By Heba Handoussa
Can one be optimistic in these momentous times and forecast a new golden future for Egypt? The energy and commitment evident in the streets and in Tahrir Square promise a potential reservoir of vigor and goodwill that could reshape Egypt’s destiny in the future.
I am particularly heartened by Egypt’s thinkers and practitioners who have daily offered insights and analyses that go beyond the current crisis and which break new ground. Egypt is not short of best-case visions, scenarios, and their related policies and programs. I have, over the past fiver years been responsible – as lead author – for producing the Egypt National Human Development Report. This is an indispensable and key publication of the United Nations Development Program’s Egypt Country Office. I have viewed each report as a vital analytic platform for discussing critical national and sub-national human development issues, provides viable policy options, and give inspiration for action on issues of critical importance to Human Development in Egypt. Each report has emphasized one topic with a number of crosscutting themes that challenge political and social ecosystem.
In this respect, the focus of the 2010 report, Youth in Egypt: Building Our Future (November 2010) has proved strangely relevant. Its most striking and unusual finding was the extent to which youth were excluded from political and civic participation, especially since the definition of youth for this Report is 18-29 years, at which time youth are legally empowered to vote and make important social decisions. Youth placed blame for lack of participation on the present cultural and political environment in Egypt, undermined by the country’s absence of democratic practices and by a security apparatus that was intolerant of any form of dissent. However, it clearly demonstrated that youth were interested in inclusion, discussed their society — whether on facebook, twitter or elsewhere — were critical of the system and dreamed about what they considered to be better conditions, especially with regard employment, freedoms, voice, good governance, and a new social contract.
In earlier reports, particularly the 2008 Report on civil society in Egypt, it became clear that one of the preliminary conditions for a fruitful state/civil society dialogue was to establish mutual trust between the two parties. However, past experience has shown that there have been very few formal channels for maintaining dialogue between the government and civil society and freedoms have been very limited. Harsh penalties have represented a real obstruction to participation, transparency, and accountability, as components of good governance. Both the Emergency Law in Egypt, whose provisions allow for arresting citizens without charge, as well as the new draft Anti-Terrorism Law limited indirectly the activities of the civil society sector. Widespread interference or brutality – especially towards youthful bloggers – by the State Security was seen as not authorized in the law or in the Constitution. Further, human rights and other civil society groups were under risk of prison if the activity was (loosely) deemed ‘defamatory’ or ‘slanderous’ under Articles 302, 303 or 306 in the Penal Code. Currently there is no Right of Information Law in Egypt.
Today, we are seeing the outcome of these policies. Citizens are reclaiming their rights to assemble, debate, criticize. They are aware that in the past dialogue has been more of a window-dressing to satisfy international organizations’ appeals for a strong and free civil society.
Trust is earned. There can be no trust until a new social contract for Egypt, based on convincing evidence and concrete analysis, is put in place. The Human Development Report for 2005 strongly argued that such a paradigm change was necessary if Egypt was to draw on all the rich and productive resources of the country. Young people are now saying that it is time for such a new paradigm – one that obviates the need for repression, and that introduces participation, voice, participation, transparency, and accountability, with power sharing and rotation as fundamental axes of politics.
Since youth have been at the forefront during these last momentous days, it is only right to focus more closely on their specific circumstances and to develop an integrated national youth policy within any new comprehensive national strategy, including a full special and time-bound agenda. Egypt’s young people – those between the ages of 18 and 29 – number 20 million, or close to one quarter of the population. The tasks that face them at this critical juncture in their lives, and their accomplishments as the next generation that will head families, communities, the government and the work force, will affect the welfare of the nation as a whole.
In this respect, a summary of the key messages of the Egypt Human Development Report on Youth for 2010 includes the following:
• Young people are the best candidates to act as agents of change to reclaim Egypt’s traditional cultural norm of tolerance and respect of the other. The need is to reform curricula to instill ethics, problem-solving, entrepreneurial skills and the culture of invention and innovation.
• Introduce channels of youth participation in governance to ensure a return to a merit-based Human Resource Management System, away from nepotism, patronage and “wasta.”
• Job creation for youth can be accelerated by (i) state contribution to social security payment for youth, as recommended in an earlier Human Development Report (2005); (ii) A time-bound national program for jobs targeting the MDG objectives and indicators, and the National Program for 1000 villages; (iii) State support for temporary migration (3-5 years) under negotiated terms with host countries.
• Entrepreneurship needs to start from some asset in addition to human capital. Distributive justice and good economic fundamentals would be well-served by adopting a national scheme “Project Land” that distributes parcels of land to youth in Egypt’s new regions, to be used in value-adding activities including small-scale tourism, eco-friendly agriculture, housing, ICT, etc.
• Monitoring the newly prepared ‘Youth Well-Being Index” (more than 100 indicators of health, education, etc) on an annual basis to scientifically assess levels and severity of youth deprivation and which would include data on income, employment, social services, civic participation, leisure and security.
My hope is that strategic frameworks for development such as those provided by the Human Development Reports will continue to enhance peoples’ capabilities and contribute to State capabilities to realize Egypt’s full potential.
Professor Heba Handoussa is the Lead Author of the Egypt Human Development Report 2010, 2008 & 2005. She was also author of the 2004 Report on Decentralization.
