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I. ABSTRACT
Egypt is one of the potential vulnerable countries to the adverse effects of Water scarcity, Climate
Change, and Food security problems. All estimates and reports suggest more actions towards mitigation
and sustainable development. In Egypt, more than 60% of the total population are under 30 years old
and make the country holds a very strong youth power. Yet, the majority of the youth people are not
engaged in solving such problems due to the lack of awareness and experience. Therefore, Benaa
Association aims at empowering the Egyptian youth, to tackle the development problems and create an
interactive enabling environment; through capacity building, and establishing regional sustainability
projects in 6 main tracks: 1. Ecological Sustainability; 2. Food and Agriculture; 3. Education; 4.
Urbanism and Architecture; 5. Information and Communications Technology; and 6. Social
Development. In this concept note Benaa’s plan and key activities are illustrated with their expected
outcomes.
II. PROBLEM OUTLINE
Egypt and other Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries are suffering from the consequences
of the climate change, pollution, water scarcity, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, food insufficiency,
and health problems.
II.I. Squatter areas problem in Egypt
Meanwhile, the squatter areas problem in Egypt began with the rapid urban expansion of the large cities
at beginning of the twentieth century. The increase of internal migration and rural exodus to cities
seeking job opportunities, lead to building-up numerous squatter areas on the outskirts of big cities.
The squatter areas dwellers represent 37% of the country’s urban population and 20% of the total
population. These Squatter areas suffers the lack of the following: appropriate building structures;
proper isolation; basic physical infrastructures networks; lack of basic community’s services such as
educational, health and social facilities; legal issues for improved housing development …etc.
II.II. WASH problem in Egypt
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) are the most alarming issues challenging the development in
Egypt. Proper WASH practices are missed in the majority of rural areas and some of urban areas in the
country. Egypt is located in the Middle East and North Africa region, which is one of the most water
scarce regions in the world (Barton, 2015). More than 7 million people in North Africa are still
practicing open defecation (AMCOW, 2012), and about 37 million of the MENA region population are
suffering the lack of improved sanitation (The World Bank , 2015) The insufficient sanitation
infrastructure has led to surface and groundwater contamination, with negative impacts on the
environment and public health and, consequently, adverse socio-economic and environmental
problems. (Yamouri, 2010).
Population growth together with urbanization and economic development further increases water
demand, with serious implications for development and poverty reduction. But keeping the situation as
it is, will raise the risk for political conflict around the limited water available. (Tropp & Jagerskog,
2006)
Benaa Association (concept note) Crowd Youth Management for Sustainable Development
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II.III. Capacities problem in Egypt
With more than 60% of the Egyptian total population are under 30 years old (the average age of the
overall Egyptian population is 25.1 years old), Egypt holds a very strong youth power. Therefore, those
youth have to take the lead and play the major rules towards Egypt’s sustainable development.
Notwithstanding, the actual situation shows that the Egyptian youth are suffering the following: the
lack of knowledge and experiences in the field of Sustainable development; the lack of motivation and
social responsibility towards the community; the lack of youth activities in the field of sustainable
development; the lack of public-private-partnerships, which build up a collaborative enabling
environment to incubate the Egyptian youth and their activities.
Empowering the youth and providing them with the required knowledge, couching, motivation and
extracts from the international experiences is a must. This will make them qualified enough to buildup
projects that tackle the development challenges in Egypt. Otherwise these youth will turn to a
destructive force, and good supply for terroristic groups in the Middle East.
III. BENAA SOLUTION:
“Benaa بناء” is an Arabic word which means “Building-up”. Benaa is a non-governmental organization
that aims at empowering the Egyptian youth, to tackle the development problems and create an
interactive enabling environment.
III.I. How Benaa functions?
Benaa builds-up youth capacities through intensive activation module to enhance their personal and
organizational skills, to be able to establish sustainable development projects in 6 main tracks: 1.
Ecological Sustainability; 2. Food and Agriculture; 3. Education; 4. Urbanism and Architecture; 5.
Information and Communications Technology; and 6. Social Development. Then connect these
projects and activities together to formulate a collaborated enabling environment.
Benaa steps for building up a sustainable community in Egypt: 1.Youth selection; 2.then activating them with specific skills; 3.then building up projects; 4.and connecting these projects together to form an integrated enabling community.
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IV. BENAA CURRENT ACTIVITIES
Benaa started its first activity in 2015, by motivating and building the capacities of 400 Egyptian and
Arabian youth in order to start with the first activity loop, which is planned to be finalized by the end
of 2017. The following figure illustrates the first Benaa activity loop:
IV.I. Knowledge Transfer:
One of the main projects of Benaa Association is “Benaa Publishing”, which
aims to transfer the sustainable development knowledge advances to the
MENA region, by translating purposeful materials into Arabic, then
disseminate it widely in the Arab world. To build-up capacities with this
transferred knowledge afterwards.
Benaa Publishing team consists of 160 motivated and passionate highly
qualified Arabian youth and professionals, who are enthused to establish a
concrete Arabian knowledge basement in the area of sustainable development
in the MENA region. It is targeting to be the most powerful team of translators
in the Arab world, by gathering the most talented writers in the field of sustainable development,
English-Arabic translators, and Arabic writing adjusters. In addition to, the application of very
advanced organizational and quality system.
