Egypt Participates in Lisbon Forum 202
Egypt, represented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), participated in Lisbon Forum 2025, organized by the Council of Europe on October 28–29 in Lisbon, Portugal, under the theme “AI and Global Governance: Rights, Representativity and Readiness.”
The Forum provided a space for dialogue, policy reflection, and capacity-building, engaging stakeholders from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. It placed strong emphasis on AI literacy and capacity-building, targeting public authorities, legal professionals, and youth, with particular attention to vulnerable groups. The agenda featured a variety of plenary sessions, parallel workshops, and side events.
MCIT took part in a fireside chat session and a workshop titled “Shaping an Ethical, Inclusive, and Fair AI Governance Framework for the Arab Region.” The workshop, organized by the Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organization (AICTO), assessed the current landscape of AI adoption and governance in the Arab region. It also explored strategies for developing ethical, inclusive, and fair governance frameworks tailored to the region’s specific context while drawing comparisons with other global regions.
During the event, MCIT highlighted Egypt’s leading role at the Arab and African levels in developing ethical and regulatory frameworks for AI, in line with the National AI Strategy 2025–2030. The Ministry underscored the importance of transparency, fairness, and human oversight in high-risk AI systems, while calling for the inclusion of women, youth, and marginalized groups in the AI ecosystem, as well as for strengthened regional and international cooperation to harmonize ethical and regulatory standards. It also emphasized that AI should serve as a tool for achieving equitable and sustainable development and advancing human well-being.
The Lisbon Forum 2025 outcomes include improving understanding of how AI relates to protecting human rights and democratic values, and strengthening cooperation among stakeholders from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East on inclusive and rights-based AI governance. Other outcomes include the identification and exchange of innovative practices in capacity-building and digital governance, including the expanded use and regional adaptation of capacity-building tools, such as the Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law Impact Assessment (HUDERIA) methodology; and the development of actionable proposals for integrating intercultural dialogue and digital literacy into AI-related policies and governance frameworks.
In a similar vein, MCIT participated in the final Steering Committee meeting of the South Programme V “Protecting Human Rights, Rule of Law and Democracy through Shared Standards in the Southern Mediterranean,” which preceded the Lisbon Forum. The meeting reviewed the key achievements of the current phase and discussed preparations for the next phase of the programme (2025–2028), focusing on strengthening regional cooperatio