COLLABORATIVE PROJECT- SUDAN

NAME: RASHA, KARROAG, AMNA, GEORGE, LAZIM AND MICHAEL
PROJECT: COLLABORATIVE FOR PEACE IN SUDAN
LOCATION: SUDAN

Our interest in Sudan started with Insight on Conflict, our web showcase of peacebuilding initiatives in conflict areas. We put Sudan in as a pilot country, thinking if we could find local peacebuiding initiatives there, after 20 years of vicious civil war, we could find them anywhere.

When we visited in January 2006, we were so encouraged – not only did we meet really impressive people, several of whom, like Dr Mudawi of SUDO, had been imprisoned because of their work, but we met people in the North and in the South with very similar visions, who had never met.

We decided to bring them together, in a safe space provided by the British Council in Khartoum, to see whether they wanted to take up the opportunity to work together. Everyone had the same priority – to make sure that Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement is widely understood by the whole population.

After only 24 hours, they had shared their thoughts on being Sudanese, on peacebuilding, and were working together on a joint action plan to put to donors and the press. Alan Bones of the Canadian Embassy commented ‘You have achieved in 3 days what others would have taken a year to accomplish.’ Participants chose a Steering Committee, who have been organising the last 12 months' events, with a co-ordinator, Rasha, funded by Peace Direct.

One of the participants, George Ngoha, expressed the high emotional charge of the event ‘It’s not just that we are coming to the North for the first time in 20 years, but it’s also to find that our brothers in the North are doing the same work as we are doing in the South. The veil has been torn down.’

At the second meeting of the Collaborative in December 2006, participants shared ideas about how to get the message of the Peace Agreement spread as widely as possible. Tea ladies in Omdurman chatting about it with their customers – bus drivers playing tapes – drama and song – there was lots to talk about.

Next the Collaborative met in Juba in March 2007 in order to reach more organizations based in the South. This was challenging – the delegates’ accommodation disappeared, sold to a higher bidder, and the phones didn’t work – but we were stunned by the commitment of the hotel manager, and the grant officer, both of whom went several extra miles to make sure things were sorted.

The Steering Committee managed to find time to write a strategic plan, which involves more outreach visits to Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains, and the first joint project, funded by Peace Direct, to deflect growing levels of violent conflict in S Kordofan.

Read the latest on a seminar in November on oil and community, exploring how oil could be a blessing not a curse for Sudan.

For more go to the Sudan page of the British Council's website.