Party policies
The way polices are sketched out
The Policies Secretariat makes a detailed study of the general policy proposals the General Assembly refers to it in the light of the recommendations of the party's general conference to make its suggestions regarding them. These suggestions are then introduced to the annual Conference of the party.
Policy designing mechanisms
  •  The issue under discussion is introduced to attendees at the annual Conference of the party for them to lay out keynotes about it.
  •  Annual Conference members refer the issue to the Policies Secretariat for it to make a thorough study of it.
  •  The Policies Secretariat's Supreme Policies Council makes a detailed study of the issue and its effects on society at large.
  •  Specialised policies committees make a technical study of the issue and present their vision in the form of executive policies to be put to effect by certain executive bodies within an identified period of time. This executive vision is then referred to the Policies Secretariat again.
  •  The issue is referred to the party's secretariats in the various governorates for them to study it and the chairperson of each governorate secretariat then refers the whole matter to the Policies Secretariat again.
  •  The Policies Secretariat then makes its final report about the issue and refers it to the General Assembly, which presents it to members of the annual Conference.
Egypt's population problem
The population problem is uppermost in the NDP's development vision priorities. The party is fully conscious of the yawning gap between population numbers and growth rates in this regard on the one hand, and Egypt's natural resources and its economic growth rate on the other hand. It is also aware of the influence of the presence of this gap on the welfare of society in general.
The NDP perceives that there are three solutions to the population problem: reining in population growth, improving population characteristics and balancing population demography. Most important of the foregone solutions is the issue of putting the engines of population growth astern. Success in retarding this growth opens the doors for improving the characteristics of the population and its demography.
Success in putting this population philosophy to effect contributes effectively to society's institutions performing their missions perfectly well.
This document aims to tackle Egypt's population problem from a social angle that means to execute the objectives of the National Population Plan.
International dimensions for development
The NDP perceives strong relations with the outer world to be a prerequisite for reaching the growth rates to which society aspires. Growing international competition makes it necessary for Egypt to sharpen the competitive edge of its national production units for them to be able to increase Egypt's share of international trade. Not less important is the need to make the best use of pivotal potentials like Egypt's geographic location, its human resources and investment attraction elements.
The Egypt and the World paper members of the eighth general conference voted for highlighted that Egypt's foreign policies are not separate from its internal policies. The paper also underlined the fact that Egypt can not live separately from what is going on outside its borders. At the same time, the paper referred to the importance of Egypt's foreign policies having an economic dimension to them. It pointed to the need to use Egypt's regional weight and good relations with all countries to serve the country's development goals.
This philosophy has been proven true specifically in the light of following developments:
  • - A rising tempo of globalization made the economies of all international players merge into each other; something the technological revolution that swept through the world enforced eliminating all borders and barriers between what was considered national and what was considered international. What happen outside national borders had a direct and strong influence on what lay within on a hitherto unprecedented level.
  • - An increasingly influential role of regional economic groupings: EU, North America and Asia, in addition to sub regional economic groupings in Asia, Africa and Latin America, demonstrated the benefits of economic integration like the distribution co-operative work on the regional level, expansion of markets, easy transfer of commodities and sharpening the competitive edge of the regional grouping against other economic powers in trade and investment attraction.

The NDP left no stone unturned to make clear the internal development-related importance of foreign policies. The foreign policy of a given country came to become a mere interpretation of this country's development aspirations.
Economic alterations and future policies
Egypt's economy underwent a set of alterations recently that meant to push the investment climate into galloping on the way of growth, production and exportation. Structural imbalances were being adjusted synchronously through creating more jobs openings and increasing citizens' incomes.
At the same time, some measures where taken to cushion the effect of some of these policies on the low-income brackets through upgrading subsidy and social solidarity systems to protect vulnerable social classes.
Improving the quality of Egyptian products and reducing their price for them to be up to the fierce international competition that espoused trade liberalization was one of the top priorities of the NDP's economic modernization program.
This particular point required an upgrade of economic policies for them to cope with international alterations. At the same time suitable legislation to regulate economic activities and contribute to their effectiveness was needed.
Without blowing things out of proportion or even underestimating the achievements that happened so far, the NDP believes that there are things which prop the realization of the aforementioned goals. Accordingly, this paper tackles economic developments and the influence of liberalization of the exchange rate on some economic sectors. Besides, some policy proposals and suggestions for improving Egyptian economic performance would be discussed here.
