Civic Advocacy for Democratic Resilience in Egypt (CADRE) Quarterly Report

The program is implemented by Counterpart International and is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under Cooperative Agreement Number AID-263-LA-14-00003. The program focuses on three main components: CSO Capacity Building, Empower Women in Political Process, and Grant-Making Targeting Women, Youth, and Marginalized Groups. During the reporting period of January 1 to March 31, 2015, the program made significant progress in its preparatory workplan. The program finalized all sub-agreements with international implementation partners, submitted the CADRE Preparatory Workplan and Monitoring and Evaluation Operational Manual, and continued refining and finalizing training modules on core functional areas of CSO institutional strengthening and development. The program also completed the Good Governance for CSOs training module and developed an accompanying Training of Trainers (TOT) training package. In addition to these activities, the program revised training modules and e-learning courses to ensure that they effectively mainstreamed gender equity into all training methodologies and that all training materials were gender-sensitized. The program also updated and fine-tuned the Maktabat and E-Learning portal websites and developed a Pre-Solicitation Analysis, Outline, and Approach to ensure higher quality grant proposals were developed and received. The program also monitored political developments in Egypt during the reporting period. Egypt announced new visa regulations for entering the country, which will affect foreigner entry, including U.S. citizens. Visitors are now required to obtain a tourist visa prior to arrival in Egypt, whereas previously tourists were able to obtain a visa upon arrival. The program also noted that Egypt organized an Economic Development Conference between March 13-15, 2015, which is considered a key milestone in the government's mid-term economic development plan. The conference was attended by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who stated that a decision regarding the restoration of U.S. military aid to Egypt is expected soon. He added that the U.S. supports Egypt in completing its democratic transition and strengthening human rights and civil society. The program also noted that Egypt's Chairman of the High Elections Commission (HEC) Ayman Abbas announced the schedule for parliamentary elections, but due to legal issues raised regarding the constitutionality of the laws governing the elections, the proposed dates were nullified and new dates remain undetermined. The legal issues arose when the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) heard four lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of three laws: the House of Representatives (HoR) law, the Law of Exercising Political Rights (LEPR), and the Boundary Delimitation Law. The SCC decreed that Article 3 of the Boundary Delimitation Law and clause I of Article 8 of HoR Law were unconstitutional, resulting in the postponement of the proposed election dates. Following the SCC ruling, Egypt's administrative court annulled the HEC's initial call for parliamentary elections.