Sudanese Government Research Articles

The Regulatory and Supervisory Framework of Microfinance: Some Evidence from Sudan

Islamic microfinance is one of the essential unconventional branch of lending that uses by Islamic microfinanceproviders for financial and social inclusion to provide financial support for low-income people as well as theextremely poor. Through the in-bodied social inclusion tools, Islamic microfinance can best used to mitigate thenegative impact of the extreme poverty. Since financing micro-borrowers and extremely poor are highly risk, theneed for efficient and effective regulatory and supervision of microfinance frame work is very important. Thisresearch investigated Sudanese Islamic microfinance regulatory and supervisory framework. Despite of theexerted efforts by Sudanese government through providing favorable climate and the establishment of Islamicfinancial intuitions and establishing structured microfinance framework, the results showed that Sudanesemicrofinance regulatory framework is not providing best outreach. Despite the continuous increasing of theceiling portfolio by the regulatory authority until reached 12% from 4% since the first issued rules in 2006, theactually utilization is insignificant at the end of the year 2013. This might be due to several reasons such as badbasic infrastructures, ineffective follow up by the regulator of the microfinance providers, Islamic microfinancedeliberately ignoring the rural areas clients’ because of the high risk, the framework lack of the building capacitytools for clients as well as for the microfinance providers staff. The results of this research gives strong policyimplications for both to Islamic microfinance regulator and providers to carry on real revision and evaluation forthe efficiency and effectiveness of the current operated microfinance frame work in Sudan. These results mightbe useful for Islamic microfinance regulators and providers in Muslims countries and interested providers in theWest the benefit from the nullified factors that render the regulatory framework ineffective.

The Efficacy of United States Sanctions on the Republic of Sudan

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between the United States (US) and the Republic of Sudan (Sudan), the complicated nature of which is an end result of the US’s ongoing sanctions on Sudan. The paper also provides a careful analysis of the legitimacy of the US Department of State’s label of Sudan as a sponsor of terrorism. Additionally, the paper will examine the implications of the US sanctions on the livelihoods of everyday citizens in the country across a variety of different sectors, while also providing a glimpse into how the Sudanese government and its top officials have managed to thrive. The paper will then conclude by looking at alternative solutions, on the basis that the sanctions are an inherently ineffective tool of diplomacy.

The death of Bassiouni: a case of complex identity in the Sudan

Contested national identity has been an important issue for much of Sudan's modern history, and was a key factor in the conflict between north and south since independence in 1956. The “Islamisation” of Sudanese government and society, beginning under Ja'far Numayri in 1983 and continuing after the military coup of 1989, led to new levels of widespread violence and ultimately the secession of the South in 2011. Meanwhile, Sudanese people everywhere have continued to debate what it means to be “Sudanese”. History reveals a number of ways in which Sudan's diverse peoples have been accommodated and assimilated in periods of both stability and instability. This study examines Sudan's minority Jewish community in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and one important family in particular, to reveal how being “Sudanese” has sometimes crossed, or muddied, a variety of ethnic, religious and cultural boundaries.

De paradox van papieren permissie

The paradox of field research permits The paradox of field research permits This essay provides an account of the way in which permits for field research in South Sudan were obtained. It shows how, despite the fact that the new country did not have a formal procedure for researchers, doing fieldwork at South Sudans borders with DR Congo and Uganda would have been impossible without a few letters of endorsement signed by people within the South Sudanese government. This inherent contradiction is further complicated by a paradox: The security personnel at the border interpreted the letters differently than the staff in the government offices in the capital. The essay argues that the contradiction between practice and procedures and the paradox of variable legitimacies provide key insight in the everyday organization of the state in South Sudan, both in the center and in the periphery.

