Sudan
Search for Common Ground (SFCG) is working closely with the Badya Centre for Integrated Development Services, providing technical assistance and new methodologies to Badya Centre, which has a strong track record in conflict transformation programming. SFCG and Badya's partnership focuses on South Kordofan, a volatile region within the Transition Areas. Program activities provide tools, training, and support to local organizations and associations working to build peace in this war-affected area. Efforts focus on two main objectives:
The SFCG-Badya program works with local organizations representing a range of stakeholders, including women, theatre groups, community elders, nomadic tribes, and other vulnerable groups. To meet these objectives, we are providing technical assistance to the Badya Center as they implement several activities in the region.
Common Ground Journalism Training
Search for Common Ground (SFCG) and the Badya Centre carried out an in-depth needs assessment of the media environment in South Kordofan and of the capacities of the two radio stations in South Kordofan – Kadugli Radio and Al-Fula Radio – with the goal of building these stations’ capacities to produce a radio program about conflict transformation and peacebuilding.
Based on this assessment, SFCG introduced its “common ground methodology” to Badya Centre, strengthening their programming toolbox. We worked with the Badya Centre to organize journalism trainings for the two stations, reinforcing their capacity in the methodology. The facilitators used an Arabic translation of our Radio for Peacebuilding Guidebook on Rumor Management (available here).
Learn more about Common Ground Journalism Training...
Civil Society Capacity Building
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Participants at the advocacy workshop in Elfoula |
SFCG and Badya Centre jointly conducted a Civil Society Assessment that used a participatory methodology to explore the strengths and weaknesses of civil society organizations and their peacebuilding efforts in South Kordofan.
Badya Centre then organized two validation workshops in Dilling and Kadugli. CSOs used the workshop to discuss technical/financial capacities and challenges while building useful relationships. In addition, participants were able to discuss the importance of networking and advocacy as they relate to CSO goals. The participants appreciated being actively involved during and after the assessment and ultimately saw themselves as having a stake in the assessment and the project as whole.
Badya Centre is now following up on the Assessment recommendations, facilitating a series of workshops on different themes, including community-based advocacy techniques, conflict resolution and mediation, and gender sensitivity. These workshops facilitate the exchange of views among participants in a way that strengthened dialogue. These sessions also enable participants from different backgrounds to come together and learn from each other.
Participatory Theater
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Audience of the participatory theatre performance at Mekkines' primary school |
SFCG is also introducing participatory theatre as a tool for peacebuilding to Badya Centre and its program efforts. This technical assistance began with training sessions for community actors and other theatre resources, providing an introduction into the methodology, specific acting techniques, and skills in audience interaction and scriptwriting.
Following the training, Badya Centre has supported the formation of a youth theatre troupe, which has begun performing in communities around the Mekkines area. The performances focus on providing a new interactive forum for dialogue and community problem-solving around issues creating tensions and conflict among various groups.
Collaborative Actions
In line with the second objective of the program, SFCG and Badya Centre have been supporting concrete collaborative actions that are building peace and understanding within communities. The following provide examples of these solidarity activities:
Al-Lagori-Rawawga Peaceful Pact in Kadogli – As tensions have grown between different ethnic and community groups in the region, Badya Centre has been working to help mitigate them. Over the course of a series of twelve meetings on peaceful co-existence between two ethnic groups in conflict, they have come to points of agreement that will reduce their conflicts and enable them to live as neighbors again. Key points include:
stop looting animals; agree to free movement of people, goods and animals between their villages; write a peace pact to be witnessed by their neighbours; and -
meet in Toksoana in March with Badya, SFCG, and other civil society organizations facilitating the process of reconciliation and trust re-building.
A Peace Tournament in Mujlad – A football peace tournament was organized for Mujlad youth by a coalition of civil society organizations, with support from Badya Centre and in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sport. This tournament featured six football teams vying for the peace cup. The main objective of such a tournament is to engage different youth groups and clubs in a constructive dialogue for peace so they can better understand their differences and act on their commonalities.
Peace Education for Communities in Kadogli Province – A group of civil society organizations are initiating efforts to provide peace education with people in the region, seeking to end the cycle of violence that has plagued the area and focus instead on building a path towards tolerance, acceptance, and peaceful coexistence.
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