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ance' alone, the correct spelling is hawkama (or hawkamah). It combines three Arabic root words: hukuma, meaning 'government,' hukm - 'judgement,' and hikmah - 'wisdom.'

Dr. Kamal Bishr, the Secretary General of the Arabic Linguistics Council, said in a letter dated May 20, 2003, 'In our opinion, the Arabic translation 'hawkama' for the term 'governance' is a correct translation in structure and meaning.First, the word has an Arabic structure because it keeps the root and the rhyme; secondly, it delivers the meaning meant by the English term. Using the word hawkama will be an addition to the Arabic language in the modern age.'

The Arabic term for corporate governance was created because local stakeholders recognized that in order for MENA economies to prosper, the conceptual and knowledge gap must be filled before governance gap can be closed. CIPE assisted in brining them together and helped to frame the strategy, but the impetus for action came from the grassroots. Having a native phrase for corporate governance in fact made possible a feeling of ownership that cannot be substituted by simply importing and imposing foreign words and norms. Ensuring local ownership of hawkama became the first step toward broader reforms.

It allowed reformers in the region for the first time to talk about not just corporate governance codes, but the larger legal and regulatory infrastructure necessary for those codes to work: consistent accounting standards, proper bankruptcy framework, modern securities laws, etc. The existence of such infrastructure is all too often assumed by the international community, while in fact local efforts are needed in most developing countries to create them in the first place. Finally - and crucially - the introduction of hawkamat ash-sharikat into the vernacular helped conceptualize the link between the values of fairness, accountability, responsibility, and transparency, relating them to governance in economic and political systems as a whole.

Regional Outcomes
The development of the Arabic term provided momentum for corporate governance reform in Egypt and elsewhere in the region. It was popularized by major Egyptian newspapers Ahram and Alam Al Youm, as well as by Ahram Economist Weekly.CIPE again supported such local efforts through numerous awareness-raising campaigns and roundtable discussions, thematic Arabic-language website www.hawkama.net, as well as publishing a number of issues of CIPE's Arabic Economic Reform Journal focusing on corporate governance. CIPE also worked with reformers to help institutionalize good corporate governance practices by assisting in the establishment of the Egyptian Institute of Directors (EIoD) in April 2004. The institute trains and builds capacity among directors, key executives, and shareholders both in the private and public sectors.

In cooperation with government and private sector representatives, EIoD drafted the Code of Corporate Governance for Listed Companies in October 2005. The code was written in Arabic (as opposed to being translated from English) by local experts mindful of the international best practices as well as local realities of conducting business.The code was revised upon soliciting the feedback of a diverse group of stakeholders, mainly accountants and auditors organizations, business associations, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, banks, and media institutions. Another CIPE