24
ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon Safadi Foundation USA Table of Contents Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………….2 Background……………………………………………………………………………………….3 Objectives…………………………………………………………………………………………5 Activities…………………………………………………………………………………………..5 Institutional Records and Capacities………………………………………………………………7 Multiplier Effect and Sustainability……………………………………………………………….9 Attachments Evaluation Plan…………………………………………………………………………………..11 Key Personnel……………………………………………………………………………………13 Timeline………………………………………………………………………………………….14 MOUs……………………………………………………………………………………………15 Budget Narrative………………………………………………………………………………...17 1

ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Proposal for State Department DRL funding

Citation preview

Page 1: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and LebanonSafadi Foundation USA

Table of Contents

Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………….2Background……………………………………………………………………………………….3Objectives…………………………………………………………………………………………5Activities…………………………………………………………………………………………..5Institutional Records and Capacities………………………………………………………………7Multiplier Effect and Sustainability……………………………………………………………….9

Attachments

Evaluation Plan…………………………………………………………………………………..11Key Personnel……………………………………………………………………………………13Timeline………………………………………………………………………………………….14MOUs……………………………………………………………………………………………15Budget Narrative………………………………………………………………………………...17

1

Page 2: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Executive Summary

Target Countries: Lebanon and Egypt

Name and contact information for the project’s main point of contact:

Cathleen Glover, Program Officer, Safadi Foundation USA888 Sixteenth Street NW Suite 800Washington, DC 20006(202) [email protected]

Objectives and Expected ResultsThe overall goal of the project is to advance freedom and democracy in Egypt and Lebanon through the use of information and communication technology.

To increase access to information among repressed communities in marginalized areas of Lebanon and Egypt.

To raise awareness of human rights and democracy principles through the use of information and communication technology targeting marginalized groups and professionals.

To increase knowledge sharing and dialogue about using ICT to raise awareness about human rights and democracy.

Statement of WorkThe project will increase access to information in marginalized populations by implementing an innovative program which promotes human rights and democracy through the use of information and communications technology. In computer centers in marginalized communities in North Lebanon and Egypt, beneficiaries will be trained in computer use and basic English through a curriculum focusing on human rights and democratic principles. These target groups will be invited to compete in an essay competition in which they will use their ICT and English skills and the knowledge they have gained about human rights and democracy. The project will conclude with roundtables in Egypt and Lebanon to exchange best practices on using ICT as a tool for raising awareness on human rights and democracy. Roundtables will include key stakeholders such as national ministries, UN agencies, CSOs/NGOs and universities to set out recommendations for the effective use of ICT for consolidating democracy.

Total funding requested: $2,601,435 Program Length: 36 months

Innovation and Sustainability: The project is innovative in that no similar program has ever been implemented in Lebanon or Egypt. It simultaneously builds the capacities of individuals and institutions while raising awareness about human rights and democracy and providing access to information that would otherwise not be available. The goal is to replicate the program in different regions of Lebanon, Egypt, and Middle East and North Africa upon completion of this pilot program.Background

2

Page 3: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Despite being party to core international human rights treaties, the human rights records and freedom of expression in Arab states are generally considered to be poor. Restrictions on free speech and press abound, and access to information is limited. Even in a hybrid regime like Lebanon, political and economic restrictions inhibit access to information. Democracy experts Larry Diamond and Samuel Huntington have suggested that those working to expand democracy and freedom in the world can make better use of their time and effort by focusing on regimes that are a mix of both democratic and non-democratic tendencies, as they are on the path toward democratic consolidation, albeit stalled or stuck in some areas. Ignoring some countries because they are seemingly on the right path to democracy more often than not causes serious backsliding in freedoms, resulting in more non-democratic regimes and a slow death of the fledgling liberalism in the region. Egypt and Lebanon both fit this description. In addition, Egypt and Lebanon are leaders in the Arab region in terms of mobilizing popular thought and trends. Saving freedom of expression in these two countries is critical to its development and survival in the rest of the region.

While Lebanon may be one of the most liberal states in the MENA region, it still has a long way to go on the path to becoming a full-fledged democracy, and continuous instability threatens to derail reform efforts. In October 2009, renowned Middle East journalist Robert Fisk wrote, “For decades, Lebanese journalism has been applauded as the freest, most outspoken, most literate in the heavily censored Arab world. Alas, no more.” Why did he write this? Fisk believes that a spate of media firings in 2009 were not a result of the economic times as had been the excuse of the media companies, but occurred for political purposes. In Lebanon, the press is what he calls a “feudal system,” where if you want to run a newspaper or television station, you must buy an existing title, and these titles are owned by the wealthy and powerful. So where does that leave the Lebanese who aren’t at the top of the politico-economic food chain?

