Egypt
Until the arrival of the Arab Spring, it seemed as if the Arab
World was the only region not affected by the ‘Third Wave' of democracy which
spread in the last quarter of the 20th century.
The optimism about the expansion of democracy
during the 80s and 90s was replaced by pessimism at the start of the millennium.
Due to the rapid economic development of China and the return to autocratic
rule in Russia and elsewhere, analysts started to talk about a ‘backlash
against democracy'.
The fact that the Third Wave did not affect the Arab World has led many commentators to believe that democracy and the region were somehow incompatible. This belief has been rather dubious all along. It is similar to the argument that poor people are not ready for democracy and have to wait until economic development has caught up sufficiently. However, in today's world people demand that their voice be heard. Modern communication technology is having a decisive impact on the desire of people to live in free and open societies. Universal rights are not abstract ideas; they are universal indeed and people everywhere want them to be realized in practice. People in the Arab world have expressed this in daily mass demonstrations held over the past year.
The developments in the Arab world should be a wake-up call for policy makers and opinion leaders in the West. Stability, peace and prosperity are not achieved by supporting regimes that oppress their people, but can only be achieved through well-functioning democratic states.
Egypt has already changed rapidly in the past months and will continue to do so in the years to come. Guaranteeing the freedom of the press, the respect of democratic values and strengthening relations between the press and civil society are key challenges that will need to be addressed in the coming years.
EPD Projects in Egypt:
EPD is working in Egypt under the Press Freedom
2.0 Alliance financed through a grant by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. The projects under this grant link media, grass roots communities
and democracy support CSOs, aiming to have an impact on three different result
areas (within the overall result area Civil Society Strengthening) i.e. good
governance; capacity building of CSOs and international advocacy.
Based on a needs evaluation process, since 2011,
EPD together with local partners has developed four projects:
MULTI-STAKEHOLDER DIALOGUE INITIATIVES
CAPACITY BUILDING OF DEMOCRACY ORGANISATIONS