USAID/OTI Sudan Hot Topics December 2006
Mobile Drama Distributes Peace Messages to North-South Border States
The overarching goal of the USAID/OTI Sudan program is to strengthen Sudanese confidence and capacity to address the causes and consequences of political marginalization, violence, and instability that has consumed the country for nearly 50 years.
Working within the context of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the OTI Sudan program focuses on promoting the emergence of responsive and effective civil authorities; peaceful dialogue within and among communities; fostering the emergence of an active civil society; increasing the availability of independent information; and protecting vulnerable populations from grave human rights violations and related abuses.
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| USAID/OTI funds the production of 27 drama shows with messages of peace in six states along the North-South Sudanese border. |
Despite the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005, ethnic tensions continue to foster volatility in states along the North-South Sudanese border. Strained relations among IDPs, returnees and community residents, as well as among various ethnic groups, threaten the fragile peace. Many residents in these areas feel they were left out of the peace and do not believe the CPA meets their needs. Though some may know the CPA was signed, few have read and understood its specific contents.
USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) is delivering messages of peace to six states along the North-South border, which are rarely accessed by independent information, through the funding of 27 drama shows. Through a grant to a local NGO and in collaboration with community youth associations, implementing partner Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) carried out the activity in two phases. The first phase included 15 shows in four states-Khartoum, Northern Kordofan, Southern Kordofan and Unity State. An evaluation with a focus group of beneficiaries following the first phase produced recommendations for the second phase, which included 12 shows in two states-White Nile and Upper Nile. IDPs, returnees and community residents in these states enjoyed drama, puppetry and song, themed in peace and stability.
Community leaders, known as Shiekhs, also attended the shows in each of the 10 towns where the local NGO performed. The Shiekhs' attendance not only encouraged other community members to attend, but will also foster the continued dissemination of peace messages throughout the community and at the more difficult to reach grassroots level in the future.
OTI's support in disseminating messages of peace to particularly troubled regions of Sudan aims to increase tolerance of diversity and to promote the peaceful resolution of conflict through non-formal civic education on the CPA.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: : Victoria Rames, Program Manager, Tel: (202) 712-4899, vrames@usaid.gov
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