Participants at a symposium held by the Center for International Cooperation Projects on Wednesday called on the Egyptian government to allow NGOs to accept foreign funding, provided they declare the doners.
“The government must assume that NGOs are formed in goodwill,” said Ahmed Abu Baraka, legal advisor to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. “A successful political life is based on a strong civil society.”
“We don’t want NGOs to take money under the table,” said Osama Mourad, a political activist.
Abdel Ghaffar Shokr, representative of the Social Coalition Party, said the party will organize training courses for NGO leaders to familiarize them with the NGO governance guide, which has been prepared by experts in the field.
“The problem of NGOs in Egypt is that they do not have enough members or funds,” he said, explaining that the largest has 500 members at the most. “And many of them are corrupt.”
Shokr also said the authorities should not interfere in the work of NGOs, and that dissolving NGOs must be by court order.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
