Reem Leila reports on an effort to enhance the political participation of women The National Council for Women (NCW) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organised a four-day workshop to help Egyptian women build political careers. The Political Empowerment Programme workshop, which took place from 22- 26 April, aimed to train participants on legislative institutions, the election process and leadership skills as well as help them acquire knowledge on economic and social issues. This workshop, which trained 25 women, is part of a bigger plan to train 600 women in all Egypt's governorates within three years. The 25 participants were selected among more than 150 women who applied for the programme. According to Sally El-Mahdi, project manager, there were several criteria through which candidates were chosen. The participants, whose ages range from 30- 50, had to identify Egypt's most pressing issues and to state the relation between women's empowerment and social, economic and political development overall. "These conditions were set to enable us to differentiate between serious women and others," said El-Mahdi. The NCW along with the UNDP have called on women to participate in this programme by "spreading the word". This training workshop, according to Antonio Vigilante, UNDP resident representative, is the first of its kind in Egypt and the Middle East. "The UNDP has allocated $150,000 for such programmes," said Vigilante. Nagwa Ashraf, one of the 25 selected women, said that she joined the programme because "I wanted to run for the People's Assembly and I did not know how." As well as helping women to run for the upcoming People's Assembly elections in 2005, the programme is also intended to help women participate in municipal elections in 2006. Addressing the opening session, Vigilante assured the gathered that women should overcome their apprehensions and run for election. It is only through this process that society will get used to, and accept, women's participation. Egyptian women were granted full political rights in 1956. However, social and cultural factors have hindered women from fully realising their rights. "This training, and similar efforts, will provide a conducive environment to enable and empower women to participate in the decision-making process," added Vigilante. The UNDP's Human Development Report for Egypt revealed that only two per cent of Egyptian women participate in the decision-making process in one form or another. According to Farkhonda Hassan, secretary-general of the NCW, this training programme is based on the recommendations made at last month's Alexandria Conference on the role of Egyptian women and the Millennium Development Goals. It will help in developing training manuals and programmes for future use. Hassan talked about the dire need to take prompt and vigilant action to achieve better political representation for Egyptian women. "This should be realised smoothly and without difficulty, especially that we have all the foundations to make this endeavour possible," added Hassan. The training programme is divided into two parts, theoretical and practical. Candidates are lectured by professionals on skills in areas pertaining to drafting and implementing legislation, rules and procedures guiding the election process, as well as election systems overall. Their training will include developing their communication skills, building effective partnerships, managing debates and seminars, and being "impressive" to constituents. This is in addition to enhancing the economic and social literacy of women to compliment the aforementioned objectives. As for practical training, Salwa Gomaa, professor of political science at Cairo University and member of the NCW, says that candidates in advanced stages will accompany members of the Shura Council and the People's Assembly, to see how they deal with day- to-day political issues.