Egypt is a much more repressed environment. Recently, 30 Egyptian bloggers were arrested for traveling to the site of January’s violence against Copts in Egypt with the intent to talk to a bishop there and support the victims. The Egyptian government has recently cracked down on freedom of express across the country. Bloggers have been providing information about and criticism of the Egyptian government that cannot be found in the newspapers due to the censorship imposed by the Mubarak regime. Technology is their means to fight oppression.

But governments are not the only impediment to free speech. Economic conditions are often just as restrictive as a law. While Beirut may be a New York Times top destination, the reality of Lebanon is that outside the capital is a whole other repressed world with a lack of economic opportunities and restrictions on free speech based on confessional group.

Egypt is far less developed than Beirut in terms of citizen prosperity and education levels, and Egyptians’ access to information is extremely limited. According to Human Rights Watch, most Egyptians are not aware of their political, social, and economic rights.1 Information technology is not used on a wide scale due to infrastructural, economic, and technological barriers. The Egyptian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology reports that only 20% of Egyptians have access to the internet.

1 Human Rights Watch 2009 Annual Report, http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2009

3

Page 4: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

As Secretary Clinton said in her internet freedom speech, “A connection to global information networks is like an on-ramp to modernity.” The internet is one place where rich and poor could have an equal voice, yet so many of the world’s marginalized groups do not have access. Likewise, language barriers impede access to information, as much of the world wide web is in English. Marginalized groups often know very little about human rights and democracy because they are cut off from information. These two terms are often thrown around by anti-Western politicians and clerics to drive fear into the hearts of their followers. What is needed is a means to information about human rights that exists outside of what they hear from politicians and clerics.

That is why Safadi Foundation USA (SFUSA), Safadi Foundation Lebanon (SFL), and the Egyptian NGO Support Center (ENGOSC) seek to increase access to information by implementing an innovative project which promotes human rights and democracy through the use of information technology. The ICT for Human Rights and Democracy project is the first of its kind in the Middle East North Africa region. The project will tackle two major challenges in particularly marginalized areas of Lebanon and Egypt. It will provide access to information by increasing internet access in poorer areas of the two countries while simultaneously teaching about human rights and democracy. The project will develop capacities at both the individual and institutional levels to understand human rights principles.

The human rights and democracy awareness campaign will be completely conducted through training in and use of information technology, using it as a tool for the efficient promotion of human rights and democracy concepts for rural, marginalized, and vulnerable populations as well as for professionals for whom such concepts are essential in their fields of specialization, particularly lawyers, civil society organizations, and students. The project will emphasize access to information through building ICT and English language capacities, narrowing the digital divide that is too often a barrier to knowledge and freedom of expression.

In the case of Lebanon, there are no similar activities currently being implemented. Human rights and democracy awareness campaigns are conducted with specific groups, such as women, children, prisoners, and professional organizations, but without the use of technology and without emphasis on facilitating access to information that is available on the internet. The Lebanese government has responded on an ad hoc basis in providing access to information and has yet to set a clear common strategic vision for providing internet access to all communities. The government does not focus on ICT as a communication tool for policies or as a resource for government information, but it is in the first stages of establishing forms of e-government, and there is a similar effect in civil society.

Although some activities have been implemented in Egypt in the last two decades to increase citizen awareness about human rights and democracy, most of these activities have targeted the older, more educated sector of Egyptian society, using tradition methods of awareness raising such as seminars, conferences, and paper publications. Therefore, the proposed project will be an important addition to these endeavors, as it will use more innovative approaches to reach out to a large number of citizens, especially those in marginalized groups. NGOs participating in the project will become ICT access points (community tele-centers) through which citizens can

4

Page 5: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

access information about human, civil, and political rights. The tele-centers will enable citizens to discuss, read, and receive counseling and exchange experiences and information with peers and colleagues from around the world.

Objectives

The overall goal of the project is to advance freedom and democracy in Egypt and Lebanon through the use of information and communication technology.

To increase access to information among repressed communities in marginalized areas of Lebanon and Egypt.

