CSF Research Update No.2

Good morning and Ramadan Kareem to those who are celebrating.

This monthly mailing will share a round up of brand new research and analysis that are important for aid actors in Sudan to better understand the complex contexts in which they are working and improve the impacts of aid.

We'll also share occasional selected articles from the CSF Knowledge Hub archive that you may have missed that can help to provide background, history, and lessons learned. The publications below can all be found in the CSF Knowledge Hub.

If you have been forwarded this email, please sign up here if you'd like to receive these CSF Research Updates going forward, and to learn about upcoming events, roundtables, and trainings that are open to aid actors in Sudan.

Top Picks

WEBINAR: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Sudan (April 22nd)

Feinstein International Center, April 22, 2021 15:00 in Sudan.

Racism manifests itself differently in different countries and regions. Researchers must therefore understand racism in the context in which they are working to be able to appropriately promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. This online event will bring together three Sudanese professionals from different backgrounds and disciplines to discuss how racism manifests itself in Sudan, challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and how to promote better practices. You can register here.

Sudan: A Human Rights Road Map for the Biden Administration

REDRESS, February 2021

This paper examines the ongoing UN transition in Sudan, focusing on the establishment of UNITAMS and UNAMID’s exit from Darfur. It evaluates developments against four themes pertinent to the transition of UN peace operations: the creation of a shared political vision for the transition, national engagement in the process, efforts to comprehensively plan the transition, and the dynamics of international financial support and partnerships. And concludes by offering recommendations to guide the UN and its member states in sustaining the UN transition over the coming months. Here is the detail you need.

Solar and wind power could mitigate conflict in northeast Africa

KU Leuven, April 2021

A new study argues that several disagreements between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt around Africa's largest hydropower plant, the new Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), could be alleviated by massively expanding solar and wind power across the region. Adapting GERD operation to support grid integration of solar and wind power would provide tangible energy and water benefits to all involved countries, creating regional win-win situations. "Our results call for integrated hydro-solar-wind planning to be taken up in the GERD negotiations," says Sebastian Sterl, energy planning expert at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and KU Leuven in Belgium and lead author of the study, published in Nature Energy. Blow your cobwebs out with this report.

SNAPSHOT: The moral intersections of gender justice in post-revolution Sudan

Siri Lamoureaux, CMI, February 2021

This long-read looks at how activism to promote gender justice in Sudan interact with multiple and competing claims for autonomy and self-determination that have defined post-colonial struggles in Africa. It argues that while Western-oriented feminist activism has steered the position of civil society organizations towards international conventions which place the individual as the rights bearing entity, little attention has been paid to forms of gender justice that non-elite, non-Arab and non-Muslim women may seek – or that may not value the liberal ideals of autonomy and self-determination for women. You can read the article here.

Latest conflict analysis

Sudan: Country Report March 2021: The situation in South Kordofan and Blue Nile – An Update

Asylum Research Centre (ARC), March 2021

This Crisis Briefing assesses the challenges and opportunities of the October peace agreement. Specifically, the review explores how the agreement might be implemented, highlighting potential obstacles and means to support the country’s transition to civilian government. Aid takes place within this big picture. Get up to speed here.

Go in-depth

Interim Governance Arrangements in Post-Conflict and Fragile Settings

Robert Forster, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, September 2020

This report provides an understanding of how temporary governance during major political transitions is structured and how it works in practice, based on discussions at the Sixth Edinburgh Dialogue on Post-Conflict Constitution-Building. The Edinburgh Dialogue is an annual event that brings together experts and practitioners from the fields of constitution-building, conflict resolution and mediation to advance research on a specific issue in post-conflict constitution-building. The ongoing Sudanese political transition features as a prominent example throughout the report. You can read the report in English here or in Arabic here.

Sustaining Momentum: Seizing the opportunity for SSR in Sudan

Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe & Sarah Detzner, World Peace Foundation, June 2020

This paper addresses the challenge of security sector reform (SSR) in democratizing Sudan. The former regime developed a sprawling, expensive, corrupt, brutal and ineffective array of military forces, paramilitaries, and security units. The popular uprising that overthrew this regime sought to bring democracy, end the long-running wars in Darfur and the “Two Areas” of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, revitalize the economy, end corruption, and reform and downsize the security sector. All these objectives have faced formidable obstacles. Security sector reform has scarcely made it to the political agenda. You can read the report here.

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