ACCORD South Sudan Initiative (SSI) has conducted a Conflict Assessment Skills (CASE) training for South Sudanese Women parliamentarians from both the national and state assemblies. The three-day training was the first ever gathering of women parliamentarians overseeing the national and state executive bodies, providing diverse experiences of executive oversight. The training contributes to the SSI’s broader objective of empowering women through capacity-building and participation in programme activities in South Sudan.
This training was the first gender specific training conducted by ACCORD for South Sudanese women since a training conducted in 1998 in Kenya to prepare Sudanese women as facilitators of the Sudanese peace process.
The CASE training, which took place from 23-25 September 2013 in the capital, Juba, brought together 50 participants representing all the ten states of South Sudan. The women parliamentarians were trained on essential conflict analysis skills for devising strategies to manage and resolve conflicts. The theories on conflict analysis were later supplemented with experience sharing and examples in sessions on the role of women in politics, peace and security conducted by the executive director of a leading South Sudanese women empowerment organisation and a retired member of parliament from Ghana working in the UN Mission in South Sudan.
ACCORD gave a presentation on UN Resolution 1325. The epitome of the training was a presentation and an inspiring speech by a South African woman member of Parliament, Hon. Annelize Van Wyk who shared with the South Sudanese her experience and that of women parliamentarians in South Africa in general on how to push for their voices and agendas in parliament and in other decision making institutions and bodies. Hon. Annelize Van Wyk shared her experience as an MP in South Africa during the transitional period up to date stressing the importance of women’s caucus in parliament.