To raise awareness of human rights and democracy principles through the use of information and communication technology targeting marginalized groups and professionals.

To increase knowledge sharing and dialogue about using ICT to raise awareness about human rights and democracy.

Activities

Preparatory Phase – Steering Committee and Launching Events

The preparatory phrase of this project consists of two activities. First, in order to ensure efficient and effective project management, a steering committee will be formed from staff at Safadi Foundation USA, Safadi Foundation Lebanon, and the Egyptian NGO Support Center. The steering committee will meet throughout the project to assess progress and work out any challenges that arise during the project.

The second preparatory activity will be two launching events, one held in Lebanon and the other in Egypt. The purpose of the launching events is to inform key stakeholders about the project and to reach out to targeted groups in the specific regions.

ICT for Human Rights and Democracy Curriculum Development

The implementation phase of the project will begin with the development of a training curriculum on human rights and democracy for the instructors who will be teaching the curriculum later on in the project. Egyptian and Lebanese experts in ICT and human rights will be tasked with curriculum development with the participation of some of the teachers through a series of workshops that will be conducted through teleconferencing to facilitate the exchange of expertise.

Once the training curriculum is developed, 45 ICT and English teachers in Lebanon and 40 in Egypt will participate in an intensive training session on human rights and democracy. Such training will cover the various international agreements and commitments of governments as well as human rights protection mechanisms and citizenship. This training will help to raise awareness on human rights principles and will increase their capacities to train others on how to access such information through IT and English language.

5

Page 6: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

When the teachers have been trained, the curriculum will be revised during workshops with Lebanese and Egyptian human rights experts and the teachers to be used in training courses for four separate groups: marginalized citizens, lawyers, civil society organizations, and university students.

ICT for Human Rights and Democracy Training for Marginalized Groups

The training program targeting marginalized communities in North Lebanon and marginalized communities in Egypt will commence once the curriculum is set. These areas are characterized by a lack of access to the necessary infrastructure, equipment, and capacity to access information on fundamental rights and freedoms. The people of North Lebanon speak only Arabic with some having received education in French, so English speakers are uncommon. This reduces their access to information through the internet because IT programs and resources are largely in English. Therefore, to increase access to information via the internet, the target groups will undergo basic English training using human rights and democracy concepts.

The project will target 3500 participants in Lebanon and 40 civil society organizations in Egypt. Over the course of two years, the centers will have sessions for groups of 15-20 participants and courses will be cross-confessional, cross-generational, and gender-mixed to promote discussions that reflect different opinions. The Egyptian civil society organizations will each undergo the course and teach the curriculum to their beneficiaries beyond the duration of this project.

Using their newly acquired skills, beneficiaries will be invited to participate in an essay competition. This competition will require participants to compose a 3-5 page paper that describes how learning about human rights and democracy in their courses impacted their lives. They will be required to use Microsoft Office tools and conduct research on the internet and write about rights enjoyed in their communities. This will also be an effective measurement tool to assess how participants have come to understand and absorb the concepts of human rights and democracy.

ICT for Human Rights and Democracy Training for Professionals

At the same time, curricula tailored for lawyers, civil society organizations, and university students will be conducted. The training program will be taught over two years and will target 100 Lebanese lawyers, 250 Lebanese university students, and 100 Lebanese civil society organizations. The courses will be taught in a specialized IT lab in the only public library in North Lebanon, Al Mouna Library.

Essay competitions will be held for each group. Lawyers will be asked to write about violations of human rights in their regions; CSOs will write about human rights in the development field, and university students will write about how the course impacted their lives.

6

Page 7: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Regional Roundtables

After two years of ICT for Human Rights and Democracy training, regional roundtables will be held in both Lebanon and Egypt in order to share experiences and set recommendations for improvements in future projects on ICT as an instrument for consolidating democracy and promoting human rights. 200 in Lebanon and 200 in Egypt key stakeholders, such as United Nations agencies, NGOs, CSOs, universities, policy-makers, ministries, advocacy groups etc. will be invited to participate in the roundtables and to set out recommendations. Closing Ceremonies

Towards the end of the project, a jury of human rights experts will be established to evaluate the essay competition submissions. The jury will select the top three submissions from marginalized groups and the top three submissions from each of the professional categories. In the end, 12 papers will receive prizes. To keep winners connected in the future, first place winners will receive iPhones, second place winners will receive electronic notebooks, and third prize winners will receive mobile phones. Prizes will be awarded during two closing ceremonies in the two countries. Six hundred Lebanese and 500 Egyptian guests will be invited to attend the ceremonies to observe how human rights awareness has impacted the lives of members of their communities. Finally, a CD collecting the experiences, success stories, top 12 essays, and achievements of the project will be distributed to 2000 key stakeholders in Egypt and Lebanon.

