Several CIPE-funded projects have assisted various groups—businesses, including women-operated businesses; and business associations—to formulate policy positions, represent a unified voice before the government, and educate their members on policies that affect them by helping them develop a national business agenda. The key to any national business agenda is participation. For example, the Federation of Egyptian Industries' national agenda included the following steps:

• Analyzing policies and forming recommendations;
• Meeting with members in open forums to discuss alternatives;
• Publishing in the media to gain input from concerned parties;
• Formulating policy reform programs;
• Publicizing the agenda; and
• Engaging in advocacy directed at the government, including the executive and the legislative branches.

These activities strengthen democracy by giving the private sector a greater role in shaping economic reform and commercial policies. In the next section, you will find examples of how business associations in different countries contributed to reducing barriers to formality and high business costs by developing national business agendas as a basis for advocating for market-oriented policy reform.