CASE Foundation, CASE Institute

Since December 2006, CASE has been participating in the capacity building project in Egypt on "Support for the Institutional Strengthening of the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre." CASE was subcontracted by ECORYS Nederland BV in Rotterdam under the EU-funded Lot 10 Framework project.

The purpose of the project is to provide technical assistance to the Information and Decision Support Center (see www.idsc.gov.eg), a think-tank made up of cabinet ministers, in developing its policy research, analytical and policy advice potential. This should help the Government of Egypt to strengthen its capacity in designing economic policies and economic reforms.

The project is conducted by a team of two experts: Marek Dabrowski (Team Leader) and Ahmed Raafat Zahran (Human Resources Management Expert) who represents Altair Asesores in Madrid.

Background:
In 2001, the European Commission (EC) and Egypt signed the Association Agreement (AA) defining their political, social, economic, commercial and cultural relations. In order to support the Egyptian administrations in implementing the AA and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), the EC launched a "Support to the EU-Egypt AA Programme" (SAAP). This Programme aims at upgrading the overall capacity of the Egyptian administration in three core areas: (i) trade and economic liberalisation; (ii) improvement and subsequent enforcement of legislative and regulatory framework; and (iii) institutional strengthening and reform. It is in this context that the present project aims to develop the competency of the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) to produce and deliver efficient and effective services (policy research-advice) to the government, with an emphasis on reform & sustainable development.