Social Media

Over the course of this project, SFUSA will be reporting on activities through the use of social media. Its blog, Developing Lebanon (http://blog.safadifoundationusa.org), is dedicated to promoting civil society initiatives and activities. Developing Lebanon has already received praise from long-time Lebanese academics and civil society advocates, including such people as the Lebanese political blogger Qifa Nabki, and a post on the television show Kilna Bil Hayy attracted the attention of Daily Star Journalist Josie Ensor, who subsequently wrote an article on the show quoting a SFUSA Program Officer. SFUSA also uses Facebook and Twitter to spread information about what civil society is doing in Lebanon and will continue to do so regarding this project.

Institutional Records and Capacities

Safadi Foundation USA (SFUSA) is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization located in Washington, DC. The organization’s honorary founder, Mohammed Safadi, is Lebanon’s Minister of Economy, but he is not involved in organizational operations in any way. SFUSA has its own board of directors, consisting of mostly Americans.

7

Page 8: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Founded in 2008 and inspired by the resilience of the Lebanese people, SFUSA seeks to strengthen the capacity of civil society.  SFUSA aims to achieve this by partnering international donors with local organizations proven to be accountable, transparent and effective.  In parallel to working with civil society, SFUSA serves as an educational resource among policymakers and government officials, for policies that promote the growth of strong and independent state institutions dedicated to the rule of law, good governance and sustainable human development. 

Lara Alameh is the Executive Director of SFUSA.  Prior to her current position, Alameh ran a consulting company specializing in foreign policy, conflict resolution and development. She also served as a Professional Staff Member for the U.S. House of Representative’s International Relations Committee under Chairman Henry J. Hyde. Alameh holds a Bachelor of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Democracy and Governance Studies at Georgetown University.

SFUSA Program Officer Cathleen Glover has previously worked as Middle East North Africa Program Coordinator at the Center for International Private Enterprise, where she worked on projects with such organizations as DRL, NED, USAID, and MEPI. She has several years of grants management and coordination experience in international development and has maintained a well-read personal blog since 2005. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

Safadi Foundation Lebanon (SFL) shares the same honorary founder as SFUSA but is a separate organization. The two organizations closely follow each other’s work and cooperate when the occasion arises, as it has for this project idea. SFL has been working to reform Lebanon for more than twenty years and has established a strong network with community groups, local and national government agencies, civil society organizations, universities, and international development stakeholders. SFL’s experience in expanding access to information and opportunity is extensive. Over the last eight years, SFL has reached out to people whose lives are marred by poverty and the legacy of conflict, filling the void of opportunity with the promise of a better future by providing computer and English language training. To date, more than 50,000 people have undergone basic computer training in SFL’s eleven computer training centers in North Lebanon. More than 70% of these beneficiaries are from rural and impoverished urban communities. In 2008, through a partnership with Microsoft Lebanon, the Microsoft Unlimited Potentials curriculum has been taught at the centers. In addition, from 2004-2006 SFL equipped a mobile ICT center that travelled to remote villages where there is no access to ICT learning resources to offer local communities basic training sessions.

SFL’s experience with the empowerment of women and youth is extensive, and programmatic development focuses on encouraging marginalized groups to be active citizens and participate in the decision-making process. The Women’s Academy, funded by the British Embassy in Lebanon and located in one of Tripoli’s poorest communities, has conducted several projects to raise women’s awareness on their social, legal, political, and economic rights. The Shababouna “Our Youth” Center, funded by the World Bank and the Lebanese Council for Development and Reconstruction, is also located in an impoverished area and focuses on preventing at-risk youth from adopting negative social behavior like drug and alcohol abuse and participating in extremist groups.

8

Page 9: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Egyptian NGO Support Center (ENGOSC) is an umbrella organization for over 300 CSOs in Egypt and a leading institution specializing in organizational development for NGOs in Egypt and the Middle East. ENGOSC’s mission is to strengthen civil society organizations to serve an effective role in public-private partnerships for Egypt’s socio-economic development. Through training, technical assistance, mentoring and provision of resources (human, financial, and material), ENGOSC strengthens organizations' capacity to further development goals. ENGOSC meets the challenges of its mission through leadership that encourages innovation in program activities, scaling up, and cross-sectoral development approaches.

