In a climate where suspicion of foreign motives are exacerbated, a remark by the US Ambassador-Designate to Egypt Anne Patterson at her Senate confirmation hearing sparked a debate about foreign funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights groups.
The Egyptian press had reported on Patterson's claim in June that Washington had already spent US$40 million to support civil society groups in Egypt since January and that 600 organizations had applied for funding. The report inflamed fears about foreign funding in post-revolution Egypt, a debate that has been seized upon by populist critics, emphasizing the need to protect state sovereignty.
In one such televised debate on the private satellite TV channel, Mehwar, Essam al-Nizami, member of the Coordinating Committee for Revolution Supporters, spent an inordinate amount of time reading from a USAID application for funding, pointing out how it proved the nefariousness of accepting grants from abroad and that there was no such thing as a “free lunch”.
Ayman Okeil, chairman of the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights, was present, and responded by saying there were no alternative sources of funding from within Egypt, explaining that what mattered was the work that was done with the money.
“When we were monitoring election fraud and were fired on by the State Security Investigation Services, that was with American money,” he said.
Similarly, Emad Mubarak, executive director of the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), said that the work of human rights groups needed resources and manpower, and that there was no viable alternative to foreign funding at the moment.
“Will Egyptian businessmen for example be willing to fund this work? Would a businessman fund an organization that advocates for workers’ rights?” he asked rhetorically.
The discourse is fundamentally complicated due to its association with the 25 January revolution. Critics say foreign aid taints the revolution, and that no foreign funding had any role in its success. Proponents, on the other hand, say the fact that NGOs are funded by foreign organizations is no news, and of little consequence.
While some have tried to draw a correlation between foreign interests and NGO behavior, actually proving that postulation is notoriously difficult, according to Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge Erin Snider, who has conducted doctoral research on the political economy of US democracy aid in Egypt. In fact, its effect is most likely negligible.
“Pressure from organized labor, independent journalists and digital activists, among other developments, over the past eight years all served to challenge the Mubarak regime. These developments don't seem to have been driven by US democracy promotion efforts,” she said.
Additionally, there are fears that talk of foreign funding coming to the fore now is an attempt to smear the work of human rights groups and other NGOs, casting them out of the political discourse as mere puppets of a foreign agenda.
For many, there is a distinction between states on one hand and individuals or local organizations on the other.
Ahmed Amir, a financial manager, protested in Cairo’s upper-middle class neighborhood of Roxy on 15 July in support of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and has opposed calls for civil disobedience and continued sit-ins at Tahrir. During his protest, he claims that many questions were raised about groups being funded from abroad.
“In the statement that we sent to the SCAF, we asked for an investigation to be conducted into organizations that have received funding without a permit from the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, to see if they were accordance with the law and how the money was spent,” Amir said.
Mubarak dismissed misgivings about his NGO being detrimental or harmful to his home country. “If my organization works on torture cases and monitors abuse by the police, is that against the interest of Egypt?”
There also exists an important distinction between funding by the US government and other sources of funding.
According to a report released by the Project on Middle East Democracy, examining the Federal Budget and Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2012, US$65 million has been earmarked to support democratic development in Egypt. In the meantime, the US Department of State's financing for Egypt remained constant at US$1.3 billion.
The AFTE, for its part, accepts no foreign government money; only NGO funding is accepted. “It’s not a problem like people make it out to be because the state accepts huge grants in sectors such as health and education.”
Mubarak also said that if foreign funding was such an important issue, then funding from the US government was an even thornier one, considering its wars in the region and unwavering support for Israel.
“If it’s coming from an NGO that I have no objections to then why not?” he reasons. “Don’t put all people in the same basket as if we are committing a crime.”
