Who We Are Basic System Join Us Menu Item Menu Item Citizenship Rights Citizenship Rights & Democracy National Youth Policy Party Policies Role of Woman Transport Policy

National youth policy 1 - Introduction 2 - Vision and Goals 3 - Fields of the National Youth Policy 3-a: Employment 3-b: Political participation 3-c: Education 3-d: Health 3-e: Population 3-f: Culture 3-g: Media 3-h: Social activities and voluntary work 3-i: Social care 3-j: Sports and entertainment 3-k: Environment 3-l: Research and studies 4 - Prior targeted groups 5 - Revision 6 - Implementation Mechanisms 1 - Introduction Most countries adopt a national youth policy that is marked by comprehensiveness and integration. Such a policy specifies the needs of youth in all fields and designs goals and strategies to meet these needs. Governmental and non-governmental organisations have been presented with a draft containing plans and programmes relating to the needs of youth. The adoption of a national youth policy reflects Egypt's strong belief in the importance of the role of young people in development. It also reflects Egypt's strong recognition of the needs of youth. The NDP has pledged in the Youth Policy Paper that was presented to the first annual Conference in September 2003 to start sketching out a national youth policy. The NDP promises to propound this paper for youth-concerned organisations pledging that the opinions of these organisations would be the basis for the final draft of the national youth policy. 2 - Vision and Goals According to statistics, young men between the ages of 18 and 35 years old represent 33 per cent of Egypt's population. If we add those who are between 6 and 18 years old this figure would jump to 69 per cent of the population. The NDP highlights the importance of the role of youth. Here we singled out one clause: "The NDP has considered Egypt's youth its top priority, bearing in mind that youth stand for development and progress". The clause also focuses on providing with equal opportunities promising qualified ones to give them the chance to be in leading posts in all fields of national work. The youth and participation paper also makes clear the fact that Egypt's success in sustainable development hinges on the extent to which youth are cared for. It also depends on the type of training given to sharpen the skills of youth. The party knows for certain that this large section of society is not homogeneous. On the contrary, it varies depending on age, demography, profession and level of education. It also depends on the needs and interests of youth. Therefore, it was important to implement a national youth policy that is marked by comprehensiveness and integration. The party is fully aware that invigorating the skills of youth needs concerted cooperation among all concerned authorities. The national youth policy is based on a strong recognition of number of rights and duties on the part of youth as follows: Rights of youth The constitution safeguards the right to live, learn, work, receive cultural, social, and health services. It also secures the right to protection against discrimination, the right to equality before the law, the right to equal opportunities, the right to freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate. The right to participate in decision making also falls under this category of rights to which youth are entitled. Duties of youth Youth are supposed to be loyally devoted to their nation and preserve its unity. They must contribute to economic, social, political, and cultural development and advance democracy and the supremacy of law. They should also be committed to citizenship rights, fight against corruption and discrimination based on religion, sex profession or class. The national youth policy aims to achieve the following goals: 1 - Enlisting youth in the priorities of 0f all concerned public policies 2 - Empowering youth economically, socially and politically 3 - Increasing the participation of the youth in social activities 4- Sowing the seeds of belonging and patriotism in youth 5 - Inviting young women to be more involved in and abolishing all forms of discrimination against them 6- Encouraging the private sector and the civil society to be more involved in sharpening the skills of youth 3 - Fields of the national youth policy - Employment - Political participation - Education - Health - Population - Culture - Media - Sports and entertainment - Environment - Social activities and voluntary work - Research and studies Employment Youth represent the largest portion of society. This segment is unemployed in the most part and this results from the disability of the economy to create jobs to absorb an increasing demand over jobs year by year. Of equal importance is a big number of graduates who do kinds of work that do not suit their education. To face these challenges, the national youth policy recommends the following: - Implementing a national employment strategy in which the private and the public sectors partner with the civil society - Promoting the concept of 'self employment' - Making available needed funds for small and medium enterprises through facile lending systems - Establishing recruitment agencies inside universities and gathering places for youth - Finding channels through which products of youth can be marketed nation-wide - Encouraging the private sector to provide training programs for youth acquire the required experience - Upgrading Districts that qualify youth for the labour market - Specifying a place for youth with special needs in any recruitment project - Getting youth more involved in the implementation of national programmes - Spreading labour laws' awareness among youth through media and NGO campaigns - Punishing employers who breach labour laws Political participation There are many forms to political participation including, inter alia, going to ballots in elections, running in elections, membership in political parties and participating in electoral campaigns. Though there have been incessant calls for youth to get more actively politically involved, youth political participation is still very low. To invigorate youth political participation, the national policy recommends the following: - Enhancing the value of participation through educational institutions, media, and civil society - Making for an easy balloting using the National Identification Number Cards - Encouraging political parties to give youth the opportunity to occupy leading positions - Modernising the school curricula - Encouraging youth to get more politically involved through student unions - Supporting student unions to secure fair and transparent elections in them - Encouraging model parliaments, which represent a rostrum for youngsters to discuss the same issues and legislation debated in the legislature - Increasing political awareness through programmes in this regard in schools and universities - Increasing the participation of youth in the management of youth Districts and NGOs Education Undeniably, education in Egypt has witnessed big improvements as school enrolment has remarkably increased. Illiteracy among youth has also remarkably fallen. In spite of this, some factors hinder good education, such as overcrowding in classes, teaching by rote, private lessons, and the yawning gap between education and job market requirements. The national youth policy recommends the following: - Increasing the role of youth in designing educational policies - Encouraging students to use their intellectual faculties in education - Upgrading vocational training for it to cope up with the new information technological and the actual needs of the labour market - Enhancing the