political participation because it is not only related to the decisions and laws and the allocation of quotas in parliament councils but we must promote a culture of participation among women.

Prof. Dr. Mohamed Mohamed Bayoumi Deputy dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zagazig and Adviser of Sharqia Governorate for Human Development who spoke about the obstacles that stands in the way of decentralization and the criteria governing this transformation, focusing on the role of the citizen to the success or failure of this transformation through cooperation and giving up the negative and participation in public affairs, Dr. Bayoumi also pointed out that local administration need a comprehensive process of modernization so that it can deal positively with the variables of decentralization he pointed out that the localities are the interface state to the citizen, as the citizen have to deal with 199 local service since his birth until his death cover almost all aspects of life.

In the end of his speech Bayoumi recommended the need for a technical committee in each governorate from the respected public figures that have sufficient experience and specialized academics and representatives of civil society organizations and grass-roots leaderships, be the task of this Committee to monitor localities conditions and shift it continuously.

Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim Chairman of the Regional Association of NGOs in Sharqia Governorate stressed the central role of civil society organizations in support of decentralization required to provide support and technical assistance and appropriate training of the NGOs active members in the various governorates, to help them to be more positive attitudes in the different development in particular those relating to women's participation in local affairs, since it is not only on financial resources which may be available in many cases but the technical knowledge is often absent.

Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim in the end of his speech said that the most important requirements for applying decentralization the presence of transparency and accountability so as not to grow the seeds of corruption in this new soil, he concluded by saying that the deployment of a culture of decentralization and local governance is a good change in the community base which would certainly pour in the future to change its top.