Genocide Determination and the Question of Responsibility for the Darfur Victims of International Crimes

After the cold war era the United Nations organization was formed for the purposes of maintaining international peace and security. Closely after the formation of the organization the convention for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide came into force as the first legal document to articulate the definition of the term ‘genocide’. Viewed as a serious crime under international law, the contracting parties unanimously agree to suppress acts of genocide not only within their national jurisdiction but also within the international community as a whole. As a party to both the United Nations and the genocide convention, Sudan bears the primary responsibility to fulfill her obligation by protecting its citizens including the Darfur indigenes from acts of human rights violation that could possibly amount to genocide. This paper debates on the contemplation as to whether or not genocide actually materialized in the Darfur conflict. In conclusion, the paper decent that genocide occurred in Darfur and the perpetrators in the name of the Sudanese government and its allies the janjaweed militias should be held accountable for such acts. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n9p51

The Causes of Sudan’s Recent Economic Decline

Most of economists use the background of the civil war in Sudan to analyze the Sudanese economic decline in the last three decades. But a little focus upon the situation can shows that the civil war was not the main reason of the decline, as although it may be considered as one of the decline factors, but the real reason is the economic policies of the Sudanese governments which were assumed to be the principles director of the economic regulations. These policies through its fluctuations led to current impact especially since the last thirty years. This article tries to extract and discuss the decline reasons according to two types of factors, internally and externally.

UNAMID: a hybrid solution to a human security problem in Darfur?

In response to the widespread death, displacement and human insecurity created by the 2003 eruption of conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, the newly established African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council, with its nascent doctrine of ‘non-indifference’ to insecurity inside regional states, initially deployed a small ceasefire monitoring team. The scope of the ongoing crisis in Darfur relative to the mandate and capacity of this AU team led to calls for the deployment of a more substantial UN peace operation with a robust civilian protection mandate, but the Sudanese government, implicated in crimes against the civilian population, rejected a mission of this character. These competing pressures led, in 2007, to the authorisation of the AU–UN hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID), an unprecedented joint peace operation constituted by forces of ‘predominantly African character’, while being largely externally financed and structured by UN command and control and backstopping. Despite some achievements, UNAMID has been beset by significant authority, legitimacy, coordination, logistical and capacity challenges, including that it is yet to reach full deployment levels. This paper argues that UNAMID represents, on the one hand, an important attempt by the evolving AU to play a direct and effective role in regional peace operations, and contains elements of a viable model for other potential hybrid operations on the continent. On the other hand, however, the political compromise with Khartoum has continued to undermine the ability of UNAMID to provide adequate human security for the displaced and vulnerable civilian populations of Darfur.

Sudan–South Sudan: The Unfinished Tasks

ABSTRACT The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudanese Government in Khartoum and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the south ended a very long civil war and provided for a self-determination referendum for the people in the south. They voted to secede from Sudan to become an independent nation, South Sudan, in 2011. Nevertheless, major problems remain that threaten the peace between Sudan and South Sudan. Both countries also suffer from internal divisions that threaten stability, including the real danger that South Sudan may be entering a downhill trajectory toward state failure. The work of the international community, especially that of the United States, is far from finished.

Monitoring Services for Food Security – Successful Transfer of Technology to the Sudanese Government

Monitoring Services for Food Security – Successful Transfer of Technology to the Sudanese Government

The Ambiguous Role of the Popular, Society and Public Order Police in Sudan, 1983–2011

This article addresses a number of obscurities surrounding the role of the various Sudanese police units often referred to as the ‘religious police’ or ‘morality police’. These include the Popular Police, Society Police and Public Order Police. Although these units have often been analysed as agents of ‘Arabization’, ‘Islamization’ and the cultural domination of peripheral groups by the hegemonic northern riverain faction within the state, this article focuses instead primarily on the intra-northern debate over these units, which is suggestive of a variety of internal crises the northern government will need to resolve in the wake of secession. It contends that the Sudanese government has never resolved the ambiguity over whether these units function as local crime fighters or as guardians of religious morality. Although a number of analysts argue that the Sudanese regime has become less ideological and thus scaled back the morality police, this ambiguity remains highly relevant today, to the extent that it causes divisions within the security forces and even the government itself. The article further identifies the centrality of the debate over the public order units to the period of self-questioning that has characterized the ‘post-Islamist’ phase in Sudanese politics. It discusses the ambiguous social status of these units, who have been represented as guardians of urban Sudanese culture by their champions and a threat to it by their detractors.

