Early Warning and Rapid Response Mechanisms in Egypt, 2013

Sectarian tensions are still recurrent in Egypt after the revolution, and they contribute to destabilizing the transition process. With the objective to address this issue, the Egyptian organization MADA for Research & Consultation has organized a training workshop in collaboration with the North Africa and West Asia in Transformation (NAWAT) program of the Cordoba Foundation of Geneva. The training workshop convened influential stakeholders from various groups and parties in Egypt, in order to build experience together on how to effectively defuse sectarian tensions by building mechanisms of Early Warning and Rapid Response and by cooperating together at official and non-official levels.

This training workshop is part of a longer process that ultimately aims at building a consolidated early warning and rapid response mechanism to defuse violent clashes between Muslims and Christians in Egypt.

Held over five days in March 2013 and gathering a team of 24 (12 participants, 12 of the implementing team with trainers, consultants and project staff), the workshop was a great success, thanks to the quality and diversity of the participants and their involvement, but also the accurate program design and facilitation, and highly functional practical organization and teamwork. Encouraging indications of continuing work have already been observed, such as follow-up meeting with State officials and a plan for a Mechanism embodied by a Statement and Plan of Action.