Supporting reform?

Additional US financial assistance is being channelled to Egypt, but for what purpose? Pierre Loza finds out

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Peter Munrean, the regional director for the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), spoke to a group of journalists last week about the idea behind MEPI. He explained that it is a US presidential initiative aimed at supporting reforms in four main areas, namely politics, economics, education and female empowerment. Initiated in 2002, MEPI has been allocated $293 million for the period of 2002/2005. Twenty eight per cent of these funds will be directed towards democracy, civil society and the media, 33 per cent will go to economic reform, 26 per cent to improve the quality of education and 13 per cent will be allocated to the empowerment of women.

So far there are 20 MEPI reform projects in Egypt, Munrean said, targeting all four fields. In a bid to promote transparent elections in Egypt, MEPI has developed the Civil Society Electoral Promotion programme. Cooperating with the Ibn Khaldun Centre for Development and the United Group, the programme also supports the advancement of political and electoral rights.

Despite the Arab media's frequent diatribes on undue US influence in the Middle East, US initiatives to advance democracy and development continue to grow steadily throughout the region.

The programme's democracy pillar entails a number of perhaps overly ambitious goals to speed the region's progress towards a more democratic political system. The strengthening of political parties is among MEPI's highest priorities, a goal viewed by many domestic stakeholders as an intrusion into the political process. The promotion of responsible independent media, improving the skills of parliamentarians to increase oversight and legislative accountability and the bolstering of the rule of law through judicial programmes were all goals included in the initiative's first pillar.

Munrean told Al-Ahram Weekly that MEPI's role in the region may alleviate the circumstances that promote radicalism, saying that "countries that are democratic, where the people genuinely have a say in their future, and where prosperity develops" tend to see less extremism.

In the area of economic reform, the initiative centres around increasing the private sector's role in the economy and job growth. The utilisation of structural changes to facilitate growth, investment, and competitiveness are also included in MEPI's economic pillar. Programmes such as the provision of technical assistance to support the Middle East Free Trade Area, are said to have been designed to promote development through trade. Financial market integration and greater financial efficiencies will also be promoted through the Partnership for Financial Excellence.

As part of the initiative's Egyptian economic agenda, the Financial Services Volunteer Corps has provided the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), with US financial expertise. At the request of the CBE, a former advisor to the US Federal Reserve board will consult with CBE management on the development of structures that help provide for more effective monetary policy.

MEPI's educational principle commits it to fostering the provision of universal, effective education, with special attention to girls. The women's empowerment pillar commits the initiative to further promote gender equality on the political, economic and educational levels.