As the Egyptian population approaches 102 million (August 2021), it is worth revisiting the remarkable achievements made between 2016 and 2019 towards slowing the population growth from 2.62% to 1.79% and decreasing the fertility rate from 3.4 to 2.9; according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) and the Egypt 2021 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) report. Starting in February 2016, Egypt has shown a steadfast commitment to population growth and development on the global and regional level, as well as to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Agenda 2063, by launching its Sustainable Development strategy titled Egypt Vision 2030 (SDS). The inclusion of various representatives from public, private, civil society and academic sectors demonstrates the potential for strengthening public-private partnerships. However, the participatory role of the aforementioned stakeholders did not include designing clear monitoring and accountability pathways. This responsibility went to the Prime Ministers&rsquo; office, which managed a newly formulated National Committee for Monitoring the Implementation of the SDGs. Additionally, significant data remains unpublished by this committee at the time of writing.&nbsp;
To bring the Egypt Vision 2030 (SDS) into action, the Egyptian parliament finalised a draft law for the National Council for Population and Development. It is entrusted with developing strategies and mechanisms for confrontation. While working on this draft, the Chairman of the Social Solidarity, the Family and Persons with Disabilities Committee of the parliament, came up with a proposal to transfer the Council&rsquo;s affiliation from the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) to the Presidency of the Republic (Reyaset AlJumhuria). This was justified by how population growth is a national intersectoral issue rather than a matter of family planning, contraception, and reproductive health.&nbsp;
This proposal was approved in order for the council to easily grant the needed coordination between all the different ministries and government agencies. Moreover, presidential speeches and statements through media platforms and international events convey the same message: the linkage between population growth and development, emphasizing the accountable role of the Egyptian population towards their growth and the impact on the development of the country. In contrast, people have no clear path to hold the authorities accountable for any action.&nbsp;
<h3>The reform of Egypt&rsquo;s National Council for Population and Development</h3>
The draft law seeks to restructure the Council, and declares it as an independent national council. This means it will revoke all prior governing laws, regulations and ministerial declarations, as well as dissolve the current National Population Council formed by Presidential Decree No. 19 of 1985 and its amendments. As a result, all rights and obligations devolve upon it while employees are transferred with the same functional and financial conditions. In this sense, all activities, projects and competencies of the Council will be technically, financially and legally independent, providing the council with more rights and freedom in the decision-making process.&nbsp;
According to the draft law (similarly to the old form), the restructured council is formed of a president and 19 members, including experts on subject matters, public figures and individuals of significant interest and background in population and development affairs. They will be nominated by the concerned authorities and bodies such as the House of Representatives and the Senate, the MoHP and national councils, the Supreme Council of Universities and civil society organizations. The term of membership is five years (subject to renewal) and no member may be appointed for more than two consecutive terms, nor may the Speaker of the Council or any member of the government, the House of Representatives, or the Senate, or whoever occupies the position of governor. It remains unclear how meaningful youth participation or gender-balanced representation in this council could be ensured.&nbsp;
<h3>Adopting a participatory monitoring and accountability framework: Why now?</h3>
Looking back at the history of the National Council for Population and Development, reveals an entity with an undoubtedly unstable track: from the council switching its affiliation between various governmental bodies, to ill-defined transparency mechanisms and missing data resulting in difficult monitoring, evaluation, and accountability. This left behind huge data and knowledge gaps for anyone concerned with the population and development issues. Therefore, drafting a new law for the council that equips it with more structural power is the ideal point from which to adopt a transparent and participatory monitoring and accountability framework, as well as reflect on past lessons learnt.&nbsp;
Moreover, parliamentarians have repeatedly emphasized the necessity of conducting a population survey because the last Egypt Demographic and Health survey (EDHS) took place in 2014. Thus, it is expected that the newly reformed council will release a new Demographic and Health survey, illustrating the most updated data about the population characteristics and changes over the past years.&nbsp;
<h3>Ensuring efficacy of the new law and functionality of the newly reformed Council</h3>
The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) of Sussex University in the UK has been testing the participatory monitoring and accountability model in various countries, including Egypt. The results encouraged further implementation on a larger scale. In a nutshell, the model fosters the inclusion of the population as the services recipients/rights holders in the governance process towards the country&rsquo;s institutions (government, private sector, or civil society as the services providers/duty bearers). With reference to the role of the National Council for Population and Development, the mandate of this concept is to ensure the rights-based approach and equality in all strategies and action plans, particularly when it comes to the controversial issues of reproductive health and population growth. Another fundamental advantage of this model is ensuring the continuous collection of information and data required to fill in the knowledge gap and perform the monitoring and evaluation processes, while granting open access to everyone in the country.
