Sudan and ILO sign Memorandum of Agreement on Technical Cooperation

On 15 June 2007, the ILO Regional Director for Africa, Ms. Regina Amadi-Njoku, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS). The agreement addresses post-war recovery and reconstruction in Southern Sudan, effectively consolidating the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between North and South Sudan in January 2005.

The MoA allows for the provision of capacity building and technical assistance to the Ministry of Labour, Public Services and Human Resources Development of GoSS in the areas of vocational training, employment services, labour administration and labour law.

Executive Director of the Employment Sector, Mr. José Salazar-Xirinachs remarked that: “The key challenges of the CPA in recovery and reconstruction include sustainable return, reintegration and resettlement of displaced persons, restoration of human capital, creating and rebuilding public institutions, reconstruction of physical infrastructure and building up the human resource base.”

Extensive ILO expertise in these technical areas is fundamental for the successful implementation of the CPA.

The CPA ended Africa’s longest running civil war and created a new political structure composed of the Government of National Unity (GoNU) and the GoSS. As stated in the CPA, Sudan follows the model of one country, two systems. This model provides opportunities to implement peace through development in a decentralized environment.

The ILO began supporting the CPA in late 2005 by identifying the needs of Sudanese constituents. SRO-Cairo, ILO/CRISIS and various technical units from ILO Headquarters have provided support to the Ministries of Labour, Public Services and Human Resources Development in both Khartoum and Juba after submitting proposals for their respective Multi-Donor Trust Funds (MDTFs).

The agreement renews ILO technical cooperation with Sudan:  In the 1970s and 1980s, the ILO implemented cooperative development projects along the Nile, lent support to various vocational training centres and undertook labour-intensive construction projects in Darfur.  It is hoped that the launching of technical cooperation activities with the GoSS will pave the way for another agreement with the GoNU for the rest of Sudan.

The ILO will be deploying Mr. Federico Negro, a socio-economic reintegration expert from ILO/CRISIS, to Juba, Southern Sudan. He will facilitate the implementation of the MoA and will engage in resource mobilisation for existing technical cooperation project proposals in the areas of employment-intensive reconstruction, cooperative development, women entrepreneurship development and vocational training, and will develop new project proposals.  Although based in Juba, Mr. Negro will also be advancing ILO activities in the rest of Sudan.

As Ms. Amadi-Njoku pointed out, “The ILO considers today’s event just the start of a more substantive support to our Sudanese constituents in the years to come.”