Sudan
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Overview
As part of an international series of workshops organised by Islamic Relief, the Humanitarian Forum initiative was first introduced to Sudan in 2005. Over 140 local Sudanese organisations participated in the workshop. They described their isolation from the international development community and exclusion from civil society debates as the fundamental challenges faced. This common need legitimised the formation of a Humanitarian Forum Sudan.
A needs assessment workshop followed. Participants were divided into groups, with each discussing the organisational structure of the forum, its legal framework and its responsibilities both on a national and international level. A direct outcome of this workshop was an election of a steering committee. The composition of the group mirrors the diverse Sudanese civil society.
Members of the steering committee are representative of organisations from the North and South of Sudan, as well as from both individual organisations and networks. The Humanitarian Forum in Sudan is composed of 25 members, and seven board members.
Activities
A two-level workshop was organised in August in Khartoum to increase the organisation's representative membership. While the first attracted a wide range of organisations, the second was designed to target southern organisations. The workshops attracted 44 new organisations, all of which have expressed their interest in joining the forum.
Since the workshops, the steering committee has met to discuss the involvement of the new members. It was agreed that a series of workshops would be organized with the dual purpose of developing local capacities and building trust among the diverse members. The group agreed that the workshops will be tailored to the needs of organizations with similar institutional capacities. Representatives from old and new members, as well as from southern and northern organizations will be invited to participate. They agreed that the first workshop would target the medium-sized and intermediate level NGOs. Salah El Hassan, our then interim coordinator, had selected a sample of similar organizations and conducted in-depth interviews to determine the needs of the participants. Training in NGO management was reported to be the main area of institutional weakness. Our current interim country coordinator, Ibrahim Abdellatif, began contacting trainers to design and implement the training programme.