From July 2008 to March 2009, ENGOSC, funded by the America’s Development Foundation, implemented a pilot project titled “Increasing Awareness of E-government Services to Combat Corruption in Egypt” in two governorates, in collaboration with the Ministry of Administrative Development (MOAD) and local CSOs. During the Project, the following results were achieved:

30 NGOs from Cairo and Giza, conducted public campaigns in their communities, to raise citizens’ awareness of e-government services;

2000 citizens in the targeted communities have started using the governmental electronic services, through computer/internet portals at the participating NGOs’ premises; and hence stopped paying bribes and/or kickbacks to get the governmental services.

The Minister of Administrative Development issued a decree to regulate the work of the NGOs within the E-government Services; so as to be recognized by the Government as licensed providers of its service.

Awareness of 50 officials from different ministries was raised about the role of e-government services in promoting transparency, accountability; and the role of NGOs in promoting assisting citizens use of e-services.

ENGOSC has an EU-funded project in South Sinai, Stakeholders Capacity Building Project, that includes human rights awareness-raising activities for South Sinai Bedouin (mainly women and youth) to know their rights in forming CSOs, implement development and advocacy projects, and conduct dialogues with other stakeholders (local governments and the private sector) to identify priority problems, develop plans for solutions and participate in decision-making at the local, district and governorate level.

Multiplier Effect and Sustainability

9

Page 10: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

The targeted groups have an essential role in causing a multiplier effect. Women, traditionally the educators and care providers for their families, will pass human rights awareness onto her children and other family members. Youth and students will use the knowledge in their studies and career goals, regardless of the specializations they select. Lawyers and CSOs can directly adopt rights based approaches in their practices which will impact their clients or the beneficiaries of CSO/NGO development projects. Therefore, the project has the potential to reach much more than the direct beneficiaries which will have a far reaching impact on local communities.

A grassroots awareness campaign that targets the general population and professional groups through ICT has not been implemented in the region. Several efforts have been made promoting the use of e-government portals, but in Lebanon and Egypt, the essential knowledge on fundamental rights and freedoms has yet to reach the grassroots level. Citizens cannot participate in advancing democracy if they are not aware of the rights granted to them in democratic states. Not only can the program be replicated in other regions of Egypt and Lebanon, but it can be used in other transitioning democracies in the Middle East and North Africa region as well. Curricula can also be replicated in the school systems to begin teaching students at a young age about their rights and freedoms. The main purpose of the roundtables is to discuss how to further promote and use this program in schools and other training forums.

The ICT for Human Rights and Democracy curricula will continue to be used beyond the end of this grant. It will be available from the Safadi Foundation and Egyptian NGO Support Center websites for the use by any other organizations in the region.

In the future, Safadi Foundation envisions building more human rights-based projects that will further activate citizens and specialized groups in the promotion and protection of rights in the regions of Lebanon that are in need of such interventions.

In Egypt, participating civil society organizations will provide Tele-Center services to citizens on cost recovery basis. Also, the project will develop state-of-the-art expertise and materials in this field and will market them to donors and civil society organizations interested in supporting human rights; and the civil society organizational networks will charge membership fees from their members and will raise funds from various sources to continue their activities in their governorates and expand at the national level in the future.

The capacity building component of the project will include ‘train the trainers’ programs (focusing on training and mentoring, ‘know-how’ in capacity-building for civil society organizations, and operating and managing intermediary civil society organizations and their networks) in order to build capable cadres of trainers and practitioners in those fields; first to address staff attrition, and mentor and train other civil society organizational staff to implement and manage similar projects in their communities.

The project will depend on local institutions and civil society organizations that will promote the courses during and beyond the project duration; therefore, it is likely that people’s motivation and mobilization and use of Community Tele-Centers services will continue and increase.

10

Page 11: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Attachment A - Evaluation Plan

An independent evaluation consultant will be hired to assess the impact of this project upon its completion. The implementing partners will form a steering committee that will meet throughout the project to evaluate progress and discuss any issues that may arise. Roundtables will be held towards the end of the project to discuss progress, results, and ways to spread the program’s use throughout the entire Middle East North Africa region.

The following outputs will directly result from this project:

More than 80 teachers will be trained in using ICT to advance human rights, democracy, and access to information.

