Sudan Evaluations

Final Evaluation – Strengthening Women and Youth-led Approaches to Reconciliation and Conflict Prevention in South Kordofan and Blue Nile – August 2022

Search for Common Ground (Search) in Sudan has implemented the three year Maa Baaad Namo project (2018-2021) in collaboration with its local partners: the Badya Centre for Integrated Development Services (Badya), Um Serdiba Association for Development (Um Serdiba), Paralegal’s Association (PASS), the Human Security Initiative Organization (MAMAN), and ElSharq Centre for Culture (ECC). The overall goal of the project has been to increase the capacity, networks, and opportunities of Sudanese CSOs to improve vulnerable women and girls’ access to multi-sectoral development. The project activities covered five states in Sudan: West Kordofan, South Kordofan, Blue Nile, Gedaref, and Kassala.

Project activities had positive effects on the local community especially with regards to the strengthening of coordination between CSOs and government institutions. The most successful component of the project was the capacity building for CSOs, which included activities such as outreach, communication, and advocacy training; training of trainers (ToTs) on technical topics and CSO management training. The increase in capacities of local CSOs facilitated the establishment of multiple partnerships and networks between CSOs and government institutions both at the local and national levels, thus scaling the impact from grassroots to national level. Finally, the media programming had a positive impact on the level of awareness of women’s and girls’ rights within the communities. Community awareness of the importance of women’s active participation in the economic, political, and social aspects of life increased significantly to over 50 percent.

Final Evaluation – Maa Baaad Nanmo We Grow Together: Supporting Sudanese CSOs to improve multi-sectoral development for vulnerable women and girls – September 2021

Search for Common Ground (Search) in Sudan has implemented the three year Maa Baaad Namo project (2018-2021) in collaboration with its local partners: the Badya Centre for Integrated Development Services (Badya), Um Serdiba Association for Development (Um Serdiba), Paralegal’s Association (PASS), the Human Security Initiative Organization (MAMAN), and ElSharq Centre for Culture (ECC). The overall goal of the project has been to increase the capacity, networks, and opportunities of Sudanese CSOs to improve vulnerable women and girls’ access to multi-sectoral development. The project activities covered five states in Sudan: West Kordofan, South Kordofan, Blue Nile, Gedaref, and Kassala.

Project activities had positive effects on the local community especially with regards to the strengthening of coordination between CSOs and government institutions. The most successful component of the project was the capacity building for CSOs, which included activities such as outreach, communication, and advocacy training; training of trainers (ToTs) on technical topics and CSO management training. The increase in capacities of local CSOs facilitated the establishment of multiple partnerships and networks between CSOs and government institutions both at the local and national levels, thus scaling the impact from grassroots to national level. Finally, the media programming had a positive impact on the level of awareness of women’s and girls’ rights within the communities. Community awareness of the importance of women’s active participation in the economic, political, and social aspects of life increased significantly to over 50 percent.

Final Evaluation – Women, Rise Up! Empowering Sudanese Women in South Kordofan to Advance Women’s Rights – October 2020

This EU-funded project “Al-nisa’, artaqauu!– Women, Rise Up! Empowering Sudanese Women in South Kordofan to Advance Women’s Rights” was implemented in partnership with Badya Centre for Integrated Development (Badya) from January of 2018 to December 2019.

The women of Sudan remain one of the most marginalized groups in the country even though they make up half of the population and play vital roles in both the labour force and family sphere. The overall objective of the project was to empower diverse Sudanese women in IDP and host communities in South Kordofan to effectively advocate for gender equality and women’s rights.

The project’s activities included Women Leadership and Advocacy Training, Women Coffee Ceremonies, Gender Sensitivity Training for Local Authorities, Radio Programs and Women-led Livelihood Activities, among others. The final evaluation shows that as a result of the project, targeted women have increased confidence (82%) and opportunities (84%) to advocate for gender equality. Overall, 75% of women in target communities report having improved access to social, economic or political rights as a result of the project.

