Presentation on 'Egyptian Spanish Cooperation 2014 & 2015 Programs' made at the meeting 'Women in Public Life in the Middle East and North Africa' on 5 march 2015 in Madrid

5. At the aim of
“Promoting women’s political
participation
and
advancing legal reforms
for gender equality”

6. 2014 Program
“Count Me In”
Women in 2014 Parliament
and Local Councils Elections
Count Me In .. Women in 2014 Elections

7. Main Obstacles To Be Tackled ..
• Few qualified female political cadres who can
run for elections and positively participate.
• The negative idea among political parties,
decision makers and public towards women
political participation.

8. Goals/Objectives :
• To reach a critical mass of skilled and qualified
women, who can actively participate in both
Egyptian “Local Council Elections" and
“Parliament Elections“; to increase women
participation “as voters, assistants or
candidates” and enhance their performance.
• To train women as political assistants
• To change the negative ideas about women
political participation into positive and
supportive ones.

9. Activities :
150 participants from 4 different Egyptian
governorates – ages from 25 to 40- were divided
in 2 groups:
 15 women/governorate running for Parliament
Elections (group 1)
 15 women/governorate running for Local Council
Elections (group2)
The program was wrapped up with a final event
with the participation of a female member of
the Spanish Parliament.

10. Outcomes :
150 qualified women to:
• Run their own electoral campaigns,
• Play an efficient role as parliament or local
council members,
• Play an efficient role as assistants for the
current elections candidates.

16. 2015 Program
Supporting women political
participation
through
“Gender Committees" in political
parties

17. • Parliament is expected to approve laws to guarantee women
and children’s rights mentioned in 2014 Constitution.
• More than 20 constitutional articles ensure the State protects
women’s rights politically, financially and socially, but laws are
still needed to guarantee the application of rights, such as:
- EQUALITY : “equal opportunities without discrimination”
- Better life conditions specially for poor, slums inhabitants
and women with special needs.
- Women’s right to give citizenship to their children
- Ensure adequate female representation in parliaments

18. On the other hand, no approval was given to
Parliament quota, while a quarter of the local
seats were reserved for women.
While the Constitution guarantees equality,
State Council still refuses accepting female
employment applications.

19. Main Obstacles To Be Tackled ..
• Decision makers of political parties do not
support (financially or technically) qualified
women to be nominated as eligible candidates,
• Female candidates do not have support of any
kind,
• Political parties do not pay attention to the
necessity to support women political
participation,
• Very low female representation percentage in
Parliament and Local Councils.

20. • General Objetive :
To create powerful Committees within the
political parties (of different ideologies) to
support women political participation and to put
pressure on decision makers in order to reach an
acceptable percentage of female representation
in the Parliament and decision making positions
in Egypt.

21. Target group :
Direct : 80 Female activist members (21-45 years old)
from various Egyptian political parties.
Indirect :
A minimum of 1200 – 1500 members of political parties
of different ideologies and trends.

22. Future activities (coming 2 years) :
80 women from 3 governorates will participate in
the following activities :
• Stage 1 : TOT
• Stage 2: New committees or entities according
to the new strategies learned
• Stage 3: Networking
• Stage 4: Exchanging experiences at international
level

23. Thank You