Moving toward a knowledge-based society Knowledge is the basic pillar of progress and the gateway to the level of advancement we aspire to. This knowledge influences all strides be they in the economic, political or social spheres. Historically, knowledge played a major role in the rise or fall of many nations and their present and future progresses.
Woman policies
The NDP knows for certain that there can be no comprehensive development in Egypt in the absence of an active role on the party of women. The NDP's norms have one whole article explaining the party's belief in the importance of the role women can play as they stand for half of society. The NDP spares no effort in spurring woman participate in public life adopting policies that empower women economically, socially and politically.
The NDP is aware of the differences that exist among women in terms of the educational standard of each of them as well as their age, where they belong and their professions. Hence the need for a comprehensive policy that does not come short of the aspirations of Egypt's women putting the previously mentioned differences into consideration.
The party also is easy in its mind that for it to empower women it needs the concerted efforts of all state and civil society institutions. That is why women policies in Egypt take on the shape of a partnership between the state and civil society institutions. In the light of the foregone vision, woman empowerment policies seek to achieve the following goals:
  • 1- Making women an intrinsic part of all the relevant public policies.
  • 2- Empowering women economically, socially and politically.
  • 3- Opening the door for more woman participation in public life.
  • 4- Eliminating all forms of violence against women.

The NDP adopted a set of policies during the last few years that aimed at empowering women in many fields. These policies included the establishment of the National Council for Women (NCW) and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM). The state slogs at bridging qualitative gaps to empower women economically, socially and politically for them to be an active partner in development through the previously mentioned councils.
Discrimination in appointing women as judges was eliminated by the Presidential Decree that appointed the first woman judge in January 2003. At the same time, the Egyptian Nationality Law has been amended to make children of Egyptian fathers and children of Egyptian mothers eligible for an Egyptian nationality without any discrimination.
A law establishing Family Courts was passed for the newly founded courts to resolve personal status conflicts quickly. Law No 11 for the year 2004 was passed to establish the Family Insurance Fund that secured alimony for Egyptian women to preserve the wellbeing of Egyptian families.
Gender was included in the five-year term plan 2002-2007 to ensure that women would be part and parcel of future five-year term plans contributing to the empowerment of women.
Major efforts have been made to empower women politically through the NCW. One of the steps that have been taken in this regard is the founding of a political training centre that grooms women for political participation. The centre also aims at preparing women to run in the parliamentary and municipal council elections by equipping them with necessary technical and managerial skills. The Ministry of the Interior works in tandem with civil society institutions to help women get voting cards and National Identification Numbers.
The NDP and its government present a number of policies that aim at achieving more woman empowerment in the following fields:
  • o First, policies for involving women more actively in small enterprises.
  • o Second, activating the role of civil society organizations in achieving more empowerment of women.
  • o Third, involving women more politically.
  • o Fourth, a media policy that aims at changing perceptions that affect women's position in society negatively.
  • o Fifth, towards a unified personal status law.
First, policies for involving women more actively in small enterprises
Women economic empowerment is an essential part of the NDP's idea about the empowerment of women in general. Women being involved in small enterprises is an important element of this economic empowerment. This is the way for solving the problem of women unemployment.
The NDP adopts a set of mechanisms that allow for more women involvement in small enterprises like the following:
A-The Social Development Fund
It is clear that women are the least beneficiaries of the loans the Social Find offers through the Small Enterprises Promotion Agency.
The statistics of the Social Fund and the Small Enterprises Promotion Agency show this fact clearly. Women beneficiaries from these loans accounted for 24.7 per cent only in the period between January 1st, 1992 to February 29th, 2004. They even accounted for 27.3 per cent of the enterprises the fund sponsored financially. This means that big efforts need to be made to make gender issues an essential part of the policies of the Fund through perking up Gender Unit to increase the chances women can find in the funding of small enterprises.
Source: the Social Fund for Development and the Small Enterprises Promotion Agency, April 2004.
b- The role the Ministry of Social Affairs can play through the Productive Families Program
'Productive Families' is a pioneering program that helps Egyptian women with small and minor enterprises in a way that contributes effectively to reducing women poverty improving their living standards let alone the role it plays in using the skills of women nationwide.