relationship between educational institutions and the private sector to create jobs - Encouraging creativity and establishing science clubs in schools - Giving more concern to family education in schools - Motivating students to read more - Monitoring the performance of private educational institutions to guarantee minimum academic measures - Equipping educational institutions with sports tools. Health Statistics relating to youth show that the level of health as far as youth are concerned has improved greatly while a decreasing number of youth suffer serious diseases. In spite of this, there are challenges that decrease youth's chance to receive proper medical care. The national youth policy recommends the following: - Implementing a comprehensive program of medical services - Launching media campaigns to give youth tips about family planning and warn them against the repercussions of drug addiction and contagious diseases. - Conducting research on nutrition patterns among Egypt's youth to see whether their nutrition is compatible with proper medical standards - Making available medical examination and pre-marriage counselling to spot any hereditary diseases - Bolstering cooperation between the Government, private sector and NGOs in providing medical services to youth - Enlisting universities and educational institutions in the medical insurance program Population Population growth affects youth in general and limits the number of available jobs for them. It also affects the quality of services offered them including educational and medical ones. The national youth policy recommends the following: - Enlisting population knowledge in school curricula especially in universities and vocational education institutions - Using the potentials of youth in launching awareness campaigns on family planning - Encouraging NGOs that offer family planning and medical services Culture Culture is an important element of the national youth policy. The NDp knows for certain that culture is an elements to can enrich the personality of youth. The continuance of cultural activities connected to youth faces a number of challenges, such as the absence of required facilities in cultural Districts. The national youth policy recommends the following: - Implementing a comprehensive strategy that takes the cultural needs of youth and changes in society into consideration. The application of this strategy should be the job of the Supreme Council of Culture - Upgrading the infrastructure of cultural institutions and Districts in all governorates - Preserving the Egyptian cultural identity and protecting it from being wiped away by other cultures - Providing public libraries with advanced technologies - Enlisting cultural values contributions of Egyptian intellectuals in school curricula Media Media plays a significant role in shaping the personality youth as it is considered an important source of information, values and behaviour patterns. The national youth policy recommends the following: - Giving youth the chance to contribute to designing and implementing media policies especially those connected to youth - Giving youth the chance to occupy leading positions institutions of media - Giving more coverage to the issues of youth in media and the press newspapers - Addressing the problems of youth in a dynamic way - Making youth aware of the dangers of drug addition and smoking through media - Shedding light on success stories of youth - Encouraging the release of newspapers, TV channels and websites that have a content relating to the issues of youth Sports and Entertainment Sports and entertainment play an important role in creating stable personalities and improving physical health. The national youth policy recommends the following: - Giving more concern to sports in schools and universities providing educational institutions with all modern tools - Establishing more youth Districts in the deprived areas - Constructing more stadiums and selling the tickets at affordable prices for youth - Modernising sports agencies, clubs, and federations for them to cope up with new challenges. These entities must also be managed properly. At the same time, sports investing must be encouraged while the private sector must be encouraged to sponsor sports activities and establish new clubs - Improving the summer camps - Adopting the concept of civil education to turn the Junior Leaders' Centre into a civil educational centre that is responsible for grooming youngsters for leadership in society - Organising more festivals and competitions for youth - Holding an annual national conference for youth in which youth from all governorates gather to debate their concerns. They should be given the chance to meet with decision-makers during this occasion - Organising camps on the regional level so that youth get introduced to other cultures Environment The absence of a clean and healthy environment throttles any contribution by youth to the development of their society. The national youth policy recommends the following: - Highlighting the importance of enlisting environmental issues in school curricula - Encouraging the establishment of environmental clubs inside schools, universities, sporting clubs and youth Districts - Encouraging youth to participate in forestation campaigns - Encouraging NGOs to work in the field of the conservation of the environment Social activity and voluntary work Participation in social activities and voluntary work are seen as major tools for youth to improve their society. The national youth policy recommends the following: - Encouraging youth to hold leading positions in NGOs - Making the public service law to cope up with economic and social changes. At the same time, the concept of public service should include combating illiteracy, encouraging family planning and presenting health care - Improving youth health care units in universities - Promoting the concepts of voluntary work and social responsibility - Linking voluntary work to domestic issues including (illiteracy, population problems, addiction, smoking, and environmental issues) - Encouraging Government institutions to cooperate with NGOs in putting youth program into action - Encouraging scouts' activities in schools and universities Research and studies In this regard the national youth policy advocates the following: - Urging ministries concerned with youth issues to conduct more research on these issues - Establishing a youth-specialised research centre at the Sociological and Criminological National Research Centre - Making deep field studies of the problems that face youth Targeted groups This policy targets Egypt's youth as a whole. At the same time, it particularly targets the following groups: - Unemployed youth - Young women - Youth in the countryside - Youth with special needs 5 - Revision The national youth policy is usually reviewed each three years. 6 - Implementation mechanisms a- The party and its Government will propound the national youth policy. Different organisations and youth forums and NGOs will take part in opining upon this policy. b- The Supreme Council for Youth will be responsible for preparing the final draft of the national youth policy document in a matter of six months then. c- All concerned Government bodies will put the goals into working plans. d- Inviting civil society and the private sector to participate in implementing the national youth policy as both are considered major partners. e- The policy recommends the establishment of a ministerial committee for youth in which would consist of all concerned ministers. f- The Supreme Council for Youth will coordinate the efforts of Government and non Government bodies in executing the policy.