Sudan
Total IDRC Support
71 activities worth CAD11.1 million since 1974
Our support is helping
- promote the transition to peace
- create more inclusive political settlements to avoid the relapse of conflicts
- increase the participation of Sudanese women in politics and public life, given the 2010 election’s quota system
We have supported research in Sudan since 1974, two years after the country’s first civil war ended. Food production was an initial focus of research. This resulted in more nutritious varieties of sorghum and higher resistance to a parasitic weed.
Renewed internal conflict hindered research from 1983 until the 2005 peace agreement. Research now focuses primarily on peacebuilding and meeting the needs of displaced populations. It also aims to resolve conflict in the western region of Darfur, where fighting has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions since 2003.
Research for peace and security
Our research support has informed the peace and security work of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a trade bloc in the Horn of Africa. Through its roundtables, researchers with other organizations identified factors that destabilized the region — including pervasive poverty, the absence of a threat common to all bloc member states, and few shared political goals.
Such insights have fostered debate and raised the profile of civil society groups as important actors in the search for peace and security.
Forging a future
Researchers at Ahfad University for Women in Sudan collaborated with Canada’s York University to show how entrepreneurship can thrive, even in a conflict zone. A forum bringing together experts and internally displaced Sudanese helped researchers identify vast potential to kick-start private-sector activity in both southern Sudan and Darfur.
Blacksmiths who showcased their work at the forum won two major contracts to supply tools to communities in western and northern Sudan. In another positive spin-off, an internship program was developed that includes business, law, and engineering students from four universities in Sudan.