The following list contains a highlight of the stakeholders&rsquo; expected contribution to the Council:
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Central Auditing Organization: concerned with the financial audition and control. Performing periodic audition to oversee the budget, expenses, incoming national and international funds.</li>
<li>Administrative Control Authority: mandated to detect and fight any form of corruption and ensures abiding by the laws, policies, and regulations.</li>
<li>Parliament: the voice of people, its role should not be limited to voice the arising issues but also include the increase of awareness of people about their rights and how to call for them.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Ministries: each ministry engaged with the council is accountable for its own role but can also hold the council accountable for any action based on clear accountability pathways such as reporting to a specific authority.</li>
<li>CAPMAS: in charge of statistical data collection, analysis, representation, and dissemination in relevance to the population. It requires a high level of coordination with other governmental and non-governmental entities to fill in knowledge gaps. Open access to all the data is a must for transparency.</li>
<li>The National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (NIGSD) &ndash; Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MPED): newly established entity (2020); responsible for training and building the capacity on various topics such as sustainable development knowledge and governance principles. The role seems supplementary, but has great potential to strengthen monitoring and accountability pathways.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Civil society organisation and individuals: The civil society lens is ultimately critical and provides attention to details that could be missed on higher scales. Their active participation and inclusion in roundtable discussions and classified planning and drafting strategies are vital and beneficial.</li>
<li>Social accountability: independent activists and experts can express their opinions freely in online and offline platforms leaving a space for social constructive discussions based on existing data, reports, and tangible outcomes. The power of these discussions is exponential, reflecting the diversity of the Egyptian population.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Key recommendations</h3>
The draft law for the National Council for Population and Development is an exceptional opportunity to utilise the knowledge and expertise of different actors in Egypt. It is a moment for collaborative effort towards paving the roads for a well-functioning national council on all levels. As the gaps and needs are identified, a participatory monitoring and accountability framework will ensure effective responses to previous challenges. The following policy recommendations serve to achieve such a framework:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Well-establishment of technical and software infrastructure, including the existing information system. To this end, great financial investment in a committee of expertise and consultants is necessary.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Clarification of the responsibility of each entity (who is accountable for what) by the participatory monitoring and accountability system.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Online data availability. This necessitates the digitisation of thousands of documents and establishing well-functioning platforms. Because the financial challenge is a blocker, IT experts must be on board while budgeting, establishing the system and maintaining its sustainability.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Meaningful youth participation. This entails the inclusion and equal engagement of experienced youth from different backgrounds and viewpoints to the table of discussions. Open calls for participation are more effective than the nomination of the same individuals each time there is a discussion.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Citizen engagement. With the establishment of various national bodies concerned with training, active citizenship, and rights awareness, it is time for individuals to express their opinions in well-known platforms rather than leaving comments on social media pages and accounts. National media campaigns are the ultimate form to serve this purpose.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<hr>
References
<ul>
<li>
Ali, M. (2021). Solidarity of representatives reviews the draft law of the national population council. [Tadaman al-nuwaab tasta&rsquo;rid mashru&rsquo; qanun al-majlis al-qawmi l-il-sukaan]. Ahram. [In Arabic]. <a href="https://cutt.ly/yWOYs5m">https://cutt.ly/yWOYs5m</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Badr, M. (2021). Parliamentarians: finalizing a draft law for the national council for population and development.. chairman of the solidarity committee: transferring the council&rsquo;s affiliation from the ministry of health to the presidency of the republic.. representative Mohamed Farid: No to limiting the issue of population growth to reproductive health. [Barlamaniun : Al'intiha' min mashru&rsquo; qanun l-il-majlis al-qawmi l-il-sukaan w-al-tanmiya.. rayiys lajnat al-tadamun : naql taba&rsquo;iyat al-majlis min wizarat al-siha ila riasat al-jumhuriya.. al-naayib Mohamed Farid: la li-hasr qadiyat al-ziyada al-sukaniya fi al-siha al-injabiya]. Youm7. [In Arabic]. <a href="https://bit.ly/3DQPkMh">https://bit.ly/3DQPkMh</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. (2021). Population of Egypt now. <a href="https://www.capmas.gov.eg/Pages/populationClock.aspx">https://www.capmas.gov.eg/Pages/populationClock.aspx</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. (2020). ​​​​​​​Missing data and incompetent coordination: The national population and reproductive health strategies in five years. [Bayanat gha&rsquo;iba wa-tansiq qasir: al-istratijiya al-qawmiya l-il-sukaan w-al-istratijiya al-qawmiya l-il-siha al-injabiya fi khams sanawat]. [In Arabic]. <a href="https://cutt.ly/dWOWddX">https://cutt.ly/dWOWddX</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Fathy, M. (2021). A draft law to restructure the national population council transfers its subordination to the president of the republic. [Mashru&rsquo; qanun li-i&rsquo;adat haykalat al-majlis al-qawmi l-il-sukaan yanqul taba&rsquo;iatahu li-rayiys al-jumhuriya]. Shorouk. [In Arabic]. <a href="https://cutt.ly/aWOTq3h">https://cutt.ly/aWOTq3h</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Hosny. H. (2020). Waste of public money: Parliament rises up and rejects the national budget for the population.. and experts: the solution is in governance. [Ihdar l-il-mal al&rsquo;ami: al-barlaman yantafid wayarfud muazanat al-qawmi l-il-sukaan.. wakhubara': al-hali fi al-hawkama]. Akhbar AlYoum. [In Arabic]. <a href="https://cutt.ly/OWOYFqP">https://cutt.ly/OWOYFqP</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Howard, J., Lopez-Franco, E., &amp; Wheeler, J. (2017). Participatory monitoring and accountability and the sustainable development goals: A learning report of the participate network. <a href="https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/13326">https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/13326</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Ministry of Planning and Economic Development. (2021a). Egypt&rsquo;s national institute for governance and sustainable development will hold a community dialogue session on the "citizen charter" tomorrow. <a href="https://mped.gov.eg/singlenews?id=229&amp;type=next&amp;lang=en">https://mped.gov.eg/singlenews?id=229&amp;type=next&amp;lang=en</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Ministry of Planning and Economic Development. (2021b). Egypt&rsquo;s 2021 voluntary national review. <a href="https://cutt.ly/yWOErFx">https://cutt.ly/yWOErFx</a>
</li>
<li style="font-size: 10pt;">
Population Council. (2020). Policy brief: Fertility preferences and behaviors among younger cohorts in Egypt: Recent trends, correlates, and prospects for change. [In Arabic]. <a href="https://cutt.ly/AWOQ2Xg">https://cutt.ly/AWOQ2Xg</a>
</li>
</ul>

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