CAIRO - A few metres separated Maged Osman from the rest of the staff of his centre, but distance seemed to be illusory in this place. The man, slightly bearded and beautifully dressed, seemed to be at the centre of everything done here, but always insisted that there was another story to be told. Osman, with glaring eyes and a look that never fails to bring him respect, dropped in on every individual centre staff member from time to time to give instructions, view researches before they are finalised, or opine on the potential credibility of this statistic or that. "This is real team work," Osman said. "There are huge efforts from every member of the staff of this centre behind all the researches and statistics we release every now and then," he told The Gazette in an interview. This is probably the story Osman is keen to tell everywhere and at all times: he might be the official maestro of this place, but the success of the whole team is dependent on the wholeteam. And this is perhaps the secret behind the success of the Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC), a beehive of researchers, academics and data analysts, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. The centre that perceives of itself as an independent think tank, despite the fact that it is State-run, is far away from being a stage for a one-person show. Osman always talks in the "we" style and this "we" seems to be true, not sheer pretence. Staff members moved from one office to another, holding stacks of paper, telephones kept ringing, and Osman's colleagues seemed to stick like glue to their computer screens filing information and writing reports about everything in Egypt from food subsidies to crime, to marriage and divorce. They are motivated by their belief in the importance of information for decision-making. Osman, however, likes to go the extra mile and puts his faith in the importance of information for ordinary citizens. They too make decisions, he says. He believes that ordinary Egyptians too have a right to information. "I have every faith in this," Osman said. "Knowledge is power and by giving knowledge to ordinary people, we empower them and make them aware of what the situation in their country is really like. In a way, this makes the mission of the government easier," he added. Osman has been a statistician for a very long time now. When he joined the College of Economics and Political Science more than 30 years ago, he chose the Statistics Department. Speaking in numbers and figures and never uttering a word without referring to a study conducted by the centre, this man seemed to be cut for his job a long time ago. Some of his statistics about the economy are disappointing, others make people laugh in disbelief, but this can never hide away the fact that Osman's IDSC has been doing great services to decision-makers in this country for 25 years now since it was established in 1985. Boasting 41 PhD holders and 69 Master's degree holders in its staff, IDSC is well on its way of becoming a full-fledged think tank unparalleled in the entire Arab region. The centre never misses out a chance for training its staff. It does this in the belief that human resources are the backbone of any serious work. "Our work is heavily dependent on innovation and new ideas," Osman said. "Innovation is also dependent on well-trained personnel," he added. The story of Osman's centre is not very different from the story of this country in general. As Egypt struggles to carve a niche for itself on the international economic map, leaning on scant resources, IDSC struggles to have its place among the world's think tanks, but it differs in that it moves forward leaning on its highly-educated statisticians, including Osman himself, and personnel. "We hope to continue to break new grounds in the future," Osman said."There are many political, social, and economic issues related to the future of this country that we need to approach scientifically. We hope to continue to equip everybody in Egypt with knowledge because like I said knowledge is power," he added.
