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Gaining Ground
February 22, 2010
Egypt Today
Though problems persist, NGOs are starting to make headway
By Jessica Gray and John Prosser
Before the Alwan wa Awtar (Colors and Strings) center opened in 2006, nine-year-old Hoda Moustafa had never held a crayon. Like most of her peers living in the shanty towns around the Moqattam Hills, Moustafa grew up in by abject poverty. Her parents, unable to afford basic school supplies, did the best they could to provide for her but were more concerned with where their next meal would come from than teaching their children to sing or draw. All that changed the day she was taken under the wing of Alwan wa Awtar founder Azza Kamel.
“Moustafa was a very shy and insecure child. Most of the children that come in are the same. They’re not used to speaking or thinking for themselves,” says Kamel. She remembers Moustafa’s fear of her first drawing lesson. “She kept saying, ‘I don’t know how to draw. I’m hopeless!’” Undaunted, staff continued to encourage Moustafa, refusing to allow the girl’s self-doubt to prevent her from reaching her potential.
Four years later, Moustafa, now 14, has become a role model in her community. She joined a choir, has been featured in television interviews about the center and even placed second in a national peace poster contest.
For Kamel, there is no greater reward than seeing these children conquer their fears and express themselves through art and performance. The center, which began with just 30 students, now caters to over 4,000 and employs over 40 staff members, volunteers and teachers dedicated to giving children a safe haven to escape the streets.
Alwan wa Awtar is just one of thousands of grassroots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) nationwide that have flourished in recent years. Born out of a public desire to improve peoples’ lives — from basic education, health and social services to poverty alleviation efforts, infrastructure development and environmental awareness — community development leaders say reduced bureaucracy and a steady supply of willing volunteers have given them a fertile environment in which to grow and prosper.
But it doesn’t stop there. The trend toward greater civil engagement has extended to big business through corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and domestic involvement from international NGOs, establishing a new environment for public-private partnerships and innovation. While there are still concerns about Egypt’s seemingly insurmountable poverty rates and government reluctance to embrace change, social entrepreneurs aren’t prepared to let the challenges ahead keep them from making a difference.
Cutting Through Red Tape
Ministry of Social Solidarity figures show that the number of NGOs has risen substantially in recent years, from 15,000 in 1999 to over 27,000 as of 2008. Current estimates put that number at around 28,000. The ministry attributes the jump to Law 84/2002, which standardized registration procedures and revamped the rules and regulations governing NGOs. The law also exempted NGOs from certain fees and taxes, freeing up cash that could be better used to serve people in need. The government has also allotted LE 100 million in additional funds that NGOs can apply for through the NGOs Assistance Fund.
Wael El-Zoghby, executive director of the Baladna (Our Country) Foundation for Civil Society Development, says the 2002 law was instrumental to the growth of development organizations like his own. Baladna has trained more than 100 social entrepreneurs since it began operations in 2008. Currently finishing coursework in NGO management at Cairo University, El-Zoghby says his organization would never have gotten off the ground under the old law issued under former President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
“Law 84/2002 was implemented around 40 years after its predecessor. [] The [previous] law did not promote civil society or NGO work,” says El-Zoghby. “It let the government control everything and appoint each NGO’s board of trustees.”
Motaz Mahmoud Elewa is the community programs coordinator of Ofok Systems, an NGO providing information technology-based training to help individuals find employment and develop professionally. He agrees that government reins on NGOs have been loosened.
“In the last 10 years no NGO in Egypt could do anything without the government knowing exactly what it was,” says Elewa. “There’s no pressure anymore. ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that?’ There’s more flexibility. Not because they don’t care but because they [recognize] NGOs are doing something positive.”
The ministry intends to further streamline the process and has created a committee supervised by the General Federation of NGOs and Civil Organizations, but the committee has yet to make any recommendations.
Dr. Adli Bishay, executive director and co-founder of the Friends of Environment and Development Association, says there is still too much red tape for NGOs that receive funding from international donors like the Egyptian Swiss Development Fund. In 2009, only 312 NGOs were allowed to accept international donations. His organization depends on funds from several global groups and would be unable to continue to support infrastructure development projects in Gamalia without access to that money.
“Once you get support, most of which comes from different international organizations, then you find another problem. The Ministry of Social Solidarity [examines] every small amount of support you get, in the name of security,” he says. “Every program that is foreign supported has to go through a number of security agencies before you get to use any of the money.”
He adds that the lengthy wait for funding approval can strain relationships with donors. Despite that, he admits that running an NGO is much easier than when he started in 1992.
Bishay says the constant requirement of documents and approvals at every stage before, during and after construction, was one of the main reasons that three buildings his organization built or renovated in Gamalia were finished years behind schedule. The most recent project, the establishment of an electrical and maintenance training center, officially opened at the beginning of 2008, long after Friends of Environment and Development Association had hoped it would.
Overlapping Enthusiasm
Despite some of the issues still facing NGOs, there is no shortage of willing volunteers looking to get involved — be they fresh university graduates or captains of industry. Many pioneers behind grassroots movements are young graduates, according to Ofok’s Elewa, but NGOs increasingly resemble big businesses in the way they are run.
