Women in Democratic Transition in Egypt

While the project’s media component was successful judged on its own terms, it was something of an add-on to the overall project strategy. Media training and outreach could have been mainstreamed into the other elements of the project – policy advocacy or second capacity building, or treated as an entirely separate project.

Using credible data and statistics, the project made a tangible and significant contribution to advancing women’s democratic rights. The grantee was a leading force in lobbying for constitutional measures to ensure women’s representation – unsuccessful in the case of parliament but successful in the case of local councils. It also took the lead in successfully advocating for the institution of female quotas on political lists for the 2015 parliamentary elections and the adoption of a political parties’ Code of Ethics (formulated by the project, based on a situation analysis and consultations with 20-30 political parties) regarding women’s democratic participation.

Thanks to the grantee’s dense network and strong capacity of local NGOs this project was able to effectively implement activities in rural areas, even in traditional and remote regions. By reducing travel costs and enhancing the participation of women at grass-roots level, this contributed to positive findings related to effectiveness, efficiency, and ultimately impact and sustainability.

A key success behind the project was the grantee’s dense network of local NGOs outside the capital. Over the years, the grantee has selected individuals from these NGOs and trained them, after which they have returned to their homes to serve as trainers and advocates. Through its in-house training manager, the grantee ensured that curricula were fit for the purpose, the audience, and the location, leading to more women standing as representatives. Consequently, an impressive number of activities were implemented at a high level of quality.