Egypt

A specialized Fiscal Transparency & Citizen Engagement Unit Reporting directly to the Minister, established by Ministerial Decree No. 574 by the end of the year 2018. The unit is responsible for the Participatory Budgeting implementation through its functions that includes enhancing community engagement and participatory planning, besides establishing local and international partnerships and a network that reached 40 NGOs in different governorates. At the same time, the Unit published 7 reports on the Budget Cycle and macroeconomic trends, thus contributing to increase the availability of information and facilitate public participation. The new “public planning” law has been approved by the cabinet at the national level where the new articles aim at encouraging innovation and enhancing the participation and joint cooperation of all effective stakeholders including ordinary citizens in national planning and development and within the framework of the state’s general policy for a better quality of life, social justice and improved service delivery.

It is important to note that PB is still in the mobilization phase in Egypt, yet among its early innovations are:

1. Building an Egyptian model of PB that benefits from the diffusion of PB best practices but located in Egypt and is a hybrid model between the “Multi-stakeholder Participation Model” & the “Proximity Democracy Model”;
2. Establishing a “co-decisional” model of PB (where citizens can rank the projects’ proposals presented, contributing to a hierarchical list of priorities for investments). This decisionmaking process is seen as a tool for maximizing the innovation and participation of citizens in local government’s decisions;
3. Appointment of ambassadors/multipliers who can transfer the PB knowledge from the Alexandria pilot experience to other governorates;
4. Adopting a bottom-up approach while training government executives on PB best practices and protocols for an effective implementation;
5. Recognizing and empowering civil society and popular institutions such as universities so that they can become a key stakeholder in the initiative;
6. Diversity of mobilization in order to give voice to citizens from all sectors of the society in their city’s planning and development processes;
7. Designing the pilot initiative for future scaling and deliberation.

Among the countries that have influenced the creation of an Egyptian model of Participatory Budgeting are Portugal and Brazil. Their success stories were presented and discussed during the introductory training attended by government officials in February 2020.

The current PB initiative in the governorate of Alexandria is a pilot that will serve as a multiplier initiative that shall be the reference for similar initiatives in other governorates. We are planning to start PB in Fayoum based on the experience acquired from the Alexandria initiative.

1. PB have been suspended: 0%
2. PB continued to function normally: 50%
3. PB have undergone changes/adaptations: 25%

All stakeholders of the PB initiative in Alexandria adopted online tools for virtual meetings and seminars in order to continue to work on the mobilization phase, in a manner that responds to the potential risks of the pandemic.

The Egyptian model of PB aims at involving citizens in the sustainable development plan and participatory budgeting. The PB initiative in the governorate of Alexandria has a variety of stakeholders that include not only ministries but also active CSOs, parliament members and universities. Additionally, the initiative has received support from many success partners such as USAID, UN Women, World Bank, UNICEF, UN Habitat and Care Egypt. The implementation of the initiative is aligned with “Egypt Vision 2030” in its principles regarding improving transparency and enhancing the quality of life for citizens.

The plan of the Ministry of Finance to implement PB over the next three years includes the strengthening of knowledge about these processes and the gradual establishment of a network that involves different actors such as civil society organisations, governorate representatives, ministries, parliament and some local authorities.

The Ministry of Finance has started the process of designing the “Egyptian model” of Participatory Budgeting through:

1. Creating a large network of 40 NGOs;
2. Organizing two workshops in order to introduce the principles and techniques of PB implementation to government and non-government participants;
3. Holding regular coordination meetings with the municipalities’ officials in order to proceed with the upcoming steps and launch on-ground activities;
4. Planning a ToT (Training of Trainers) model - which is based on the involvement of trainers in the training of new members - for the PB ambassadors to ensure the effective implementation of the PB roadmap.