“In the very beginning, civil society began by charity. People took care of each other [ by] making donations to each other,” says Elewa. “But this developed [and people began] to take this kind of charity to a bigger scale.”
A typical example is the Egyptian Food Bank (EFB), founded by a group of successful businessmen — with backgrounds as diverse as real estate and textiles — with the goal of utilizing their combined experience and connections to give something back to the community.
“God gave us a lot,” says Moez El Shohdi, CEO of the EFB, “and we thought we have to return some of that to the community — poor people especially.” He points out that this mentality is not necessarily limited to the wealthy, but manifests in anyone who wants to see an improvement in their surroundings. “It’s very easy [to find volunteers,]” says Shohdi, “but it’s a recent trend.”
Such eagerness to get involved with NGOs, however, needs to be better focused to avoid redundancy of organizations, says Iman Bibars, Ashoka Arab World’s MENA regional director. Instead of simply starting a new charity or development organization, people interested in civic duty should first see if there are any established groups that have similar programs in place.
“Some people have so much distrust of NGOs that they start their own, reinventing the wheel. This means they are competing with traditional NGOs. Very few business people from the private sector get involved in established NGOs,” she says.
Ashoka encourages this attitude by allowing established social entrepreneurs to access endowments worth LE 250,000 over the course of two years. The money is provided by private businesses and donors. Ashoka has so far awarded more than 50 such grants to Arab social entrepreneurs, many of them hailing from Egypt.
The future for NGOs in Egypt depends on a large number of factors, according to Ashoka’s Bibars, such as the political and economic stability of the region and how quickly donor money returns in the wake of the global economic slowdown.
There is also the question of how effective the majority of the country’s 27,000-plus NGOs are. That said, nobody can deny there are thousands of NGOs genuinely changing the lives of Egypt’s poorest citizens.
An attentive student and community activist in her own right, young Hoda Moustafa now wants to be a medical doctor; a dream she never would have pursued without the guidance of Kamel and her team at Alwan wa Awtar. Though Kamel has her doubts as to whether the government has made enough of an effort to promote social entrepreneurship here, she believes community leaders can still have a long-lasting effect on younger generations.
“Once youth actually get working with their communities they become really passionate about it,” she says. “We work with a lot of youth. I see a trend in that youth are leaving the private sector and high paid positions to work in development.” et
Egyptian Food Bank
F ormed four years ago by a group of successful businessman, the Egyptian Food Bank (EFB) has set itself the lofty aim of eradicating hunger in Egypt. Funded by commercial sponsors and private donations, the organization distributes food to underprivileged citizens — orphans, widows, the elderly and those unable to work — through 891 partner NGOs spread throughout the country.
A distinguishing feature of the EFB is its business-minded approach to non-profit work. Although it accepts all kinds of donations, the organization insists on funding any promotional campaigns itself and produces branded food products and distribution containers at its own factories operated at a profit — all benefits get put to good use elsewhere.
The breadth of experience garnered by EFB board members gives them diverse contacts through which innovative collaborations with the private sector can be established. Just one example: The EFB provides more than 17 million meals per month by redistributing leftover food from hotels and resorts — a scheme championed by the EFB CEO Moez El Shohdi, a former hotelier.
Friends of Environment and Development Association
Friends of Environment and Development Association was established in 1992 to bring attention to the importance of environmental issues and extreme poverty in Egypt. The association began its work by spending two years researching these issues, only to find that few cared when the paper was published and distributed. Undaunted, the association’s members decided to take matters into their own hands and rebuild and/or renovate three buildings in the Gamalia district of Cairo, one of the city’s poorest areas, best-known as the neighborhood of Naguib Mahfouz’s youth. The final building of the project, which houses a training center for electricians and appliance mechanics, was completed in 2008. The association operates thanks to international donors.
Alwan wa Awtar
A lwan wa Awtar began connecting impoverished children in Moqattam with art in February 2006. Starting with just 30 students, the center now serves over 4,000. The aim is to develop soft skills through performance art, music and drawing. The center also promotes education and has a community library. The goal for Alwan wa Awtar is getting youth off the streets and into an environment where they are free to express themselves and grow without fear of being discriminated against because of their poverty. Azza Kamel, the center’s founder, hopes to expand on the center’s course offerings with the help of over 40 staff members, volunteers and teachers with whom she collaborates.
Ashoka
A shoka is a global organization dedicated to supporting social entrepreneurship through endowments. The group’s regional office opened in Cairo in 2004. Since then, Ashoka Arab World has welcomed over 50 Ashoka Fellows, many of whom are from Egypt. Some of last year’s fellows include Azza Kamel from Alwan wa Awtar and Mohamed Sawy of the Sawy Culture Wheel. Ashoka also hosts social entrepreneurship conferences and has initiated several programs of its own to support the community at large, such as the Housing for All program, dedicated to providing affordable housing for low-income families, and the Ashoka Youth Venture to encourage young people to get involved in social entrepreneurship.
Ofok
O fok is a community-focused NGO helping individuals develop skills for the workplace through training in a range of information technology skills. Classes held at their offices in Mohandiseen also offer students business advice so they can optimize their career efforts, either by setting up their own enterprises or through partnership schemes with global IT firms such as Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft.