The Danish and Egyptian Social Democratic Parties
The Social Democratic Party of Denmark (SDP) established the partnership with the Egyptian Social Democratic Party (ESDP) in March 2012. Egyptian political parties have a natural interest in experience sharing, organizational inputs, and know-how from other related parties. Especially parties like the Social Democratic Party that was established after the revolution has as a goal to supply the Egyptian activist with the necessary skills to engage in politics. On the other hand, the Social Democratic Party of Denmark is eager to get more insight into the Egyptian partner’s experiences gained before, during and after the revolution, especially concerning awareness rising and mobilization of political activists.
About the Partnership
The political process in Egypt has been very fast for the political parties who are still struggling to transform themselves from being campaign movements into being sustainable political parties. The Danish and Egyptian Social Democratic Parties have therefore chosen to focus on organizational exchange and development in their partnership. The idea is to strengthen the internal education within the party and to development an inclusive platform amongst young Egyptians.
The youth of Egypt were the driving force in the revolution, but political parties have not recruited many of the young politically engaged activists. As 60 % of the Egyptian population is between 18 and 30 years old, there is a great potential for the political parties to focus on youth.
This project unfolds within the overall objectives of DIPD to strengthen democratization through capacity building and internal training programs. The aim of the partnership is to facilitate that the Egyptian Social Democratic Party perform their democratic function. The persons who participate in the trainings in Denmark and Egypt are expected to evolve into resource persons that will share their organizational knowledge within the party. If ESDP succeeds in building up a strong internal party education program, this would strengthen the party’s position as a democratic and civilian influence in Egypt.
The Egyptian Social Democratic Party is also working on developing an inclusive youth platform in the party. With training of trainers sessions for youth and a youth mobilization campaign organized by the young party members themselves, the Social Democratic Party of Denmark hope to provide inspiration and facilitate discussions, which will help ESDP in not only organizing the current young party members, but to reach even more young Egyptians through mobilization and effective advocacy. This engagement of youth in party politics will have a positive impact on the democratic landscape in Egypt, where very few young people are currently party members.
The following activities will be carried out within the framework of the project in order to strengthen the internal party education and enhance the participation of youth within the party.
- Training of trainers sessions in Egypt with focus on strengthening the internal party education system through three concurrent foci: Sharing best practice in establishing an internal party educational structure, training in practical issues regarding seminar planning and teaching skills, and thirdly by focusing on substantial political and organisational skills that will be the knowledge, the trained trainers will pass on
- Training of trainers sessions in Egypt of youth members with focus on a range of political and organisational areas of relevance for youth organization such as ideology, political communication, rhetoric, and how to develop and carry out efficient political campaigns on agenda setting, mobilization and awareness rising
- A range of local seminars on different topics, conducted by the trained trainers
- A youth conference facilitating an experience sharing on how to increase youth influence in politics with participants from neighboring countries and Denmark
- A youth mobilization campaign developed as part of the training sessions and with the participants as campaign managers, targeting underprivileged youth.
- Joint planning sessions to identify objectives and activities for the third phase.
This project will be the second phase of the partnership between the Danish and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, continuing and further developing the components from the first phase project. This second phase of the partnership will run until December 2013.
The Egyptian Social Democratic Party
The Egyptian Social Democratic Party was announced in March 2011 after the revolution and was given legal recognition in June 2011.
The Egyptian Social Democratic Party is, as the name implies, a social democratic party founded upon seven basic principles: human rights, democracy, citizenship, social justice, economic development through a market economy, sustainable development, and a pursuit of world and regional peace. The party is a founding member of the Alliance the Egyptian Bloc which entered the parliament with 34 seats in the December parliamentary elections. The Egyptian Social Democratic Party itself gained 3,2 % of the votes and got 22 seats in the lower house of parliament and 6 seats in the upper house of parliament.
Project Overview
Applicant: Socialdemokraterne (The Social Democratic Party)
Title: Partnership project between the Danish Social Democratic Party and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party
Partner: Egyptian Social Democratic Party
Country: Egypt
Period: January – December 2013 (Phase 2)
More Information
Contact International Consultant for the Social Democrats, Simon Redder Thomsen, at simon@partikontoret.dk