The number of families that benefited from the funding the program offers in the period between 1964, when the program was first launched, and 2003 reached 1.5 million families. The program offers services that range from training, offering material services like necessary equipment, not to mention the loans. The program also offers marketing and technical tips through the fairs it sponsors.
The 34000 Ministry of Social Affairs' affiliate training centers ring in more improving of skills. Knowing for certain that this is time these centers are subjected to a transfiguration themselves, the NDP stresses the need for making a strong link between the aforementioned enterprises and market needs. This means that accurate feasibility studies are needed in addition to better coordination among the various ministries and civil society institutions in determining the most needed enterprises. Of equal importance still is the need for framing a training plan and also upgrading the mechanisms through which beneficiaries are targeted let alone introducing flexible funding mechanisms.
C- Role of civil society organizations
In their proximity to targeted classes, civil society organizations are considered an important tool for supporting small and minor enterprises. These civil society organizations receive the funding they need from the Social Fund, ministries, banks and donor institutions. Civil society organizations achieved many important results in small and minor enterprise lending either in the form of individual loans to women or loans to women groups.
Despite this, the number of loans civil society organizations have given to women so far is still small. This makes the need for exerting more effort in targeting strata like women breadwinners, women who tend for handicapped individuals and technical education graduates more urgent.
The NDP has taken a set of measures to get civil society organizations more involved in empowering women in all fields that will be detailed later in this paper.
d- Role of the National Council for Women
The National Council for Women plays an important role in enlisting women in the field of small enterprises in the light of a clear strategy and a set of mechanisms like the following:
  • - The Business Enterprise center which trains women on small enterprise skills.
  • - Preparing a list of small enterprises that make the best use of women skills nationwide.
  • - Offering loans to women breadwinners in cooperation with the Ministry of Local Development.

The NDP and its government brook no delay in giving the necessary support for the National Council for women to put the foregone policies to effect. The NDP and its government are also committed to considering women an essential part of all development schemes.
Gender units are going to be established at all concerned ministries. Besides, the National Council for Women is going to play an important role in supervising plans aiming at making women a basic runner of small enterprises.
Second, perking up civil society organizations role in Egyptian women empowerment
Voluntary social work is an effective means for achieving more progress for society in its capacity as a real prop to the role the government plays. It is crystal clear that governments alone can not satisfy all the needs of their citizens. Neither can the governments solve all the problems society faces alone.
a- The NDP and its government seek to help civil society organizations in empowering women in the following fields:
  • - Boosting small enterprises and evaluating them in the light of the benefits they achieved for women.
  • - Treating women equally to men as far as economic activities are concerned especially in relation to funding chances and the benefits they can get from social funds.
  • - Finding new funding sources to cater for the financial requirements of boosting the role of women in development.
  • - Making necessary data and statistics available and training women to make them up to being part of the economic life in an unrelentingly changing world.
b- The role civil society organizations play in women empowerment in the field of education
  • - Coordinating the efforts of these organizations with those of official agencies in eliminating illiteracy of women and girls.
  • - Taking part in advising society against the dangers of girl school dropout and bringing women dropouts back to school.
  • - Equipping teachers with modern educational methods for them to respond effectively to the needs of girls.
  • - Showing the importance of eliminating stereotype portrayals of women in school textbooks.
  • - Forging more cooperation with government agencies to ensure that gender has already become an integral part of the training of teachers.
  • - Specifying special programs for students who have problems learning easily.
C- The role civil society organizations can play in empowering women in the field of health
  • - Making available medical services and mobile emergency services in particular so as to reduce women and children mortality rates.
  • - Taking part in upgrading first aid centers, which represent the first line of defence for the health of women.
  • - Launching continual awareness campaigns especially about practices that jeopardize the health of women like smoking and drug addiction.
  • - Cooperating with research institutes with the aim of making women health indicators and data about the health of women available.
  • - Giving care to ageing women and subjecting them to regular medical check-ups.
d- The role civil society organisations can play in women empowerment in the field of human rights
  • - Eliminating women's ignorance about the different laws through holding seminars and conferences on this subject.
  • - Bolstering the work of local organisations that work in the field of combating violence against women nationwide and establishing more new ones.
  • - Forming lobby groups to press for eliminating all forms of discrimination in legislation with a view to bringing those who violate the rights of women to account.
  • - Launching programs and taking measures that aim at spreading awareness about the dangers of violence against women.
