Public Policy Hub Third Annual Conference

For the third year in a row, The Public Policy HUB organized its third annual conference, on the 26th and the 27th of June; to culminate the work of more than 40 young policy researchers over the course of 7 months.  The Public Policy Hub is an initiative housed at the School of GAPP aiming at the development of public policy analysis and communication skills among young scholars in Egypt. It goes by the motto: “Where rigor meets creativity”. It is directed by Laila El Baradei and Shahjahan Bhuiyan from the PPAD department. 

This year the Conference was organized online and provided space to  10 policy research teams to present their policy research papers to a wide array of stakeholders.  The topics presented covered a diverse number of policy domains including population, health, social issues, local development, and transportation. A lively discussion ensued between the policy researchers and the discussants representing government, academia and civil society. 

A special welcome was given by AUC’s president, Francis Ricciardone who dwelled on the importance of the role The HUB plays in decreasing the gap between research and policymaking. This was followed by a speech by Provost Ehab Abdelrahman, and a very enlightening welcome as well by Dean Nabil Fahmy, Dean of The School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

The  Public Policy HUB Third Annual Conference was attended by nearly 500 participants. Keynote speakers included: Minister Nivine El-Kabbag, Minister of Social Solidarity, Dr. Tarek Tawfik, Deputy Minister of Health for Population Affairs, Dr. Noha Assem, Health Minister’s Counselor for Research and Health Development, and representatives from the 
General Authority for Transportation Projects Planning, and the National Council of Childhood and Motherhood. 

From the civil society sector, The Public Policy HUB welcomed Mr. Mohsen Sarhan, CEO of Egyptian Food, Eng. Mohamed Nada, Senior Urban Specialist at The World Bank, Dr. Heba Handousa, Managing Director, Egypt Network for Integrated Development (ENID) and Dr. Adla Ragab, Director of the Center for Economic and Financial Research and Studies, Faculty of Economics and Political Science and former Deputy Minister of Tourism.

In addition to discussing the policy papers, The HUB presented 10 graphic videos, summarizing the policy papers in a creative way to the conference attendees and keynote speakers, and by the end of the conference, four teams were announced to be the award-winning teams.