IFES - Egypt

 Print this Page

Egypt

BRIDGE participants in Cairo discuss the steps for providing elctoral support during a training exercise.

Over the past few years, Egypt witnessed significant changes directly affecting political mechanisms in the country. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak successfully called for an amendment to the Constitution allowing for multi-candidate, multi-party presidential elections. In 2007, 34 articles of the Constitution were amended, many of which had a direct impact on political processes in Egypt.

Sharing Comparative International Experience

Active in Egypt since 2005, IFES has engaged stakeholders at all levels in substantive and focused dialogue on electoral and political process matters and raised awareness among electoral participants of their rights and responsibilities. In this way, IFES contributes to long-term enhancements of political processes driven by Egyptian stakeholders and appropriate to the Egyptian context.

IFES undertakes a strategy to address electoral matters and combat corruption through enhanced political integrity systems allowing Egyptian stakeholders to utilize IFES’ pool of knowledge and expertise to identify and implement locally created solutions. IFES works with a wide range of international and Egyptian partners to realize this strategic direction.

IFES offers stakeholders in the political process various opportunities to share information with their counterparts from around the world. Through stakeholder forums and publications, IFES presents comparative international experiences from a wide range of international experts and practitioners coming from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Panama, Poland, Romania, Spain, South Africa, and the United States. IFES experts range from former Vice-Presidents and Constitutional Court representatives to heads of Election Management Bodies and renowned academics.

IFES also offers the internationally-recognized Building Resources in Democracy, Governance, and Elections (BRIDGE) curriculum to media, civil society, policy-makers, and other stakeholders. BRIDGE was developed by a global consortium that includes IFES, International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Australian Election Commission (AEC), United Nations Electoral Assistance Division (UNEAD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Covering all aspect of elections, BRIDGE modules are designed to build capacity and enhance professionalism. These efforts are global in scope and seek comparative examples to illustrate options and best practice.

Finally, through Aswatna.net - a central on-line, Arabic-language resource for all electoral issues in Egypt, IFES seeks to share information on a wide-range of issues pertaining to elections and political integrity in Egypt.

As a result of these efforts, key Egyptian stakeholders are better equipped to propose, formulate, and implement reform alternatives on electoral and political integrity issues, journalists’ capacity to cover elections in a responsible manner is enhanced, and civil society has more tools for promoting meaningful participation and awareness campaigns in a way that builds trust and confidence in the governing process.