  • - Rehabilitating victims of violence and presenting them with medical, psychological and legal services. Not less important are the needs to help them find income sources and integrate them in society.
e- The role civil society organisations can play in women empowerment in the field of media
  • - Taking part in media initiatives that aim at boosting the rights of women.
  • - Inviting the attention of media to the importance of bolstering familial and social bonds and also highlighting the positive role women play in development.
  • - Taking part in creating media women cadres and helping them to take part in shaping media policies.
f- The role civil societies can play in women empowerment in the field of children and girls' care
  • - Drawing up new strategies with a view to eliminating all forms of discrimination against girls inside upbringing institutions and changing the stereotype images about women in school textbooks.
  • - Preventing the exploitation of children in labour and putting international agreements in this regard to effect.
  • - Launching media campaigns to spread awareness about the perils inherent in wrong practices like girl early marriage, female genital mutilation and upbringing that contains discrimination against girls.
  • - Spreading awareness in rural areas about the importance of women social participation.
g- The role civil societies can play in women political empowerment
  • - Inviting women to involve in the activities of these civil societies and even encourage them to be in leading positions.
  • - Preparing second and third lines of women leaders so that first line leaders be they women or men do not manipulate decision-making totally.
  • - Attracting natural leaders from local communities.
  • - Developing women leadership skills

The NDP's and its government's strategy for bolstering the role civil societies can play to empower women
The NDP and its government adopt the following policies to foster the role of civil societies in women empowerment:
  • - Applying a comprehensive strategy to bolster the role of civil societies in women empowerment with a view to bringing about comprehensive development.
  • - Encouraging woman participation in the work of civil societies particularly on the leadership level.
  • - Providing necessary funding for civil society activities through local and international donor institutions that have an interest in women affairs and development.
  • - Getting civil societies that work in the field of women empowerment together for them to exchange expertise and sketch out joint strategies to put their plans to effect.
  • - Encouraging civil societies to prepare women leaders and spur them to take part in social, political, economic and cultural activities of society.
  • - Coordinating the work of the General Federation of Civil Societies and the branches of the National Council for Women in the various governorate to encourage women participation in the modernization of society.
  • - Preparing a list of the civil societies working in Egypt with the aim of establishing a database. At the same time, the Woman Committee at the General Federation of Civil Societies would supervise the implementation of women empowerment strategies in cooperation with the National Council for Women.
  • - Forging a stronger relationship between the General Federation of Civil Societies and other local federations and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood.
  • - Making a link between the General Federation of Civil Societies and the committees at the various political parties.
  • - Making available the necessary funding through national and international institutions to conduct a national study about the economic, medical, social and educational conditions of women and girls. This study is due to set the guiding lines for any future women policies.
Getting women to be more politically involved
The NDP knows for certain that an expansion of the circle of citizens' participation is a prerequisite for progress. It also believes that encouraging women's political participation is an inseparable part of the comprehensive reform policy it tries to implement together with the government.
A number of successes have been achieved in the field of women political rights like treating women equally with men when giving their children the Egyptian nationality, shaping the Family Law, appointing judges to supervise the last Shura Council elections, increasing women representation in the Shura Council and increasing the number of women registered in the election lists.
Women political participation policies
Though there are achievements in the field of political participation yet the NDP is of the view that there are obstacles that hinder an effective woman political involvement. Therefore, the NDP and its government adopt a number of policies that aim to erase these obstacles including:
  • - Completing data in voter rolls to finalize them.
  • - Presenting necessary legislative amendments so as to put an end to election violence that scares women away from going to the ballots to cast their votes.
  • - Taking the necessary measures to put a limit to election campaign spending.
  • - Seeking the best election systems so as to boost the role of women and also secure an increased woman representative in parliament.
Fourth, a media strategy targeting perceptions and values, which have negative impacts on the status of women and the development of society
No doubt, some media efforts have led to an increased attention being given to women issues. Media has even started to discuss some women issues that remained untouched for a long period of time.
The NDP pins its faith on the importance of enhancing these efforts through a comprehensive policy that aims to change the perceptions that influence the status of women negatively.
This media policy includes the following elements:
A- Advancing media vision as far as women issues are concerned through the following:
  • - Reordering the priorities relating to women in the light of a clear set of easy to evaluate goals that would be translated into media programs later on.
  • - Forging more coordination among different media with the aim of determining definite media policies relating to women and the issues of gender.
