Chairperson of Egypt’s General Union of NGOs Tallat Abdel Qawi revealed a new partnership between his institution and the African Union (AU), saying that the partnership comes upon the initiative adopted by the African body in 2015 to support the civil society organizations in all over the continent for participating in Economic and Social Council of the African Union.
He added, during an interview with “Arabs Today”, “We sat with representatives of the African Union. They expressed their keenness to implement a strategic plan focusing on eight major activities, including the infrastructure, energy, health, human resources, technology, trade, industry, woman, and international cooperation.”
He continued, “We agreed to allocate coordinators for each group in all over the country to pave the way for conducting another meeting with the representatives of the African Union during the coming week.” He stressed the importance of the current contact between his institution and the African Union, saying that such relation is considered a major part of popular diplomacy aiming to expand cooperation between Egypt and Africa.
Regarding the new NGOs law, he said that he held a meeting with Speaker of Egypt’s parliament Ali Abdel Aal last month to know the recent developments related to the law. He said that the new law has not been referred to the presidency from the parliament. He refuted what was published over the referral of law from the parliament to the presidency.
He added that the parliament took into account a number of proposals submitted by his institution, including the role of NGOs, stressing the need for forming these organizations through elections not appointment. He added that they also should enjoy some advantages regarding the bills of water and electricity in addition to taxes.
He underlined the efforts exerted by his institution resolve the population issue, saying that they drafted a plan to support the NGOs working in this issue and to support their campaigns. He added that he submitted a proposal to Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity to activate the role performed by NGOs to resolve this issue in the light of high fertility and increasing number of births.
He added, “The rates of fertility witnessed notable increase during the recent years to 3.5 children for each woman during her reproductive age, while the use of family planning methods declined by one percent since 2014.”

Hyper: Chairperson of Egypt’s General Union of NGOs Tallat Abdel Qawi, African Union 

Tags: African Union, Egypt’s General Union of NGOs, Tallat Abdel Qawi, Egypt, Arabs Today, AU