Integrated Social Policy in Egypt, why and what’s the purpose? Is there a difference between social policy and social services? Will the absence of social policy lead to a vacuum? Who will fill this vacuum? Irresponsible factions or extremists?
The “National Conference on Integrated Social Policy in Egypt” will tackle these questions and other topics. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) and the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity are holding the Conference under the patronage of First Lady Susan Mubarak on 7 and 8 February 2007 at the Pyramisa Cairo Hotel.
Participants will include representatives from various ministries and other state institutions concerned with social and economic affairs, universities, research and training centers, civil society organizations, other organizations concerned with development issues, experts and the media.
An Opportunity to Formulate Integrated Social Policy
Set to open at 9:30am on Wednesday 7 February, the Conference will seek to present examples for formulating integrated social policies based on a number of successful experiences that succeeded in several countries with different development circumstances. It also aims to qualify the case of Egypt and identify which facilitating and constraining factors need to be discussed and organized so as to ensure equal opportunity, provide basic social services to all citizens equally, and compare the successful experiences of Canada, Malaysia, Tunisia Norway, and Korea with those of Egypt in order to recognize factors assisting in the formulation of integrated social policies. All this will help formulate social policy and programs such as social security, education policies, health services and employment, which can be adopted by the government at a later date.
The Conference will give participants an opportunity to formulate a general vision of integrated social policy that is in line with the status quo in Egypt and with society’s capacities and expectations. This way, general tendencies and priorities can be identified in order to assign specific roles to the various stakeholders, including civil society and UN agencies concerned with development.
Topics for Discussion and Two Working Groups
During the Conference, participants will discuss success factors in global experiences related to integrating social policies with comprehensive development; the result of experiences from the Arab world; the state of social policies within comprehensive development in Egypt; and formulating and making policies in light of global experiences. The Conference will comprise two work groups.. The Conference will break into two working groups on the second day. The first working group will identify the positive and negative aspects of the social policy currently in force, focusing on: the mechanisms being used to formulate, draft and implement social policy in Egypt; the social policy evaluation process; and the process of coordinating between institutions and concerned ministries to come out with suggestions and recommendations. For its part, the second working group will discuss the state of services and how justly distributed they are; as well as the issues related to social harmonization and marginalization, and how Egyptian social policy can meet the needs of all segments of society. A protocol of cooperation on social policies is due to be signed between UN-ESCWA and the Ministry of Social Solidarity at the end of the Conference.
The Conference attaches great importance to the support that media institutions give the issue of social development. It is necessary to involve the media not only in highlighting social policy issues but also in advocacy for the formulation of policy and its application. A media strategy is also needed in this regard.
The United Nations Information Centre in Beirut will be issuing press releases to the Egyptian and Arab media ahead of the Conference to highlight its objectives as well as the ongoing cooperation between UN-ESCWA and the Ministry of Social Solidarity to establish an integrated social policy in Egypt.
More information can be found at this link http://www.escwa.org.lb/sp-egypt or by contacting:
Mr. Bahaa El Koussy
Director
United Nations Information Centre, Beirut
Mobile: +961-70-118 990
Email: elkoussy@un.org
Mr. Maher Nasser
Director
United Nations Information Centre, Cairo
Tel: +202-790 0022
Email: mnasser@unic-eg.org
Mr. Nabil Abu-Dargham
Information Officer
United Nations Information Centre, Beirut
Mobile: +961-3-428 438
Email: dargham@un.org
Ms. Magda Khorshid
National Information Officer
United Nations Information Centre, Cairo
Tel: +202-790 0022
Email: mk@unic-eg.org
Ms. Margo Helou
Information Assistant
UN-ESCWA
Mobile: +961-3-346 181
Email: helou@un.org