Dr. Abdelmajid Atef, General Treasurer of the Arab Scouts Organisation and regional director, pilot brigadier Ahmed Adellatif, Head of the Arab Scouts Council, and Mr. Saad Zayan, Director of leadership growth with the World Scouts Organisation’s office, opened a scout conference for the responsibility of leadership development and phase expansion, with the aim of guaranteeing the fulfilment of Scout resolutions in the area of programs and phase expansion. This took place from the 13^th – 15^th of April 2008 in the International Arab Scouts Centre in Cairo.

Sixteen Arab Scout groups took part in the conference, with 63 participants in total, as follows: Jordan (1), UAE (2), Bahrain (3), Tunisia (1), Algeria (2), Saudi Arabia (6), Sudan (4), Sultanate of Oman (1), Palestine (4), Kuwait (3), Lebanon (5), Libya (4), Egypt (15), Morocco (4), Mauritania (1), Yemen (3) and the World Scout Organisation office (1).

The conference covered the following issues: Management of phase and program expansion, International Policy for leadership growth, The relationship between the phases and leadership, Defining the roles and responsibilities necessary to achieve the resolutions, Specification of training requirements for the completion of the resolutions in the programs, Ways, means and approaches of training counsellors, How to set up a system to certify leaders, Placing measures for the continuation and support of leaders, Explanation of the awarding of World Scouts Medals (Discovery Volunteering Stages), Partnerships, Explanation of the Cairo Marine Scouts Corps trial in the World Scouts medals program, Discussion concerning how the programs should be incorporated in advanced and itinerant scout activities, Future plans for the cooperation in the area of programs and leadership.