Globalised rebellion: the Darfur insurgents and the world

ABSTRACTThis article is concerned with the rebellion in Darfur as a way to illustrate the politics of insurgency in the era of globalisation. We first show how the Darfur rebels have projected their struggle onto the world stage, before examining the effects that this has engendered. On the one hand, Darfur's global profile solidified the rebels' cause and co-opted international actors in support of it. This translated into real leverage for the rebels, and it constrained the Sudanese government by reducing its ability to use brute force. At the same time, internationalisation encouraged the Darfur rebels to make maximalist demands at the expense of articulating a broader political vision addressing the root causes of conflict. Moreover, the substitution of local legitimacy for international connections lowered the barriers of entry for new groups and thus promoted fragmentation. The combination of these effects makes for intractable conflict scenarios, the current situation in Darfur being a case in point.

African roles in the Libyan conflict of 2011

Libya's relationship with sub-Saharan Africa has been complex, troubled and misunderstood, both during the rule of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the conflict that culminated in his overthrow and death. The Libyan conflict of 2011 divided Africa, but nonetheless the African Union (AU) was able to agree on a political strategy aimed at achieving a negotiated settlement and power transition. The AU's peace initiative was launched in March 2011 and, contrary to widespread perception that the AU sought to prop up Gaddafi, it offered a credible and balanced option of a negotiated solution. United Nations Security Council resolution 1973 expressed support for the initiative, but in the event France, Britain and the United States blocked its chances of success. This article draws on evidence and analysis provided by the AU officials involved. It details the process whereby the AU adopted and implemented its decisions, and describes the AU's diplomatic engagement with Gaddafi and the National Transitional Council. The article also draws on information provided by Sudanese military and intelligence officials, providing an account, hitherto untold, of how the Sudanese government supported the Libyan opposition with military supplies, training and intelligence, in tacit cooperation with NATO countries. The article concludes with reflections on how the Libyan conflict has had an impact on the doctrine of the ‘responsibility to protect’, on the AU, and on Libya's relations with Africa.

Ethnic cleansing or resource struggle in Darfur? An empirical analysis

The conflict in Darfur has been described both as an ethnic cleansing campaign, carried out by the Sudanese government and its allied militias, and as a local struggle over dwindling natural resources between African farmers and Arab herders. In this paper, we use a previously unexploited data set to analyze the determinants of Janjaweed attacks on 530 civilian villages in Southwestern Darfur during the campaign that started in 2003. Our results clearly indicate that attacks have been targeted at villages dominated by the major rebel tribes, resulting in a massive displacement of those populations. Resource variables, capturing access to water and land quality, also appear to have played an important role. These patterns suggest that attacks in the area were motivated by both ethnic cleansing and resource capture, although the ethnic variables consistently have a larger impact.

The role of education in Sudan’s civil war

This article addresses the role that education plays in conflict, with specific reference to the civil war in Sudan. It analyses the ideological basis of the Sudanese government (GoS) during the civil war, with special reference to the role of religion and ethnicity. It shows how the primary education system was based on the Islamist ideology of the GoS, with limited consideration of the country’s various cultural and religious groups. It then discusses the political discourse of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the secular curriculum that SPLM’s Secretariat of Education produced during the war. It identifies differences between the Islamist and the secular educational discourses as one reason why many young people in the South took up arms against the Islamist government. With South Sudan now emerging as an independent nation, a dramatic improvement in the education sector is needed both to heal conflicts in South Sudan and to provide hope for the future to people in the South.

