Egypt NDF Activities

Egypt NDF Activities
Recent Activities The Egypt National Discourse Forum, EgNDF, has completed its activities of milestone two of Knowledge and communication. The Information and Resource Center that was established in the EgNDF space was one of the major outputs of the Milestone2, as it is prepared to provide beneficiaries with accurate varied data, information and experiences that could be the base for building real and efficient developmental plans for the Nile. "River Nile in Our Eyes" was the slogan of the Milestone II activities in the 17 Local Discourse Forums “LDF” who work with the EgNDF. Series of activities were executed under this slogan that was accepted by most the recipients and NGOs for the traditional context of being in the eyes of people. Each LDF was tasked to implement the M2 activities in their areas in schools, celebrating the Nile Day and International Water Day, conducting public meetings and meeting the Parliamentarians and Media people. The EgNDF main office was designing the frame work of the actions and monitoring the activities all over the country and providing technical assistance to the LDFs. In M2, three to five schools were targeted for each LNDF as the main stakeholders for public awareness. In each school groups of the young practitioners (10-14 years old) that were named "Aqua Parties" were formed and these held water related activities in and outside the school. The extension of the activities outside the schools made an impact on the community and showed the importance of building the capabilities of the young practitioners who benefit from the Nile development. A Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) Survey was conducted in five focal points around the Basin in Egypt representing the main five spot areas all over the Nile in Egypt, Aswan “Upper Egypt”, Menia “Lower Egypt”, Greater Cairo, Dakahlia “Delta” and Alexandria “North”. The survey targeted various clusters of the community who live along the River Basin with a total number of 550 persons representing the farmers, users, community leaders on one side and the government, decision makers and NGOs on another. KAP survey gave wide range of views about the peoples’ perceptions of the Nile and whether they are making an effort to protect it or not. It highlights a very clear way forward on the tools that should be used to have the most appropriate public awareness campaign in the project life. EgNDF utilized Media as a powerful tool to change behaviors and approaches either at the local community or decision making levels. The media was invited to all the activities of the M2 to cover the actions and convey the messages of the NBD and NDFs’. Also, there were special workshops for the Media in each governorate to orient them with the program aims and approaches as well as to attract them into the process of information transfer and to advocate for NBD messages into their newspapers articles, Radio and TV program. Parliamentarians have attended workshops organized by the EgNDF and facilitated the NDF work by influencing the legislators to add a new clause in Egyptian constitution for Environment regarding water as a major factor for preserving the environment and natural resources in Egypt. Four workshops in different areas “Beni Suef – Sharkia – Alexandria – Cairo” were dedicated to this and the NDF succeeded in highlighting the need to add community voices on water and River Nile as one of the top priorities on agenda of the government. The EgNDF has had very good cooperative relations with SDBS project which has invited four representatives of EgNDF from Aswan, Menia, Cairo LDFs and two from head office to attend the orientation workshops for the call of proposals of SDBS. EgNDF submitted a concept note for the SDBS and is waiting for a response. "The Other Face of Nile", is a book that the EgNDF has published to spot light on certain era of the Egyptians’ recent history with regard to the River Nile and how it was very important to the lives of the Egyptians. It also gives a clear view about the floods that were facing Egypt and how Egyptians managed to adopt them for survival. Also featured in the book is the history of the Aswan dam, and the Suez Canal.