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Tamador Khalid, one of Integrity’s lead Sudanese consultants, recently evaluated a community centred peace initiative funded by Peace Direct’s Rapid Response Fund run through the local partner Collaborative for Peace. Tamador visited the highly insecure Southern Kordofan region in Sudan to meet with local people who have been delivering conflict resolution and mitigation through Peace Committees to conflicts ranging from the domestic level (where some domestic or family conflicts can trigger much larger scale events) to large, violent episodes.

The conflict in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan state (which lies on the border with South Sudan) has been ongoing since the late 1980’s as th e region was heavily affected by the conflict between North and South Sudan between 1983 and 2005. Many of these political tensions remain which has resulted in frequent violent episodes across the entire region. Conflict in S. Kordofan is highly complicated with strong ethnic tension, natural resource competition, land disputes, oil related conflict and a backdrop of poverty, tribalism and lawlessness. The region is especially difficult for external actors to access due to a number of factors including insecurity.

Tamador was able to visit a number of Peace Committees which attempt to improve community acceptance and decision making about conflict intervention by including different groups in a more balanced membership of diverse ethnic/ tribal roots, age profiles and gender. Overall, she saw that Peace Committees supported by the Rapid Response Fund are an effective and organised means of community conflict resolution having engaged in many conflicts to date, and are generally active and well respected by the rest of the community.

Posted by: Lauren Pett, Head of Operations.

Supporting the emergence of an open, democratic political system in the new Republic of South Sudan is a key challenge for the international community, and the role of political parties will be essential in this process. Integrity has recently completed an evaluation of the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) seven-year programme to support the development of a political party system in South Sudan and their work with the National Assembly and the electoral system.

The evaluation team travelled to Juba, Rumbek and Yambio in October 2011 where they conducted focus groups and interviews with a large number of political stakeholders and recipients of IRI support. The evaluation employed both quantitative and qualitative tools and included an assessment of the progress made by IRI programming and a detailed contextual analysis of the evolution of the political system. The findings of the evaluation will inform the future direction and content of IRI’s programme in South Sudan.

Integrity research analyst Will Carter undertook a short field research and scoping visit to Sana’a, Yemen during mid-December 2011.  In addition to conducting field research, including interviews and focus group sessions with Yemeni businessmen, journalists, academics and youths, he also produced a short snapshot assessment report.

The report is designed to be an informative and accessible resource for professionals (with general interests in the Middle East and Arabian Gulf) on the current events and near-term potential trajectories of Yemen. It is exceptionally timely, as it was produced at the initial implementation stages of the GCC-brokered deal which transferred power from President Saleh to the incumbent Vice-President along with a National Unity Government.

If you are interested in receiving this or similar reports on Yemen please email research@integrityresearch.co.uk.