North Sudan

Activities in the North in 2010 concentrated on capacity building and support to CSOs on election related activities from pre-election publicity and organisation, registration for voters and voter education.

Within the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005, provisions were made for a new electoral system which involved a highly complex mixed system approach, in order to accommodate principles of devolution and democracy according to the CPA. The new Sudanese election process is one of the most complex in the world, with each voter casting between 4 and 13 ballots, for the various levels of government (the exact number depending on their region). Notwithstanding the logistical challenges this presents, given Sudan’s enormous territory and weak infrastructure, this also presents a serious challenge to democracy. Low turnout and high numbers of spoiled ballots, combined with low voter registration levels, could undermine the legitimacy of the election. 70% of Sudan’s electorate are illiterate and the majority have never participated in elections before. Educating the population about the electoral process in general, informing them of their rights and demystifying the act of voting is therefore of vital importance if the elections are to be considered free, fair, and democratic.

Between Febuary 2010 and April 2010 Justice Africa endeavoured to support civil society in the run up to the elections, in ensuring that the elections were carried out fairly. JA worked with a coalition named Ta’mam in carrying out election and monitoring related activities. Justice Africa assigned delegates to attend coordination meetings and participate in visits to voter registration centres to aid monitoring. This included checking adherence to electoral procedures and reporting on any malpractice to the National Election Commission. Each centre Ta’mam visited, discrepancies were discovered and all were reported to the NEC. Members of the Ta’mam coalition applied to become accredited monitors in order to oversee vote counting and Election Day conduct.

Voter Education Manual and Video

In March 2010, Justice produced a Voter Education Training Manual in Arabic and English to be used to train trainers. Justice Africa also produced a video explaining the voting process, so that people who are illiterate in Sudan would be able to understand the process of how to vote. From the 10^th of March 2010 until end of March, Justice Africa trained 455 activists, from Civil Society organisations, candidates, candidates’ agents and political parties’ activists.

We distributed a number of DVDs to eight states in the North and two in the South.

On Monday 5^th April, we planned to hold voter education training for Southern Sudanese IDPs in Dar Elslam- Omderman (IDPs). This had to be cancelled due to the refusal of local authorities to give us permission to conduct the training. Instead we trained selected activists from Omderman in Khartoum, so that they can carry out training in IDP camps.

Awareness raising workshops and seminars:

 

Referendum Awareness Workshops

Justice Africa held a two day capacity building workshop on the 5^th and the 6^th October 2010, for youth to improve their understanding on issues related to the south Sudan self-determination referendum.

The Press and the referendum Seminar

Justice Africa organised a one day seminar on Thursday, 14 – Oct -2010 in the Khartoum headquarters under the theme The Press and the  Referendum . The seminar targeted a group of journalists working in news and political press sections in Sudanese Arabic and English press. 26 journalist participants from 13 Arabic and English-language newspapers attended.

 

Seminar on the Sudanese Economy and the Referendum

On the 16^th October 2010, Justice Africa Sudan organised a one day seminar on the economy and the referendum. The main paper was presented by Hafiz Ismail Mohamed, Justice Africa Sudan Director. The seminar was attended by 75 people including journalists, academics, and civil society activists.

 

South Sudan

Work from January to May was focused on a coalition building process with civil society in the South. This was in continuation from last year, during which Justice Africa carried out wide consultations with civil society to ascertain what kind of support to civil society was necessary. Given the lack of cohesion between civil society groups in the South, it was decided in conjunction with a steering committee, set up to implement this project, that Justice Africa would provide support to civil society in terms of coalition building.

During the period between Jan- May, Justice Africa was networking in order to build the referendum task force – a diverse group of civil society organisations and activists to engage in ensuring the referendum would be free and fairly run and to oversee and act within the subsequent transitional process in the South.

The project sought to; 

1. Better empower Southern Sudanese citizens to take into consideration the many implications of unity and secession and make informed choices at the time of the referendum.
2. Allow for a spectrum of Sudanese stakeholders to be better prepared for the possible outcomes of the exercise in self-determination.
3. Help support the Government of Sudan, the Government of Southern Sudan and other Sudanese stakeholders to work towards putting in place the necessary measures to achieve a peaceful referendum and stable post-referendum period.
4. Contribute towards building confidence between local, national, regional and international stakeholders on the future of Sudan after 2011.
5. Support regional actors to work towards implementing the necessary processes and mechanisms to support stability in the region in view of the 2011 referendum in Sudan.

 

While the Juba office were running the Sudan-Sudan dialogue in the southern ten states, JA Sudan continued to implement the capacity building component in the South.

In June 2010 Justice Africa Sudan consulted with SSRRC and the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare through a number of meetings. The recommended outcome of these meetings was to 1) to map the NGOs/ CSOs in the ten southern states  2) Provide Capacity Building training workshops for the NGOs/CSOs in the ten states.

A format designed for mapping the civil society organizations in the ten states and a database to enter all data collected has been established. The results found allowed us to assess the needs of the CSOs/ CBOs and NGOs in terms of capacity building.

JA Sudan has carried out the mapping and assessment in three states; Western Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap and Eastern Equatoria.

 

It was made apparent from the results of the mapping that more than 30 local organizations were in need of capacity building training workshops.

Training Workshop in Wau and Kuacjok

 

Justice Africa Sudan ran a 3 day training workshop in Wau (Western Bahr el Ghazal) and Kuacjok (Warrap) from the 27^th to the 29^th of October 2010. 22 participants from different NGO, CBO and CSOs attended.

The topics covered in accordance with the analysis of the mapping data were:

• Project Cycle Management.
• Peace building & Reconciliation.
• Basic Human Rights*
• Project Proposal Writing

 

* Staff from UNMIS facilitated the Human rights discussion.