The National Dialogue began a new agenda of debates this week. On Sunday, the Political Committee discussed two laws regulating non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local councils, and ways to build partnerships with the international scientific community. On Tuesday, the economic committee discussed reforms to public finances, including the budget, state spending, and ways to increase state revenues.

Secretary-General Mahmoud Fawzi said the first three weeks of dialogue sessions had been “fruitful”.

Since the opening session on 3 May, the dialogue has been able to create common ground among participants on a wide range of political, economic, and social issues, said Fawzi, and participants have agreed on a raft of laws that need to be either amended or passed.

“We need new laws on local councils, parliamentary elections, freedom of information and political parties, and to establish a commission to combat all forms of discrimination,” he said.

Consensus emerged among participants on the importance of maintaining social safety programmes to mitigate the impact of soaring inflation, accelerating the privatisation programme by completing the implementation of the State Ownership Policy Document, supporting agricultural activities and developing new strategies to support tourism. There was also overwhelming support for changes to the law regulating the guardianship of children in the event of the father’s death, with experts from the National Council for Human Rights agreeing that financial guardianship be transferred to the mother within 48 hours.

While attending a national youth conference in Alexandria on 14 June, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said the National Dialogue was setting a new agenda for legislative reform. So extensive was the agenda it will be impossible to implement overnight, though Al-Sisi vowed to do what the dialogue recommended “as long as it is within my constitutional powers.”

Alieddin Hilal, general rapporteur of the dialogue’s political committee, said the president’s comments had underlined how important it was that the recommendations passed at the end of each week be straightforward and realistic. Recommendations must reflect facts on the ground and security and political dimensions into account, he said.

On Sunday, the dialogue’s civil society and syndicates’ committee agreed a set of recommendations on the 2019 NGO law and its executive regulations. A majority believe the law needs to change to reduce the financial and tax burdens NGOs face, said MP Talaat Abdel-Qawi, head of the General Union of NGOs.

Hoda Badran, head of the Egyptian Women’s Union, argued that the law should be changed to extend the role of NGOs. Currently, she said, NGOs in Egypt act like charity organisations. This needs to change to enable them to become involved in more productive service activities, particularly in the fields of health and education.

Participants in the dialogue’s Political Committee recommended that a new local councils’ law be passed as soon as possible. Head of the committee Hilal said a new law is needed, in line with Egypt’s 2014 constitution, so local councils can be elected and take charge of supervising the performance of provincial governors and executive local councils.

“We need a realistic and practical law that can be implemented on the ground and take security and political considerations into account,” he said, noting that the Supreme Administrative Court invalidated the election of local councils in 2011 and though parliament began discussing a new law in 2019, it had been effectively shelved.

Essam Hilal, assistant secretary-general of the pro-government Mostaqbal Watan Party, said any new local council law must conform with Article 180 of the constitution which states that citizens elect local councils in a direct and secret ballot for a term of four years, that a quarter of seats be reserved for people under 35, a quarter for women, and 50 per cent of local council members be representatives of workers and farmers.

“The best way to meet Article 180’s stipulations and create consensus over a new local council law is to adopt a closed list system,” said Hilal. He recommended that there be a balance of power between elected councils and the municipal executive.

“We can’t give sweeping supervisory powers to elected councils as this might weaken the performance of executive councils and render them ineffective, and we need to ensure their budgets are separate to prevent misuse of funds,” he argued.

Participants in the National Dialogue’s Human Rights Committee called for greater independence for Egyptian universities in terms of electing their presidents and raising funds for scientific research.

“We have a constitution that states universities be independent and the way to do this is to ensure their presidents are elected rather than appointed,” said professor Mustafa Al-Sayed.

Mohamed Fayez Farahat, chairman of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said budgetary allocations for scientific and academic research fall short of what is needed.

“Scientific centres and political think tanks are intrinsic to Egypt’s soft power and need to be adequately funded so they can play a central role in modernising production systems, improving living conditions and building partnerships with the international scientific community,” he said.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 22 June, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly