AUC Launches Empowerment of Women Through Parliament Program

The School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP) Executive Education and The Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism at The American University in Cairo (AUC) launched recently the Empowerment of Women through Parliament program (EWPA), which aimed to train 20 women members of the Egyptian Parliament. The program is designed to empower women in the Egyptian parliament to advocate and influence policy and decision making processes to advance the status of Egyptian women. In partnership with Global Partners Governance Practice and the Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute (DEDI), AUC provided a workshop over two training days for the women parliamentarians. The opening seminar was attended by Hussein Eissa, member of the parliament and former president of Ein Shams University, on behalf of the head of the parliament Ali Abdelaal, in addition to Refaat Komsan, elections affairs advisor to the prime minister. The opening seminar was moderated by Laila El Baradei, associate dean of GAPP. The first workshop was held from 26 to 27 February and the second will be held tomorrow from 18 to 19 March.“Through GAPP Executive Education we offer programs to transform the public services,” said Dina Wafa, director of GAPP Executive Education and adjunct assistant professor of management. “Working on gender issues is part of our objectives,” she added, “It has been proven scientifically that empowering women increases growth dramatically. It is important to find ways to empower women because it is normal to find women working twice as hard as men but not necessarily gaining results.” GAPP Executive Education provides top executive training to professionals in the different areas of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and dedicates its programs to building capacities of the government and public sector, media officials, members of civil society and nonprofit institutions in Egypt and the region. The first part of the program provided by GAPP Executive Education was composed of two modules that focused on capacity building for public speaking and gender mainstreaming for members of parliament and staff members. Through the first module, members of the parliament were trained on public speaking and on the art of communication in the parliament and the media. The second module was dedicated to capacity building to integrate gender in public policies and legislation. Wafa explained that the commitment of the parliamentarians was impressive, “we had independent parliamentarians and others affiliated to political parties who dedicated themselves in the weekend for the training. Some were coming from different governorates, so they had to stay in Cairo in the weekend to participate in the workshop.” The Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism held a one- day workshop for the parliamentarians on the techniques of conducting a successful television interview. They recorded a simulation of a talk-show in the Adham Center state-of-art studios with two Egyptian television hosts, Mona Salman and Mohamed Said Mahfouz. After recording their talk-show simulations, members received feedback and review on how they implemented the acquired techniques in their debates.The parliamentarians also had an intensive session on developing their debate strategies and voice coaching skills by professional development trainer Maha Shahbah. Part of the aim of the training was to explain that the way the parliamentarians deliver their message is as important as the content of their message. “We are proud that we had a role in developing the talents of the parliamentarians because at the end AUC is an educational institute that provides educational services to society,” said Dina Saad, assistant director for professional development at The Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism.