January Revolution... 10 Years of Youth Empowerment: Op-ed

Since assuming power, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi have called many times for empowerment of youth to lead and integrate into political life and participate in making political decisions; most notably throughout the past ten years following the glorious January 25 revolution. 

Since 2011, new blood has been pumped into the arteries of the Egypt’s institutions, as well as empowering political youth and creating a climate for the development of political life have been seen.

The past years have witnessed several experiences to empower the youth politically and administratively. Firstly; the Constitution stipulates that the House of Representatives and municipals must embrace young members so that young people could win 32 percent of the seats in the 2015 Parliament.

Later, the year of 2016 was known as a year of young persons when Sisi announced the launch of the Presidential Leadership Program (PLP), which embraced a large number of young people from different governorates.

In the two PLP’s batches, 1000 young cadres have graduated. Then, the National Academy for Training and Rehabilitation was established.

The political leadership paid special attention to youth, and was keen to launch conferences periodically every year in the various governorates of Egypt. Then, many of them were appointed to many leadership positions and they were involved in decision-making processes.

2016... Youth Year

The 2016 is the year of young persons, and all issues related to them were discussed and mechanisms were put in place to implement them. 

“Talking about hope and associating it with youth is an attempt to restore matters to their normality so that Egypt can progress,” Sisi said in January 2016.

Hence, the start was made when the first round of the PLP selected 500 qualified young people from more than 60,000 applicants.

Periodic Conferences

A series of periodic meetings were launched under the title of the National Youth Conference… Creativity and Go Forward. 

They are used to discussing issues and problems related to youth. The political leadership was keen to participate in discussion sessions with young people, to listen to them and answer their questions.

A set of recommendations were announced, most notably the establishment of the National Academy for Rehabilitation and Training in cooperation with the Church and Al-Azhar with the aim of renewing religious discourse, forming internal monitoring groups in state agencies and institutions from young people.

World Youth Forums

The youth has not been targeted only locally, but at an international and regional level as well. Global youth forums were launched at the end of each year in Sharm El-Sheikh with the participation of thousands of Egyptian, Arab and foreign youth.

During the National Youth Conference in Ismailia in 2017, a group of the governorate's young persons presented a proposal to engage in a dialogue with other young figures around the world, and in July of the same year and during another version of the National Conference in Alexandria, Sisi announced his response to the proposal and the World Youth Forum was launched. 

The first edition of the Forum was held in 2017 to become a global platform that brings together young people of different nationalities and backgrounds to discuss various issues and topics of interest to countries around the world. 

Coordination of Parties Youth and Politicians (CPYP)

This new young experience is the result of three years, which includes 25 political parties of different political orientations and ideologies.

Empowering youth came after many years absence from Egypt under previous regimes that neglected youth and did not encourage them to live effectively and empower them politically and economically.

The CPYP started its work from the first day of its establishment in 2018, as its youth sought to strengthen parties and create channels and spaces for communication and rapprochement with the state, through participation in working papers, proposals and draft laws, or direct dialogue with officials, in addition to community dialogues, and the presentation of visions

This experience has benefited the majority of political parties and produced partisan and independent youth cadres qualified to lead, both at the parliamentary, political and executive levels. 

Governors Appointed

Egypt has witnessed the largest movement in its history to appoint young opposition men and women to higher executive positions, to be deputies of the governors. That opened the door for the integration of young cadres into the executive body. 

After the success of the Egyptian state in this experiment at the executive and legislative levels, the political scene in Egypt at this stage became as much of the state’s interest and its direction towards supporting youth and enabling them to participate in politics and engage in political work in order to enable them to be future leaders in all fields, based on President Sisi's belief that “young people are the nation’s hope, its heart, and the basis for the comprehensive renaissance in Egypt.”

House of Representatives and Political Parties

Finally, we find ourselves in front of a democratic, representative scene that we have not seen before, as the 2021 Parliament won unprecedented party pluralism by representing 13 political parties that represent all ideologies representing the Egyptian people, as well as the increase in the percentage of youth representation, especially those who represent the CPYP.

I hope that the youth’s presence in the Egyptian parliamentary life will contribute to enriching political and party pluralism and its persity according to young visions to face the political and social challenges in the Egyptian state.

We request young people to formulate a common vision through what they have from a distinctive youth experience that emerges through legislation that expresses the aspirations of the citizen and confronts the challenges of the Egyptian state, and to achieve the public interest through monitoring and legislative tools and collective action in order to formulate joint visions that achieve the general interest of the Egyptian state on a national ground.