About the Sudanese Programme

Purpose and principles

The Sudanese Programme aims to facilitate dialogue and promote knowledge and understanding to advance peace and prosperity among the peoples of South Sudan and Sudan, and international support for this.

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The Programme prioritises South Sudanese and Sudanese voices, and aims to provide opportunities for constructive dialogue. It is politically neutral, independent and impartial.

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Needs

Despite a long history of formal peace processes and agreements, South Sudan and Sudan continue to suffer from armed conflict, under-development and poverty.

 

Past wars, violence and crises have left legacies that reverberate today, and both countries face new and ongoing crises - in Sudan the war that began in April 2023, in South Sudan the divisions and conflict that persisted after the 2018 peace agreement.

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The two countries and their peoples maintain much in common - including their histories, their present conditions, and the challenges of building peace and prosperity in the years ahead.

Background and future

Across the 24 years since 2002 the Programme has convened conferences, workshops and events on a wide range of themes relevant to both South Sudan and Sudan - from governance, peace, conflict, the economy and business, through to civil society, diaspora, education, the environment, media, art and literature.​

 

In doing so, the Programme has brought together many speakers, participants and audiences, from a wide range of backgrounds in both countries and internationally. And it has consistently provided a neutral and respectful forum for dialogue and discussion in support of peace, development and prosperity​.

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The Programme was founded by Ahmed Al-Shahi, Anis Haggar and Bona Malwal with sponsorship from the Middle East Centre and the African Studies Centre at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. In 2018 it became a charity.​ The Programme has held events jointly with the universities of Birmingham, East Anglia, Juba and Manchester.

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The Programme is now aiming to conduct more events, initiatives and projects ​in South Sudan and Sudan, facilitating dialogue and promoting knowledge and understanding to advance peace and prosperity.

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