Joint Collaboration for the sake of Sudan – the Citizen and the African Center for Governance, Peace and Transition Studies

By: Alaa Babiker

Since the middle of December 2018 Sudan has been going through difficult times, and directing the political path on the right track in the form of trying to get Sudan back on its feet again has never been so challenging and indeed faced with different complex governance processes that affecting the so called Fluent ongoing processes of development of peace and transition in Sudan.

The complications of the past period has got everyone thinking of what can be done to assist generating fruitful ideas and initiatives to put Sudan back on the track of development and moving forward.

Tracking the above mentioned important aspects, today Citizen’s Managerial Seniors, Mr. Alrasheed Mutasim, Mr. Moawad Rashid and my humble self Alaa Babiker, have paid a visit to conduct a scheduled meeting with Mr. Mahmoud Zainelabdin, the Secretary General of the African Center for Governance, Peace and Transition Studies, a studies center that was established in 2019 and was registered as one of the national Sudanese Civil society organizations, and became one of the pioneer African institutions to suport Sudan at many significant fields.

The meeting was conducted at the headquarter of the AcoGaps Center in Khartoum, and discussed some serious topics that will positively affect the collaboration of our joint work in the near future.

The two entities have brought on table the focused working fields of the center, which will later be the main joint areas of interest between them. Those areas include Civilians Protection and Humans Rights, Psychological and Social Support and Post Wars Trauma Therapy, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, and Human Trafficking, and other very serious areas affecting the economics of Sudan and its surrounding countries.

We at Citizen were very pleased to have this opportunity of getting to know and work with one of the greatest studies centers in not just Sudan, but also a center that reflect the important issues and their solution plans to the international agencies and organizations. AcoGaps is collaboratively working with important regional and international organizations including the UNISCO, ICRC, SARCOM, and the Italian Agency for Development and Cooperation, along with its great relationships with the head national institutions in Sudan including and not limited to the Transitional Sovereign Board, the Government of Darfur Province, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning,  and other important governmental ministries and institutions.

On one hand, the Citizen has agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding to reflect and cover by reporting the great work of the African Center for Governance, Peace and Transition Studies Center. While on the hand the AcoGaps has agreed to work closely with the professionals working at Citizen to conduct more meetings, workshops and forums, and working with the international organizations at the fields of Peace, Governance, Women Protection and Empowerment, and other areas that will later be revealed.

At the end, I personally am very honored to have the chance to be a part of this great collaboration,  and I believe that with the presence of such centers that really work for the development of Sudan at all of its empowerment fields socially, economically, and even politically, positive results that will be born to get us to the other side.