Recovering Sudan: National Center for Peace and Development

Sudan’s National Center for Peace and Development (NCPD) was established as an NGO on 2002, by a group of liberal-minded persons from Sudan’s intellectual, business and academic communities who share the belief that, in developing societies, democracy and development should go hand in hand. The founders pursued the most feasible way for them to contribute to achieving this double goal: by raising consciousness and educating the public about the true meaning of democratic values and how respect for those values would help achieving peace and prosperity in a country long-torn by civil strife and underdevelopment.

Owing to the academic orientation of the Center’s Executive Committee, many of its activities have been carried out in conjunction with Sudanese universities and academics. Since its inception, NCPD has responded to the country’s peace and development challenges by developing six thematic programs with corresponding activities to build capacity of women, youth and civil society in critical areas of democratic reform and civic engagement. These six programs, or themes of learning activity, include: anti-corruption, peace building, citizen participation, constitutional and political party reform, and preventing violent extremism Correspondingly, the repertoire of Center activities can be outlined as follows:

Anti-corruption:

• 18 workshops introducing structures and procedures to fight corruption;
• A short training course on institutional capacity building;
• A workshop on monitoring public institutions, including on development in the National Audit Chamber and its impact on enhancing transparency integrity and fighting corruption (2020);
• Hosting a conference on civil service reform;
• Organizing a seminar on addressing past crimes and abuse of power as a contribution to transitional justice in Sudan, featuring a dialogue forum on asset recovery in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert Foundation and the Law Faculty of the University of Khartoum.

Peace Building:

• Created peace clubs among students and faculty in Sudanese universities;
• Supporting follow-up activities of existing clubs, which include holding peace forums such as the 2017 “Bringing Peace through Art” forum;
• Providing training to build social-media network groups via facebook and WhatsApp, including cyber security awareness training;
• Organizing student-produced “wall magazines” on university campuses;
• Training of students on developing an effective advocacy campaign.

Citizen Participation:

• Campaign building on gender awareness, women and democracy, including awareness raising on women’s rights under the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDaW), the Beijing Principles and the International Decade for Women;
• Mounting a campaign to increase youth political participation, including 2017 training for youth in a five-step methodology for effective strategies, in cooperation with the New Tactics Program for the Middle East and North Africa office in Amman, Jordan;
• A workshop on “Right of Access to Information in the Sudanese Legal System,” in cooperation with Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Law Faculty of the University of Khartoum;‌
• Organizing a workshop on “Increasing Participation of Traditionally Marginalized Populations in Political Processes.”

Constitutional and Political Party Reform (toward re-engagement in a democratic system):

• Organizing a workshop on “The Crisis of Ideology in Sudan”;
• Organizing a workshop on “Prioritizing Gender Equality within Political Organizations”;
• Organizing a workshop to develop strategies to reach out to marginalized groups of citizens;
• Holding a seminar on transparency and accountability in governance;
• Conducting a training workshop on “Modern political representation and social media;”
• Organizing two workshops on elections and prospects for participation in the electoral process.
• Organizing a workshop “Toward a transparent and inclusive constitution-making process.”

Preventing Violent Extremism:

Through the above NCPD-organized and hosted activities, each supports the strategy to prevent violent extremism by encouraging youth, in particular, to engage in pedagogical processes and democratic engagement. This integrated approach to civic education seeks to prepare youth to engage together as full citizens in a diverse and multicultural society.

In addition, NCPD has sponsored discrete activities on conflict avoidance and resolution through the peace clubs organized in cooperation with the University of Khartoum, University of Nyala and University of El Fasher during 2018.

In addition to these programmatic activities, NCPD has taken the opportunity to engage in activities since 2017 in such global processes as the assessment of the Voluntary National Review of Sudan to the UN High-level Political Forum on SDG progress (2018). This has included inputs with other Sudanese and international NGOs in cooperation with the NGO Major Groups and Other Stakeholders under the rubric of the UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs (UNDESA).

While the scope of civic activities has been constrained in the political environment of previous years, the current transition poses increased opportunity for mobility and organizing efforts across the country. These developments are welcome at NCPD, which, as a national center and program, operates well beyond its physical seat in the capital Khartoum.

The NCPD directs operations through an Executive Committee comprised of four prominent local members:

Adam Sulaiman Abdelalrahman Jerair ♂ (chairperson)

Elwathig Elbereir ♂
Mirghani Abdel al-Hammour ♂
Fatima Nour Idris ♀ (executive director)

Contact NCPD at:

Address:        Next to French Cultural Center
Ali Dinar St.
Khartoum, Sudan
Phone:           +249 (0)91 900–0019
Email:             info@ncpdsudan.org
Web:               http://ncpdsudan.org/

Image on the front page: NCPD logo. Source: NCPD. Photo on this page: Participants in the training workshop for University of Khartoum students, “Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution – Extremism and its Threat,” concluded on 23 October 2017.