  • - Creating a mechanism through which media representatives would grapple to decide on a media policy regarding women with representatives from the Ministries of Education, Culture, Health and al-Azhar.
b- Improving on media discourse to change the culture of society in relation to women, end discrimination on basis of the species and provide women with equal opportunities in society through the following steps:
  • - Sharpening the skills of media through serious training programs.
  • - Selecting qualified media who are enthusiastic about making this change.
  • - Selecting sources and guests on whom media depends carefully.
  • - Creating a mechanism that allows for the exploitation of the results of scientific researches that take place in universities and research centers with the aim of upgrading media discourse.
  • - Giving more attention to the way children are presented through children's programs.
c- Giving special attention to TV drama through the following steps
  • - Asking scriptwriters to reach a consensus about the issues of gender.
  • - Making a scientific revision of the data and values dramatic works contain in a way that does not strangle writers' innovative faculties.
d- Understanding the targeted classes putting their demands into account in planning through the following steps:
  • - Choosing artistic works that are most attractive to viewers.
  • - Rearranging the schedule of the programs in a way that gives viewers the chance to view or listen to the programs at the most appropriate time.
  • - Giving more attention to local media [local radio, local channels and local media centers] for each of them to have its peculiarity in addressing the different issues.
  • - Giving more attention to exploring the real conditions of women depending on field research in villages and suburbs and shanty areas.
e- Intensive media campaigns
  • - Each of the campaigns must have specific easy-to-evaluate objectives.
  • - All media and communication channels must join hands in carrying out these media campaigns. f- Continual evaluation
  • - Founding media watches whose reports would be published and made known to the public and media. A mention of the National Council for Women initiative for establishing a media watch and also the move by the Supreme Press Council to found a media watch is due here.
  • - Ensuring that media are committed to professional codes of ethics and urging the Syndicate of Journalists to bring transgressors as far as women issues are related to account.
Fifth, towards a unified personal status law
No doubt, there have been some legislative reforms that contributed to improving the standing of women and families in society including the following:
  • - Law No1 for the year 2001, which organizes personal status issues legal proceedings. The law represents a shift towards modernizing legal proceedings in personal status conflicts reducing their cost.
  • Apart from facilitating legal proceedings, the law gives Orfi-married women the right to get divorce and even get a khula divorce.
  • - The Family Court Law No10 for the year 2004, which has been put into action on October 1. This law makes for an easy personal status conflicts resolution and also the execution of court rulings.
  • - Law No11 for the year 2004, which stipulates the establishment of a family insurance fund. The fund secures the execution of alimony-related court rulings in a way that guarantees a modest living for families.
  • - Amendments to the Nationality Law for the year 2004, which treated men and women equally as far as the nationality of their children is concerned.

Holding to be true that these laws represent a step forward on the way of facilitating legal procedures, the NDP does not think they can be effective without a unification of the textual laws relating to personal status cases. This is the way for the integration of both sides of the personal status legislation: the textual and the one relating to the proceedings.
The need for a legal framework for the personal status textual rulings owes to the fact that the legal texts that deal with personal status issues have remained scattered over a number of laws. Personal status textual rules, for example, are regulated by law No25 for the year 1920 and law No25 for year 1929.
The first amendment of the textual rules relating to personal status issues happened when law No 100 for the year 1985 came into existence to amend law No25 for the year 1920 and law No25 for year 1929.
Fifteen years later the second step was taken with the creation of law No1 for the year 2000 which organizes legal proceedings relating to personal status issues. The law has reduced the articles that deal with personal status issues to 80 instead of 400 articles that were scattered over other 15 laws. The law also deals with both men and women equally without the least regard to their religion.
That the too many laws relating to personal status issues have led to a complicated situation, makes for an urgent need for the unification of all these laws under what can be called the Family Law. This law should also include law No25 for the year 1920, law No25 for year 1929 and law No 100 for the year 1985 with a view to presenting modern solutions to family problems.
The NDP underlines the need that the new law should be a comprehensive one that contains all the textual rulings that regulate rights and duties within the framework of family relations. This would of course help the judiciary find a way to resolve conflicts that do not have a specific law regulating or dealing with them.
Accordingly, the NDP and its government pledge to start shaping proposals about the unified family law by initiating an intensive dialogue with concerned civil society leaders. All this would be done with the aim of advancing the legal framework regulating the issues of Egyptian families.