African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Politics

New Report: Towards a New Republic of Sudan

By Magnus Taylor
June 16, 2011
1217
0
Share:

Jon Temin and Theodore Murphy

Lost in the recent focus on the violence in Abyei and Southern Kordofan, and before that the euphoria surrounding the January referendum, is one of the most important questions concerning Sudan today: what will the future Republic of Sudan (northern Sudan) look like?

In a new report published by the United States Institute of Peace [link to http://www.usip.org/publications/toward-new-republic-sudan], we seek to focus attention on the future Republic of Sudan as a whole.  Too often, we argue, Sudan’s issues are fragmented and addressed in a piecemeal fashion, which distracts from a focus on the driving force behind so much of Sudan’s instability: decades of poor governance and an inability (or unwillingness) to manage Sudan’s considerable diversity.  Other recent analyses make similar points: a recent International Crisis Group report highlights “the cardinal issue of governance,” [link to http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/africa/horn-of-africa/sudan/174-divisions-in-sudans-ruling-party-and-the-threat-to-the-countrys-future-stability.aspx] and Andrew Natsios discusses Sudan’s “larger pathologies.” [link to  http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67869/andrew-s-natsios/sudan-back-on-the-brink]   Previously, the report of the African Union Panel on Darfur highlighted Sudan’s governance failures in its discussion of the “Sudan problem in Darfur.” [link to http://www.scribd.com/doc/21963057/AUPD-Final-Report-on-Darfur]

Ongoing political processes in Sudan – most notably the Darfur negotiations and popular consultations in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states – continue this trend.  Regionally-based processes produce regional agreements (evidenced by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and all its regional protocols, the Darfur Peace Agreement and the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement). One problem is that the reflexive instinct to respond to every crisis on Sudan’s periphery distracts from the necessary holistic conversation about improving governance throughout Sudan, be it through more robust federalism, reforms at the center, or other means. Without this the cycle of regional conflicts is doomed to repeat itself.

We argue that the future Republic of Sudan requires a new political compact between its people and its government, between the center and the periphery.  That compact can be formalized through the process of developing a new constitution.  The ongoing regional political processes should continue, but the issues they encompass should be divided into two levels: those that are truly regional in character, and those that are relevant to more national-level debates, such as power and wealth sharing and degrees of autonomy.  The regional processes should address the former set of issues, but the latter set should ultimately be negotiated through a national process that is participatory, inclusive and transparent.

Whether the current Sudanese government can be convinced of the merits of such a national process remains an open question.  Recent events which suggest that hard-line elements within the National Congress Party (NCP) are on the rise are not encouraging.  But the NCP also faces a daunting set of pressures, including political blowback for presiding over the division of the country, economic decline due to lost oil revenue, inflation and corruption, and the specter of the Arab Spring revolts that have engulfed two of Sudan’s neighbors.  A critical question going forward may be whether the future Republic of Sudan can afford not to reform.

 

Previous Article

South Kordofan and the Nuba Mountains: An ...

Next Article

Discussion in Uk House of Lords on ...

Magnus Taylor

Magnus Taylor is a Horn of Africa Analyst at International Crisis Group, the independent conflict-prevention organisation.

Leave a reply Cancel reply

  • Politics

    A Waste of Hope

  • Politics

    Egypt elections: Islamic dictatorship or military authoritarianism – By Mariz Tadros

  • Politics

    Of Titans and Trolls in South Africa and Somaliland – By Ahmed M.I. Egal

  • 80698
    Followers

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Most read

  • africa elections 2021

    Africa Elections 2021: All the upcoming votes

  • ISIS-DRC US sanctions against ADF come as US military advisers and the UN peacekeeping MONUSCO show renewed interest in supporting Congolese forces FARDC in conducting operations against the ADF. Credit: MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti.

    The US has placed sanctions on ISIS-DRC, but does the group even exist?

  • “What this generation wants”: African authors publishing direct to the web

  • kenya refugee camps closure

    Whether or not Kenya closes its camps, much damage has been done

  • Will President Samia Suluhu Hassan address gender inequality in Tanzania?

    Tanzania has a female president. Does it have a feminist president?

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu