USAID/OTI Sudan Hot Topics November 2006
Teachers use CPA as inspiration to transform school curriculum
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.
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| USAID/OTI partnered with a local NGO in Khartoum, Sudan to train grassroots-level activists on the CPA. Once trained, the activists, mostly teachers and students, created a network to lobby for political and social change in favor of democratic reform. |
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.
Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in January 2005, provides a platform for protection that has inspired community-level activists to cry for change. One example of how the CPA has inspired change on a grassroots level is in the current elementary curriculum.
A study conducted by a local non-governmental organization (NGO) in April 2006, found that attitudes that support inequity between men and women-and even potential harm to women--are hidden in the public school system's primary education curriculum. Teachers, in particular, are creating their own political window to highlight the gender bias in current curriculum and to transform it into the curriculum of a democratic society.
OTI recently collaborated with a local NGO in support of these grassroots efforts for change. Through its in-kind grant mechanism, OTI provided materials and covered transportation costs to allow 35 primary school teachers to attend a six-day training of trainers (ToT) workshop in Khartoum, Sudan. Workshop contents focused on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the CPA. It also allowed the participants to discuss the negative attitudes toward women in the school curriculum and mechanisms for change. Once trained, the teachers conducted an awareness-raising workshop for 50 IDP students and mothers to further mobilize community-level activists.
Following these sessions, the third-and most important-phase of this activity was implemented. All workshop participants were mobilized to lobby for political and social change, especially in creating effective pressure to transform the biased primary school curriculum. With their expert training, these community-level activists can now fully engage in the democratic transition currently ongoing in Sudan and rally for political change.
OTI's assistance in mobilizing activist networks encourages civil society to actively support the peace process and to stand up for the rights and freedoms afforded them and their fellow Sudanese under the CPA.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Michele Amatangelo, Program Manager, Tel: (202) 712-4275, mamatangel@usaid.gov
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