Dr. Hossam Badrawi Official Website
Far from political calculations that are not devoid of outbids, and are often based on exaggeration, we have taken a different path under the title “Dialogues of the Future… Egypt as it Should Be” to present and present the experiences of specialists in various scientific, economic, social and political fields. ..
“Al-Bawaba News” tries in this track, through a series of dialogues, to present bright models and ideas outside the box, to support Egypt’s 2030 Development Plan, which was launched by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, and the Egyptian state is moving forward to implement it.
In this episode, Al-Bawaba News interviews the great thinker, Dr. Hossam Badrawi, who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University and obtained a master’s and doctorate from it, then received postgraduate studies from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, then Northwestern University and Chicago Illinois in the United States of America.
He also received a diploma in curriculum development from Boston University, Massachusetts, and an honorary doctorate in science from the University of Sunderland, UK, in 2007, and an honorary fellowship from Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK, in 2014 for his role in the internationalization of education development, especially in the Middle East. Hossam Badrawi published more than 120 academic papers, held several positions in Egypt, and authored many books in the field of education.
political axis
* First, how do you see President Sisi’s call for national dialogue and its importance at the present time?
** There is no active nation that does not have a permanent dialogue between its parties, and every stage that society passes through must have continuous dialogue. Politicians and society as a whole, and dialogue, from my point of view, is a political dialogue of the first order, because politics is what creates what is underneath it, and political dialogue must be built, and the political structure for us is the constitution, not its articles, but its philosophy and concept.
Therefore, when I talk about the national dialogue politically, I am talking about the preamble to the constitution and its presentation, which indicates the philosophy of the constitution, which is that Egypt is a modern, civil state, and within the umbrella of the national dialogue there are two main pillars, namely the pillar of justice. The people are the judiciary, but in its comprehensive concept it is the judiciary and the services that people need from this system, as well as its implementation by the agency entrusted with that, which is the police.
The other pillar of dialogue is human development, because building the human being is the essence of the new republic, and building the human being is divided into rights and services, and rights we all agree on, which are education, health, provision of infrastructure and public freedoms, and these have their means, as well as social justice in the concept of equal opportunities, and the value of these matters in dialogue The patriotism is how these rights are sustainable, because we basically do not disagree on these rights, but the disagreement is on how to sustain human development, and this may be the essence of the dialogue.
* What exactly is the task of the National Dialogue Adviser that has been assigned to you and what is required of him?
** The mission is the National Dialogue Advisor for Egypt’s Vision 2030, and this is a definition of the mission because we are talking about that Egypt has a clear vision, and it has main and partial goals, strategic plans, and means of measurement and implementation. This vision was issued in Egypt since 2016, and it was updated in 2022 but it was not announced, and the dialogue The national committee has different committees. My task is to coordinate between all parties to the national dialogue, open horizons around Egypt’s vision, and network the various committees around Egypt’s vision.
Egypt’s Vision 2030 was drawn up in 2016 and updated in 2022, but the update was not announced, so I agreed with Dr. Hala Al-Saeed, Minister of Planning, that we seize the opportunity of the national dialogue so that the vision is updated to reach 2050 and link it to the UN and African goals, because we are talking about 8 years only until we reach it. to 2030.
We must work on a longer plan, and there must be an entity that monitors the implementation of the vision and makes an annual report on it to see what has been done in it, and this could be one of the outcomes of the national dialogue.
* Is there a priority in the issues on the table of the national dialogue? Or is work on the issues under discussion taking place in parallel?
** The main umbrella is the political dialogue, and without agreeing that Egypt is a modern, civil state with the foundations that explain that, everything under that is just talk. But if we agree on the umbrella, then the axis of justice, economy, investment, and human building are the priorities of the dialogue, but in order to come up with an important matter for society, all These axes need to be finalized and why the clear-cut vision is not applied in these issues.
Q: Some rely on the national dialogue to come up with recommendations that can contribute to reducing burdens on citizens. What are the guarantees for implementing the outputs of the national dialogue?
** The national dialogue is not a substitute for the government, in the sense that the one responsible for alleviating these burdens on citizens is the government, not the national dialogue. Dialogue is a discussion between experts who learned the truth about the economic, social and developmental situation and met to propose recommendations. The role of dialogue is to shed light on problems and obstacles based on research. And studies, and the government or the political administration is entrusted with implementing the outputs and recommendations of the national dialogue.
Here comes the parliament’s role in following up the implementation of Egypt’s vision and what it has achieved, as this vision is a commitment issued by the head of the state, who is the president, and approved by Parliament, so its role comes by holding the government accountable for what it has done in order to implement this vision.
* Do you think that making the future of the Egyptian state is in the hands of the elite and leadership only, or is the individual a partner in this process?
