Assiut University continues the activities of the second scientific forum with an educational session on institutional reform and improving the efficiency of government services

- President of Assiut University: we are keen to organize events that contribute to achieving the goals of the state and support administrative and institutional reform plans

- Dr. El-Minshawy commends the lecturers ' efforts in presenting the reform standards and mechanisms to address rumors to enhance the efficiency of government performance

  Assiut University witnessed, today, Saturday, June 14, 2025, under the supervision of Dr. Ahmed El-menshawi, president of Assiut University, an important educational session was held under the title "institutional reform and improving the efficiency of government services", within the activities of the second scientific forum for professional programs at the Faculty of Commerce, which is being held entitled "institutional reform and digital governance to support the building of the Egyptian state", in the presence of Dr. Ahmed Akkawi, president of South Valley University, and under the supervision of Dr. Alaa Abdel Hafiz, dean of the Faculty of Commerce, and organizing the management of graduate professional programs in cooperation with the scientific committee at the college students ' union.

   The session was moderated by Dr. Adel Rayan, dean of the Faculty of Administrative Sciences at Badr Assiut University, former vice president of Assiut University for education and Student Affairs, Dr. Abdul Salam noir, head of the Department of political science, and former dean of the Faculty of Commerce. During the lecture, Dr. Saleh al-Sheikh, Professor of Public Administration at Cairo University, former head of the central organization and administration authority, and Dr. Khadija Arafa, head of the central department for community communication at the information and Decision Support Center at the Egyptian Council of ministers, lectured.

  In this context, Dr. Ahmed Al-manshawi stressed the University's keenness to organize scientific and educational events that contribute to supporting the state's efforts in the fields of administrative and institutional reform, by providing constructive discussions that put forward scientific and practical visions that are applicable within various state institutions.

  The president of the University praised the high scientific level of the session, praising the lecturers ' efforts in clarifying the standards and areas of administrative reform, reviewing mechanisms to address rumors and their role in enhancing government performance, reflecting academic and community awareness of the importance of governance and transparency in building a modern state.
 
  At the beginning of his lecture entitled "institutional reform and improving the efficiency of government services", Dr. Saleh al-Sheikh, head of the central organization and administration authority, thanked Dr. Ahmed Al-manshawi, president of Assiut University, for his kind invitation, expressing his appreciation for the constructive cooperation between Egyptian universities in supporting administrative reform issues and capacity building.

Dr. Saleh al-Sheikh pointed out that the path of institutional reform is a great challenge, due to its multiple complexities, explaining that the manifestations of administrative dysfunction within institutions are very similar to the accumulation of harmful fats inside the human body, which negatively affect public health, and require careful and gradual interventions. He added that the reform process does not take place overnight, but requires patience, continuity and a real awareness of the requirements and stages of change.

Dr. Saleh al-Sheikh also pointed to the great attention paid by successive Egyptian governments to the institutional reform file, explaining that government entities have been established, and extensive development and reform plans have been developed for this purpose, reaching the state strategy for sustainable development in general ٢٠١٥, and its vision to build an administrative apparatus for Egypt by the year ٢٠٣٠ (efficient, effective, applies government standards, performs its development role, and increases citizen satisfaction).

Dr. Saleh al-Sheikh reviewed the most important achievements in the axes of the administrative reform plan, including in the field of legislative reform: the issuance of the Civil Service Law No.٨١ for the year ٢٠١٦, the issuance of important executive decisions related to promotions and job description and evaluation criteria, in addition to activating the Capacity Assessment Center and competitions through the development of an integrated and approved electronic system for evaluation. In the field of institutional reform, a number of decisions were issued on raising the efficiency of the state administrative apparatus, strategic planning and follow-up, human resources management, information systems and digital transformation, internal audit and governance, which resulted in a 27 decision to restructure ministries, and various draft decisions to merge and abolish some entities in accordance with the establishment laws.

As for the field of capacity building and development, the most important axes of the reform included the launch of the National Training Strategy, the adoption of public and private training centers, and draft training plans for administrative authorities.with regard to the field of digital transformation, database building and integration, the most prominent of which was the project of updating the job profile of employees of the state administrative apparatus electronically. as for the field of improving public services, a number of digital services were added and developed, including the promotions website, institutional memory, institutional digital communication, the government jobs portal, the smart automated assistant, as well as e-learning.

On the other hand, in her lecture on" developing mechanisms to respond to rumors and their role in enhancing government performance", Dr. Khadija Arafa addressed the reasons for the spread of rumors about government performance on an ongoing basis, foremost of which is the lack of familiarity with what is being done, and the absence of accurate information, which results in a widening gap between the citizen and the public policy of the state, explaining ways to overcome it by presenting achievements in all fields in innovative ways, changing stereotypes with new ideas, raising awareness, and conducting an effective community dialogue on the most prominent issues.

Reviewed Dr. Khadija knew, harvest the face of the rumors and clarify the facts for the period from 2014 to 2023, which was monitoring 1037 common tied to the government performance through 2023, adding to the growing rates of rumors annually, and that approximately 45% of the rumors related to economic empowerment, as shown the impact of regional crises and global I have the pattern rumors doubling their numbers during the period from 2020 to 2023, the most prominent crisis of these 19, in addition to rumors, seasonal, and others associated with the daily life of individuals.

The head of the Central Department of community communication also touched upon the development of working mechanisms to respond to rumors in recent years, by highlighting what the government is doing, reviewing the most prominent national projects throughout the country, clarifying the facts, as well as changing the stereotype, and highlighting positive models.

She also pointed to the impact of community dialogue in countering rumors and responding to them through the "dialogue" platform as one of the platforms approved within the national models submitted in 2022, which included the website of the presidency of the Republic and the government complaints system.these updates contributed to improving Egypt's ranking in the "e-community participation" index for 2024, where Egypt jumped 33 places to reach 74 out of 193 countries globally in 2024.

For his part, Dr. Abdel Salam Noyer, at the end of the session, stressed that the administrative reform process represents one of the main pillars of building the modern Egyptian state, stressing that it is a long-term process that requires continuity to ensure its sustainability, because of its importance in preserving the history, archives and heritage of the Egyptian state.

He pointed out that the administrative reform faces a number of challenges, most notably the political culture of individuals, which calls for raising the level of community awareness of reform issues, stressing that the awareness of citizens is a pivotal factor in the success of development efforts.

Dr. Noyer explained that the spread of rumors is closely related to the political, social and cultural framework. He also pointed out that the free circulation of information and the effectiveness of communication channels is one of the most important means to limit and counter rumors.

At the end of his speech, he praised the great efforts exerted by the Egyptian state and the National Media Authority in countering rumors, and also appreciated the prominent role of the political leadership in advancing the administrative reform process, in a way that enhances the state's ability to face challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Dr. Adel Rayyan praised the efforts of the Assiut University administration, led by Dr. Ahmed El-Minshawy, in supporting researchers and members of professional programs, and working to develop those programs by doubling the available specialties, explaining that these efforts began with the issuance of the list of graduate studies with credit hours in 2008, which was followed by the opening of admission for those wishing to enroll in professional programs at the master's and doctoral levels, reflecting the University's keenness to meet the needs of the labor market and provide advanced educational pathways.

It is worth mentioning that the conference witnessed the participation of vice presidents of Assiut University, vice presidents of a number of Egyptian universities, deans of colleges, their proxies, faculty members of Egyptian universities, coordinators of student welfare and student activities at the University.