More than 4000 citizens of marginalized communities will use ICT to learn about human rights and democracy and will be given increased access to information.

One hundred lawyers, 250 university students, and 140 civil society organizations will directly benefit and pass on their knowledge to others.

Curricula on using ICT for human rights and democracy awareness will be developed that can be replicated beyond the project.

2000 CDs will be produced to disseminate to key stakeholders about the project and its successes.

To assess impact, the partners will do the following:

Objective 1: To increase access to information among repressed communities in marginalized areas of Lebanon and Egypt.

Track the number of participants who successfully complete the training courses.

Objective 2: To raise awareness of human rights and democracy principles through the use of information and communication technology targeting marginalized groups and professionals.

Track the progress made by students by their grades on tests that will be given throughout each course.

Evaluate the quality of essays submitted to the competition as an indicator of increased understanding of human rights and democracy.

Track the number of hits to its blog posts about the program and the participant essays. Track the number and type of media coverage of the training programs and the

roundtable discussions as well as the publication of recommendations.

Objective 3: To increase knowledge sharing and dialogue about using ICT to raise awareness about human rights and democracy.

Track the number of schools that implement the program, noting their geographic region. Track the number of civil society organizations that incorporate this program into their

own programs, noting their geographic region.

11

Page 12: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Track the number of requests for the curriculum. Track the number of CDs that are distributed and to whom they are distributed.

12

Page 13: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Attachment B - Key Personnel

SFUSA Program Officer Cathleen Glover will be the primary point of contact for this grant and the project coordinator as well as the social media manager. She has previously worked on projects with such organizations as DRL, NED, USAID, and MEPI. She has several years of grants management and coordination experience in international development and has maintained a well-read personal blog since 2005. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

ICT Sector Coordinator: Mr. Azzam Dalati has Business degree and has over 30 years of experience in the management field. He has been the ICT sector coordinator for Safadi Foundation for the past 9 years. Mr. Dalati has built successful cooperation with Microsoft in Lebanon and many other IT organizations.

Project Managers: TBD Project managers will be assigned in Lebanon and one for Egypt. They will be ensuring the efficient and effective implementation of the project. These positions will be filled once the project has received approval for funding and for initiation.

Budget Officer: Mayssa Nazir (Safadi Foundation Lebanon) M. Nazir has an MBA in Finance from the University of Balamand, Lebanon. She has been working in the Finance department of Safadi Foundation since 2008 and has undertaken the financial management of projects up to $1 million. M. Nazir communicates directly with the accounting department and oversees the procurement actions within the framework of projects funded by international donors.

ICT Teachers: All of Safadi Foundation’s ICT teachers have bachelor’s degrees in computer-related domains. They are all MCSE accredited and have sufficient English skills required for the technical knowledge transfer.

English Teachers: All English teachers have degrees in English Literature or related domains. Most have received training from specialized institutes in Lebanon for the effective knowledge transfer of English skills.

Egypt Country Director, Mr. Mahmoud El Bably (Egypt), Director of the Information and Communication Technology Department: Mr. Bably has a Masters of Science in ‘Management and Information Systems’, from Manchester University, United Kingdom. Has 12 years of work experience as an Expert in ICT for Civil Society Strengthening. His work has been with national and international organizations; such as Save the Children-USA, National Council of Negro Women-USA, UNDP-Bahrain and the ENGOSC.

Capacity Building Specialist, Mr. Omar Osman has 8 years working as a capacity building specialist, technical assistance team leader, technical assistance advisor, and grants specialist, training and technical assistance advisor and specialist, community development officer, and consultant.

13

Page 14: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Attachment C - 3 Year Timeline

14

Page 15: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Attachment D – MOUs

15

Page 16: ICT for Human Rights and Democracy in Egypt and Lebanon

Copy of Email MOU with Lebanese American University

Dear Ms. Yakan, The Continuing Education Program at LAU supports the English for Lawyers Project through the Memorandum Of Understanding signed with the Safadi Foundation.  For the targeted 250 lawyers, we project a total cost of $425,000 over a period of 36 months, covering 10 to 12 series of tailored English for Lawyers' classes. Each class series covers 4 levels, starting from basic English and migrating towards the Advanced English for Lawyers' levels. Sincerely,Michel Majdalani MICHEL MAJDALANI , MSEE, MSOR, MBA Director, Continuing Education Program  

16