In Cairo for a visit last week, British Council Chief Executive Martin Davidson explained his views on intercultural dialogue to Gamal Nkrumah There is a proverb that says that "yard by yard, it's very hard, but inch by inch it's a cinch," and so it is with cultural dialogue. For Martin Davidson, Chief Executive of the British Council since 2007, Egypt is a priority for the UK organisation for cultural relations and education, the Council having established its first office outside Europe in Cairo in 1938. Since then British activities in the country and in the Arab region more generally have led to significant disagreements, though, as Davidson told Al-Ahram Weekly in an interview during his visit to Cairo this week, these are now in the past. Today, the Council is working to encourage intercultural dialogue and cooperation between the two countries. "We made a lot of mistakes in the past," Davidson said, referring to the 1956 Suez War, when the British, French and Israeli attack on Egypt led to the closure of the British Council and of various British business interests. Davidson draws lessons from the British Council's long history in Egypt, noting that after 1956 "we maintained a presence in Cairo when British people, including our British staff, had to leave and the Egyptian government appointed Egyptian staff to keep our offices open. This is proof, if any were needed, that cultural and educational ties can survive even the tensest of political situations." However, he prefers not to dwell on this past history and focuses instead on the role the Council can play in future Anglo-Egyptian relations. "We are not in the job of interpreting history," he says. "Our partnerships today are about developing international awareness and a critical understanding of how we communicate, work and live with one another." "Today's two-way exchange means that we understand each other better and understand what we are about. Egypt has a critical regional and global role to play, and we at the British Council are acutely aware of this." Davidson says that the Council is keen on helping to develop leadership skills in Egypt, explaining that "we are working with 30 schools, creating links, enhancing teacher-training skills and teacher training, while focusing on English." These schools are linked to other schools in Britain and elsewhere, giving students valuable experience of other cultures and ways of thinking. The Council's activities are not restricted to major urban centres like Cairo and Alexandria, Davidson says, and the organisation tries to reach out to rural areas in the Delta and Upper Egypt. Meanwhile, the 30 schools involved in Council projects will eventually become 300, he hopes, all of them "working on community projects ranging from increasing women's literacy to supporting street children." Students and teachers at these schools "have told us how much they've learned from one another and from the communities in which they are working. They've said that their preconceived ideas of one another's countries, values and societies have been challenged on a daily basis." One group of Egyptian students will visit the English Midlands town of Luton, for example, in order to "continue this real life experience of intercultural dialogue." Davidson stresses the importance of such "reciprocal volunteer exchanges" for what the Council is trying to do under his leadership, saying that it is trying to carve out a niche for itself on the international agenda, while at the same time building friendships between people in the UK and other peoples across the world. "We work with local, national and international partners to challenge the narratives that have gripped some of our young people. Narratives that turn lack of information into misunderstanding and link political events across this region and the world to create and direct violence." Davidson conveyed these ideas to a large audience of Egyptian journalists and workers in the media at a discussion at the Al-Ahram Building in Cairo last week that was moderated by El-Sayed Yassin of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. Entitled "Intercultural Dialogue: Moving beyond Words," language featured prominently in his presentation, with Davidson focusing on the British Council's activities in the field of teaching English. "Last year we trained 23,000 learners of English in Egypt," he said, language learning being one of the Council's core activities. "Core areas of our work include the propagation of the English language and creativity," Davidson said, and improving standards in the teaching of English was vitally important for the organisation. Whether for better or for worse, mastery of the English language was now necessary for workers in almost every field of activity, and the English language had emerged as a kind of international tongue of mankind, he said. However, just as important as language for Davidson is sport, which he also regards as a tool of international communication. The British Council has therefore designed a programme that combines the teaching of English with soccer-coaching, courtesy of the English Premier League. Over recent decades, Davidson explains, there have been radical changes in the relationship between Egypt and the United Kingdom. There has, for example, been a sea-change in the Council's approach to partnerships. "We aim to connect people by increasing understanding and appreciation between cultures -- and helping to develop a better understanding of how their culture fits into the world," Davidson explains. "However, we cannot do this alone, so we broker partnerships and networks around the world, working with the people who will influence the way their societies develop." "Fundamentally, the British Council is about engaging people around the world," he says. "The activities and engagements of the British Council are to the benefit of people in Britain and around the world," and the Council aims to help assist poorer, less-developed countries in the development of civil society institutions. "A recipient country must not be seen as a country that is unable to give." Young people are a particular focus of Council activities, Davidson saying that "our focus is on addressing the needs of the 70 per cent of the population that is under 30 and asking for greater skills development." "Egypt is a young country, and therefore it is vitally important for us to engage with young people." For this reason, British Council officials were busy networking on the fringes of the World Economic Forum (WEF) conference on the Middle East that took place last week. "We took young people from across this region and the world to the centre of the WEF," he explains. "Together, they expressed their commitment to Egypt's priority agenda -- increasing the employability and skills development of young people in this region -- and we gave them the opportunity to sound out leaders such as Gamal Mubarak, Ehud Barak and Tony Blair." "We are a values-based organisation, and everything we do is based on our values." As part of this values base, the Council is also working with Al-Azhar University, the world's leading institution for the study of Islam. "For a long time, the British Council was fearful of engaging in this debate, and in many parts of this region we got used to talking to a small circle of well-known faces. We were fearful of being seen to be political or religious," Davidson muses. "But people are political and religious." Finally, the British Council has learnt over the years to adapt itself to changing circumstances. "Different at different times and in different places," is how Davidson aptly put it.