The following figure illustrates the organizational structure of Benaa Publishing team:
Knowldge Transfer Knowldge Delivery Knowldge Application
Benaa Publishing team structure, consists of 5 main groups: 1. Board group to assign tasks, 2. Core translation group, 3. Revision group, 4. Coordination group, and 5. Multimedia group
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IV.II. Knowledge Delivery
The transferred knowledge so far by the Benaa Publishing project, is
been prepared as training modules, and deliverd by “Benaa Acadmey”
to Egyptian youth and civilians in the rural and semi-urban
communities. Benaa Academy has a team of 40 Egyptian volunteers
aim to acheive four main targets:
1. Developing the youth’s envisioning skills towadards better future.
2. Developing the youth’s critical and systematic thinking skills to invesitigate the development
problems in Egypt.
3. Fostering suatainable development education and application.
4. Rising public awareness.
IV.III. Knowledge Application
As a result of Benaa Academy project, 200 motivated Egyptian youth
collaborated to build-up “Benaa Habitat” project. Which aims to address low-
cost housing in Egypt especially the slum areas, and help the local
communities to find good approaches for developing and improving their
social and economic situation. It focuses on developing solutions and methods
to improve the housing and living environments of people living in squattered
areas and informal settlements.
The following figure illustrates the outline activities of Benaa Habitate
Project:
Benaa Habitat aims at producing the first Egyptian library of information, researches, and applications
in the field of squattered areas management and improvement. Then generat several ideas and
appropriate solutions for solving these areas’ problems, and present them in a National gallery in April
2016, to attract national and international support. Then start applying the best solutions by the
beginning of Summer 2016 tell the end of 2017.
• Compendium Report
• Current Situation report
• Compilation of WW practices
• Challenges and Ways Forward
Knowledge Production
• Worldwide Solutions Adaptation
• Innovative Ideas and solutions
• National Gallery for Solutions
Solutions Production
• Proposals for Solutions’ Funding
• Pilot applications
• Wide applications
Implementation
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V. IMPACT OF BENAA ACTIVITIES
Benaa in 2015 built up the capacities of 400 Egyptian youth, then utilized this youth crowd power to
have an impact on the Egyptian and the Arabian community.
Benaa Publishing project is solving the youth unemployment problem, and utilizing the youth skills to
build up a fundamental Arabian knowledge in the field of WaSH and Sustainable Development. We
translated the SSWM Toolbox (http://www.sswm.info) which is the biggest online platform for
Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management, and in few weeks we will publish its Arabic version,
to be the first open source knowledge in this field available in Arabic language.
In addition to translating several websites and books in the field of WASH to be an open source
knowledge for public.
Benaa Academy will activate 10,000 Egyptian youth with its activation module in 2016-2017, and
foster this crowd to develop the country.
Benaa Habitat project in March 2016 will finalize the biggest open source online library of slums areas
challenges and solutions, and by the end of 2016 we will start changing the lives of thousands of poor
people living in these areas. By the end of 2017, three hundred families in the rural areas in Egypt
would be trained to practice proper WASH daily activities.
This will just be our start, then in the following years with the assistance of the activated youth, we will
enhance the lives of millions of Egyptians, and many people in the MENA region.
VI. MARKETPLACE:
Benaa activities are targeting the motivated and energetic Arabian youth, to empower them and utilize
their efforts in the sustainable development track. Our main focus in the first years is Egypt, then we
will start our activities in the nearby countries (e.g. Tunisia, Jordan, Morocco …etc)
However, the Benaa Publishing project aims at disseminating its transferred knowledge to the whole
Arab world, with access to hundreds of millions of Arabian people.
Benaa Habitat targets the slums areas and rural communities in Egypt, which are neglected areas from
sufficient amount of governmental and public concern. We are encouraging the people in these areas
to participate in building their housing and improving the living condition in the slum area
VII. SUSTAINABILITY:
Thanks to Benaa partners, the majority of our activities are financially supported by two Swiss
organizations “Seecon GmbH” and “CEWAS”. In addition to raising funds through our translation
activities. We offer high quality services with very reasonable and cheap prices, which place us in a
very special category in the national and international market.
Many companies in Egypt and MENA regions are willing to donate to our activities through their CSR,
as we are very unique in the Egyptian and Arabian market. In the near future we will have our dependent
resources of funding through our products and services channels (e.g. simple water filters, private
training courses, decentralized industrial wastewater treatment unites …ect).
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VIII. Benaa Team
Benaa team is consists of: board members, projects managers, advising committee, and projects
volunteers.
BOARD MEMBERS
Name: Kareem Hassan Mohamed Ateia Johannes Heeb Michael Kropac
Position: Co-Founder Co-Founder Senior Partner Senior Partner
Country: Egypt, Switzerland Egypt, Japan Switzerland Switzerland, Italy
PROJECTS MANAGERS
Project: Benaa Publishing Benaa Academy Benaa Habitat Benaa R&D
Name: Zakarya Baysha Islam Saadany Maysoon Sawaan Amro Negm
Country: Morocco, Spain Egypt Syria, Japan Egypt, Italy
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Name: Khadija Draman Olfa Mahjoob Andrea Nieman Ahmed El-
Gendy
Position: Former UNDP
consultant
INRGREF
President
UDE
Sustainability
Director
Environmental
Engineering
director at the
AUC
Country: Morocco, England Tunisia Germany Egypt
Name: Chihiro Yoshimura Matthew Johnson Sayed Ismail
Position: Ass. Professor
Tokyo Institute of
Technology
Professor
University of
Copenhagen
The adviser of the
Egyptian Minister
of Housing
Country: Japan Denmark Egypt