Language and Conflict: The Political History of Arabisation in Sudan and Algeria

AbstractUpon decolonisation, nationalist leaders in two North African countries, Algeria and Sudan, promoted a policy called Arabisation (ta'rib), which sought to impose standard literary Arabic at the expense of English (in Sudan), French (in Algeria), and other local languages (in both places). This language policy reflected the worldview of Muslim leaders, who hoped to break from the colonial past and start afresh while forging alliances with Arab Islamic states. Arabisation succeeded in expanding the use of literary Arabic in Sudanese and Algerian government bureaus as well as in schools and universities. However, in some circles it helped to stimulate oppositional identities that rejected pan‐Arabism as a focal point for national pride and that challenged the cultural foundations of national cohesion. Taking a comparative approach, this study argues that Arabic language policy in Algeria and Sudan featured strongly in postcolonial nationalism and civil conflict. It concludes by considering the status of language cultures and policies today in Algeria, the Republic of the Sudan, and the newly independent Republic of South Sudan, and contends that state‐led efforts at ‘language rationalisation’ have not eliminated multilingualism in practice.

Land rights in Darfur: Institutional flexibility, policy and adaptation to environmental change

AbstractWith environmental change set to affect the developing world in significant ways, examination of the process of adaptation is increasingly being brought to the fore. Common to all forms of adaptation in rural livelihoods will be a process of change in resource use and the resource rights that will either facilitate or subvert adaptation. This paper looks at Darfur and the repercussions from the multi‐year drought and land degradation that led to forms of adaptation that involved change in relationships between groups over land resources. The analysis looks at how changes in land resource rights relationships have been dealt with historically, as adaptation developed. Approaches involving highly flexible customary institutions were used to effectively manage the change in land resource rights relationships inherent in adaptation, and considerable opportunity existed for positive interaction between customary and statutory law. Initial success at adaptation was followed by interventions by the Sudanese government to manage these relationships for specific objectives that worked against adaptation. This resulted in competition, animosity, confrontation and the subsequent collapse of the institutions, legitimacy, and trust necessary for successful management of land resource rights change. These national policies debilitated the adaptation opportunities and instead led to profoundly negative repercussions in relationships about land in Darfur, eventually becoming a primary driver in the current war. This highlights both the importance of land resource rights relationships to adaptation and how these relationships can be changed (positively and negatively) by specific practices and policies.

Decoding the Darfur conflict: Media framing of a complex humanitarian crisis

Abstract This study uses frame analysis to examine how the New York Times framed the conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur. A qualitative content analysis of the New York Times editorials (52 editorials) between 2003 and 2008 reveals a simplistic and reductionist framing of the conflict. Most of the New York Times’ depictions framed the conflict as an ethnic strife between ‘Arab’ invaders and ‘African’ victims. The New York Times blamed ‘the Arab-dominated’ Sudanese government for backing the Janjaweed (local Arab militia), called for more sanctions against the Sudanese government and demanded the bringing of war criminals to the International Criminal Court (ICC). To its credit, the New York Times highlighted vital humanitarian aspects of the conflict, yet failed to recognize its local intricacies and root causes. The author argues that the only viable solution to the conflict in Darfur will be a fair and equitable negotiated peace settlement between the Sudanese parties to the conflict.

Stove designed by US national lab improves lives in Darfur

In cutting the wood fuel requirement in half, the stove also reduces Darfuri women’s exposure to violence.

M. W. Daly. Darfur's Sorrow: The Forgotten History of a Humanitarian Disaster. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 2nd edition, xxii + 376 pp. Figures. Maps. Glossary. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $85.00. Cloth. $24.99. Paper.

M. W. Daly. Darfur's Sorrow: The Forgotten History of a Humanitarian Disaster. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 2nd edition, xxii + 376 pp. Figures. Maps. Glossary. Notes. Bibliography. Index. 24.99. Paper. - Volume 54 Issue 3

The Institutional Structure and Decision Making in Sudan

The study here presented reviews the institutional structure of the Sudanese government. Truly, though it is stigmatized as totalitarian, the structure is phenotypically perfect. Ministry of Ministries council is supposed to cater for analyzing data concerning ministries performance, drawing strategic planning, executing them through ministries and conduct the follow-ups. Department of decision-making was created and packages for data collection and analyses were improvised. However, all these structures seem skeletal as the final decisions structurally seem to be lost between the Presidency Institution and the executive institutions. An introduced flowing chart indicates that the cycle of all decisions end up at the president's hand and approval. That is evidence of concentration of powers within one hand and oligarchic structure of governance.