Women from Sudan and South Sudan Act Together on Gender Issues

Gender, Women and Democracy; Sudan; South Sudan

 Women leaders from Sudan and South Sudan are working together for women’s rights, despite their countries’ partition in 2011. While relations between their countries are difficult, the women discovered that they face common challenges in achieving greater rights for women. Together, they defined their objectives as advocates and worked on developing the expertise to achieve them.

As part of a two-year program sponsored by NDI, the women came together in four meetings to develop advocacy skills and foster cross-border connections. The final gathering was held in September at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Previous meetings took place in South Africa, South Sudan, and Kenya.

“As women, we are one people,” said one of the South Sudanese participants. “We have common things that affect us together.”

Participants were selected for their background as dedicated advocates for women’s rights through political lobbying, community-level messaging, academic research, and legislative work. The group hailed from diverse regions, including all 10 states of South Sudan and several areas in Sudan, including Darfur and the Blue Nile.

Participants identified women’s low representation in politics, peace negotiations, and education as mutual problems. For example, girls’ primary school attendance in South Sudan is 39 percent but drops to 30 percent in secondary school. In politics, both Sudan and South Sudan maintain quotas for women’s representation, yet participants said they did not feel that women were involved at the highest level of decision-making. Through the course of the program, participants discussed these problems and decided upon clear goals for improving girls’ education, increasing women’s representation in peace processes, and combating socio-cultural barriers that prevent women’s advancement.

Between meetings, the women applied the lessons they learned to their communities, quickly making an impact on women and gender rights. In both Sudan and South Sudan, women organized a march for peace, lobbied local businesses to support women in UN Protection Sites, and broadcast their campaign for women's rights in government, on the radio, at school, and through the church.

By interviewing women and leaders in her community, one participant discovered that girls at a local school had been sexually assaulted by teachers. She worked with the girls’ parents to lobby successfully for the teachers to be arrested and dismissed from the school.

Another participant worked with a local council to increase student retention. Together, they developed and instituted a fine for parents if any child dropped out of school. Not long afterward, enrollment rose from 0 to 27 girls.

The program also facilitated the creation of a peer-to-peer network between women in Sudan and South Sudan as a forum for the women to communicate their ideas, and concerns and support their “sisters” across the divide. Through an online group and emailing system, they exchange messages to share their successes and failures and provide encouragement for programming.

“After the split, we were two countries and we didn’t have any relations,” said one participant. ”But if we are not together, then we will not do anything.”