The key recommendations of this final evaluation are to further raise awareness on women’s rights, support financial empowerment activities, increase capacity-building efforts and training to provide women with long-term skills, and to establish legal enforcement and monitoring mechanisms for the protection of women’s rights.

Final Evaluation: Strengthening Systems of Peace in South and West Kordofan

In 2015, Search – South Sudan and the Badya Centre launched a 24-month project, which aimed to strengthen reliance on local peace systems in South and West Kordofan. The project’s specific objectives were to collect and catalogue traditional and customary peace agreements in South and West Kordofan, disseminate findings to key stakeholders at the County, Provincial, and State levels and engage local actors in the enforcement of traditional and customary peace agreements. The Ministry of Culture and Information was a key partner in the project.
The project ended in February 2017 and an evaluation was undertaken to measure the project’s relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability, and extract critical lessons learned and recommendations.The project was relevant as it targeted the needs of communities affected by conflict where conflicts are resolved traditionally. It aimed to strengthen local peace systems through the training of local actors on conflict resolution, improving their performance and efficiency. Increased public understanding of local peace agreements through interactive radio programming was among the main activities in the project. There were 24 episodes on peace agreements produced and broadcast via radio. This activity was very relevant to the community’s need, with the survey conducted by Search/Badya in 2016 showing a 70% listenership rate amongst survey respondents. This is shows the relevance of relying on radio to disseminate knowledge on peace and related issues, and the wide coverage of radio. Moreover, the collection and documentation of the peace agreements helped specific members of the community, especially youth and women. The youth started using them with modifications to make them more realistic. Some interviewees explicitly mentioned that they noticed gender discrimination in these traditional agreements. Overall, the evaluation shows that the project made considerable progress towards its goal and specific objectives. This project built upon existing resources for conflict resolution and showcased it to target populations to spread their use. The project was effective in improving community knowledge and awareness of local peace agreements, including through the Peace Libraries. The visitors of the libraries include educators, employees, peace activists, CSOs, civil service personnel, and media personnel. Copies of the collected peace documents were also made available to the legislatures, civil service personnel, media personnel, artists, and ministers.The good working relationship among the stakeholders in the project area, which existed before the project, was strengthened by the project. These relations were further strengthened because the project idea was innovative and highly necessary. This brings a positive factor towards the sustainability of results. good linkages were established among important actors, paving the way for future partnership among them. The government owned some of the project’s outputs like the peace libraries, adding to the sustainability.

Baseline Study Executive Summary – Empowering Women as Key Partners in Building Peaceful and Resilient Communities in Sudan – February 2017

“Empowering Women as Key Partners in Building Peaceful and Resilient Communities in Sudan” was implemented by Search for Common Ground (SFCG), in Sudan in collaboration with the Badya Center for Integrated Development Services (Badya), a leading NGO in South Kordofan that works in development and peacebuilding.

Supporting the Role of Women Leaders in Sudan and South Sudan in the Post-separation Period

UN Women has been working in Sudan with the mission to address obstacles to political participation of women, with programmes guided by international commitments to women’s representation. Funded by United Nations Development Fund (UNDEF) and European Commission (EC), the project, Supporting the Role of Women Leaders in Sudan and South Sudan in the Post-separation Period, was designed to address the needs of border communities in Sudan and South Sudan. The evaluation found the project effective in the design and implementation of 10 training workshops that benefitted 366 women. Training resulted in change at personal level in the perceptual understanding of women’s potential in peace building. Sustainability indicators included successful integration with local institutions through project beneficiaries transferring knowledge back to their institutions, (80%) response. Constraints affecting effectiveness included lack of risk assessment, and strategy development at the design stage to address the patriarchal, polarized and restrictive security environment. The focus on an “all women” strategy excluded other community interlocutors, men and community leaders whose alternative voices could speak for women’s political rights in Sudan. This was an external study conducted by Caroline Chikoore and Afaf Abu-Hasabo.