“The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement” is a non governmental, non profit organization, founded in May 2001, and registered with The Ministry Of Social Solidarity MOSS under the number (5481) on February 2004. Many of the founding members had actively participated throughout the past decades, until present in the capacity building of a number of organizations, networks and coalitions that are the most active in implementing CRC, CEDAW, Beijing Platform of Action, Democratic Reform Initiatives, and also in different consultations of governmental bodies, civil society, national, regional and international organizations and Inistitutions on the national, regional and international levels.
Name of organization: The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement (EACPE).
Address of Headquarters office: 13 Farid st. Heliopolis, Cairo.
Branches: El-Minia and El-Fayoum governorates’ branches.
Chair Person: Dr. Magdy Abdel Hamid.
Contact Person: Dr. Afaf Marei, Cirector. (cellular: 002012-2305584)
Networking:
Founding member and coordinator of the Task Force on Human Rights Education in Egypt.
Member of the CEDAW coalition, and its steering committee.
Coordinator of the shadow report on CEDAW implementation in Egypt.
Founding member and Coordinator of Egyptian Euro-Med civil Platform.
Member of NGO coalition on violence against women: “Karama Egypt”, and coordinator of the economic theme.
Member of the Network of Women's Rights Organizations NWRO
Member of the Euro-Mediterranean Civil Platform.
Founder and coordinator of the “Egyptian Workers and Trade Unions Watch”.
Member of AWID.
Member of CIVICUS.
Founding member of the “National Initiative for Monitoring Electoral processes”
Member and Focal point of the Middle East& North Africa, with IACD.
Member of ANND.
Our Vision:
Active Community Participation can be seen as a process of empowerment of the deprived and the excluded people, within a context that integrates human rights with sustainable human development, achieved and benefited by all citizens through an active process of democratic reform of the Egyptian Society.
Participation is an instrument of change and it can help to break that exclusion and to provide people with the basis for their more direct involvement in decision making, and control over resources.
EACPE believes in partnership and mutual work with other stakeholders. It welcomes working with national and international NGOs, governmental and intergovernmental bodies, media agencies, business sectors and civil society organizations.
Our Mission:
To empower people in terms of their acquiring the skills, knowledge and experience to take greater responsibility for their lives, and also by influencing other factors which affect the whole society participation.
EACPE is dedicated to community empowerment, advocating human rights, advancing democracy by spreading human rights culture, raise awareness on legal and constitutional rights, build the capacity of Civil society cadres on mechanisms of human rights protection among all the Egyptian citizens.
Objectives:
To enhance citizens participation, through different civil society organizations, with special emphasis on youth from both sexes.
To disseminate human rights culture in the society and to activate the implementation of “International Conventions on Human Rights”, with special emphasis on CEDAW and CRC, and the international program on Human Rights Education.
To develop, propose and nogtiate peopole focused policies with other partners, that promotes citizens participation and democratic political reform, as the only way to exercise their democratic rights.
To enable social actors, on local, national and regional levels to lead a transformative democratic change and facilitate their networking.
To enforce the use and activation of the UN Human Rights protection machineries by civil society organizations, i.e. CEDAW, CRC, ILO conventions…etc.
Strategies:
Strengthening and activating partnership and close cooperation with different partners.
Networking and building alliances with different social actors, on local and regional and international levels.
Technical and institutional support to civil society.
Integrating human rights with sustainable human development..
Programs:
·Program for “Active transformative citizens Participation” This program has developed a National Strategy for Community Participation Enhancement’, with other stakeholders, NGOs, media, political parties, syndicates, academicians, women leaders and youth, through studies, advocacy, interaction and exchanging views on the issue of citizens participation. Also developed and implement programs for supporting civil society organizations, in order to play an active role in this regard.
· Democracy Development Program, aiming to activate the role of Egyptian citizens in democratization and political reform. Hundreds of volunteers have monitored the presidential, parliamentarian, syndicate of engineers, Trade Chambers elections, and many other elections through its “Democracy Status Watch” , after their participation in an intensive training program, especially designed to build their capacities as monitors. This program has a very strong connection with the media, which covers all monitoring reports, to raise consiousness and enhance “Democracy Development in Egypt”
· Human Rights education program to School Children: aiming to promoting Human Rights culture in schools and transforming this culture into a way of living. The program was initiated in Cairo governorate, through which EACPE work in coordination with the Ministry of Education. This program is being implemented now in 125 schools in 5 governorates. The program has succeeded in improving not only the schools’ environment but also relations in the family context. Human Rights Clubs in the target schools are organized and managed by students, who actively participate in the process of decision making not only in their schools, but also in all other issues and aspect of their lives. This program targets teachers, schools heads, parents, civil society and decision makers.
·Women’s Program: aiming to empower women, in terms of their acquiring the skills, knowledge and experience to take greater responsibility for their lives, and also by influencing other factors which affect their lives, this program targets young females, working and unimployed women. Also it works closely with women organizations as a member of the Coalition on Violence against women, CEDAW Coalition, and the Network of Women's Rights Organizations NWRO, so as to act powerfully at the decision making level in order to advance Egyptian Women Status. We share our knowledge and experience with other organizations on the national, regional and international levels, and work towards the enformenet of the international, regional and national machineries to protect and promote women's rights.
·Training Unit: As all above mentioned programs need empowered civil society, this program aims to build the capacity of different social actors, through consultations and training programs on the national and regional levels.
EACPE Partners :
CIDA.
The Swiss Embassy.
The Finnish Embassy.
The European Commision.
Ford Foundation.
Konrad Adenauer.
GTZ.
Organizations and Institutions we've worked with:
The Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Forign Affairs.
The Ministry of International Relations.
The Arab League.
The Euro Med Civil Platform.
ESCWA.
British Council
NCHRs.
Woodrow Willson Center.
UNICEF.
ABA.
USIP.
NDI.
EACPE Publications:
1.Mosharka periodic magazine.
2.Analytical study on presidential election monirtoring. ( Book)
3.Particpation and Democracy. (Book)
4.Report on Monitoring parliamentarean elections 2005.
5.Report on findings and recommendations of focus group discussions on activating societal participation.
6.One Step Forward, Several Steps Back, an analytical study on monitoring parlimentarean elections. ( Book)
7. Annual report on Democracy Status in Egypt, 2007.
