In 1999 the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, which was established in 1979, was closed when the Ministry of Youth was established. The latter was dissolved in 2005 when two national councils were established: one for youth and the other for sport  [...]

In December 2005, the Ministry of Youth and Sport was abolished and the National Council for Youth was established (ESIS, Year Book 2006) [...]

The NCY put an action plan for four years (2006-2010) that the Prime Minister ratified, and made an annual evaluation of programmes and projects related to achieving its goals. The decree 425 confirms that all ministries and public agencies and local administrations implement the plans, projects and programmes proposed by the NCY in the field of youth.

The NYC is responsible for the development and implementation of a plan for youth and the mobilization of human and financial resources to disseminate a youth culture. The Council has produced a document proposing a National Youth Policy focusing on twelve different sector areas as a first step towards a holistic and inclusive reform strategy. At a second stage, it is expected to develop the policies and proposing legislation to define and regulate all youth related activities.

The proposed National Youth Policy for Egypt (Box 1.5) realizes the multi-disciplinary nature of the work that needs to be done to better serve Egyptian youth. It thus mentions that the implementation of the policies will be the responsibility of the various concerned stakeholders. There is also a clear recognition of the inevitable role to be played by the private sector and civil society organizations in formulating and implementing the policies, and this is emphasized in more than one point. What remains, and after the paper is ratified, is a clearer division of roles and responsibilities.

The massive street protests of 2010-2011 were fueled by the largest ever cohort of under age 30 Arab youth. They had experienced exclusion and ‘waithood’ in all facets of their lives, facing high unemployment, delayed marriages, and restricted access to civic or political roles. Then an opening occurred – a tipping point of anger and new purpose – and in Tunisia then Egypt and then Libya young activists and ordinary kids set out to make their own history. For those who had envisioned an inclusive, tolerant, and non-violent future, the messy postrevolutionary period has been bitterly disappointing [...]

The Egyptian revolution’s demands for socio- economic justice are at the forefront of the concerns of the participants of our study. They challenge the accepted notion that this was a revolution for and towards democracy. Despite electing a president democratically, they stressed that protests and demonstrations did not stop in Egypt and the democratic process has not yet led to stability. An ongoing unfolding of the definition of revolution is being formed as the youth negotiate its boundaries: what triggered it, what it was for, and where it was and is headed. In particular, the study’s participants stressed the importance of recognising social justice as the paramount demand of the revolution. According to this view, the demand for democracy was not the driving force behind the 25 January revolution [...]

Participants described how Egyptian youth have failed to organise themselves into political groups or parties in which they could be actively represented. However, this failure to organise and consolidate is matched by reluctance on the part of political parties to include them. The only prominent youth movement that was able to survive up to the time of writing is the April 6th Youth Movement. More than 35 new political parties were established after 25 January 2011, but only a few have carved out a space for youth.