Knowledge for Tomorrow: Cooperative Research Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa
Political, Economic, and Social Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa

sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation 

Cooperative Research Project
Governance and Social Action in Sudan after the Peace Agreement of January 2005: local, national, and regional dimensions

Abstract

Building up governance structures is increasingly considered as a means to counter state decay and deal constructively with internal conflicts. Sudan is a case in point where the government and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army have agreed on wealth and power sharing, institutionalised by an interim Government of South Sudan and transitional governments in the federal states. Aims are to build infrastructure and deliver social services while holding revenues subject to public accountability.

The research project will apply an actor-oriented perspective to investigate the dynamics of state-society relations and ways of establishing legitimacy of rule in four southern Sudanese states with complex conflict patterns. Regional dimensions will be covered by analyzing spill-over effects across the Ethiopian border and influences on governance structures from the Sudanese diaspora in Kenya. Young scholars from African universities will have opportunities to get academic qualifications under international guidance.

The research sites will be Upper Nile, Jonglei, Unity and South Kordofan States as well as Juba and Khartoum as locations of the Government of South Sudan and Sudan, Gambella in Ethiopia, Kakuma refugee camp, Eldoret and quarters of Nairobi. These sites provide possibilities to investigate how the political, social, cultural and economic dimensions of the conflict are taken up by the respective societies after the Peace Agreement. All sites are characterized by multi-dimensional tensions and conflicts which have been tentatively settled recently. There is the need for institutions able to prevent a resurrection of armed struggle and to tackle appropriately the conflicts to come.

The research will have to find answers to the following questions:

•  What are the characteristics of  the “traditional” / established governance structures in southern Sudan and how have they changed over time?

•  What constitutes core values, what ideology informs these values, and to what extent do these two factors inform governance and social action in the various research sites inside and outside Sudan?

•  How are those aspirations of the Sudanese which they acquired in the diaspora, likely to influence governance and social action upon their return?

•  Which are the underlying power relations of the emerging governance structures, and which capacities are there to tackle the causes of entrenched conflicts?

•  Which forces undermine emerging governance structures, how and by whom are they addressed?

•  How are the redistributive parts of the Peace Agreement implemented?

•  How do local governance structures in the research sites interlink with national and international regional governance?

The research project is intended to contribute constructively to the academic discourse on state decay and societal erosion in Africa. The study is meant to explain how state-society relations are transformed in the framework of existing and new local and regional governance structures in societies that have been caught up or taking part in violent conflicts for a long time. A focus will be on the actors involved and in particular on the ways of action with regard to building governance, creating legitimacy of rule, and re-establishing old and forming new institutions that guide and shape state-society relations. Analysis of the local-national nexus and the context - the political dynamics created by the activities of local, regional, national and international actors - will also be part of the study.

Through the common research, a network between African and European scholars and members of the  young African academic generation is to be created. The project is to promote academic qualification and capacities, academic exchange, intercultural learning and cooperation among researchers from different parts of Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya, and between the German and African participants. Research outputs are intended to be used as policy inputs for forging cooperation between the Sudan and neighbouring countries.

Full Proposal (PDF)

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