Strengthening democratic and economic governance

Background

The newly independent South Sudan with its recent history of conflict is struggling to build institutions and capacities at all levels.

Similarly, Ethiopia has been going through a transition towards democracy with challenges of governance and development at different levels. Fragility of local institutions and weak capacity of local authorities are affecting the transitional process.

Lack of capacity

At the same time as the universities can play an important role in educating graduates and provide new knowledge for development, the universities themselves are also lacking capacity.

This collaborative project between universities in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Norway is intended to build competence of universities to enable them to contribute to educate candidates for governance and peace building.

The University of Juba was founded in 1975, but has been operating from Khartoum for many years during the war. When moving back to Juba, a majority of the university staff stayed behind in Khartoum.

As a result the university lacks staff, both in numbers and qualifications, which hinders the university in adequately contribute to the development of the country. At the same time, the role and potential of the university and the higher education sector is huge.

Cooperation with other higher education institutions in the region is strategic in order to develop the University of Juba.

The project includes establishment of new educational programmes and courses, competence building of university staff through MA and PhD studies, training of ex-army combatants and government officials, and research activities in areas relevant for democratic and economic governance.

Women in focus

The project has a strong focus on women and equal participation. At the University of Juba only 28 out of 305 academic staff are women, and only 20 per cent of the students are female.

The project aims at a minimum of 50 per cent female participation both for staff development, and student recruitment.

Gender is also a core topic for research, including areas like: a) Women’s land rights and livelihood security b) Women’s participation and leadership in reconciliation and peace building programmes in civil society c) gender dimensions of human security.

Overall goal

Strengthened capacity at University of Juba and Hawassa University for education, research and gender equality on democratic and economic governance, peace and reconciliation

The objectives of the project are:

1. To increase the capacity to deliver high quality education in governance, policy, conflict management and development issues in universities in Juba and Hawassa,
   
   
2. To increase capacity to undertake relevant and high quality research at Center for Policy and Development Research(CPDR) in Hawassa and CPDS in Juba University,
   
   
3. To strengthen institutional development and capacity at the universities to deliver quality education and research,
   
   
4. To strengthen regional and international collaboration for education and research, 
   
   
5. To improve local governance and service delivery in selected areas in South Sudan and Ethiopia.