BY INVITATION ONLY: ISS Seminar, Nairobi: Southern Sudan 2011
Date: 2011-02-01
Venue: , Crown Plaza Hotel Hotel,
Nairobi,
Kenya
Reflections on the Referendum and the Post-Referendum Transitional Period
Background
January 9, 2011 was an indelible day in
the history of the people of Southern Sudan, Sudan and the world as a whole.
The people of South Sudan conducted a relatively peaceful referendum on self
determination as provided for by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed
in 2005, which ended a 21-year long brutal civil war. Preliminary results indicate
that Southern Sudan will vote to secede and establish a new state defined along
the North - South boundaries established by the CPA. In the build up to the
referendum a number of issues were left unresolved notably the contentious
Abyei referendum that was to take place concurrently with the Southern
referendum. There is also the contentious concern of the “Popular
Consultations†in the Blue Nile and the South Kordofan states which have not
been implemented. These in
addition to a number of transitional issues regarding citizenship, wealth and
oil revenue sharing, the Sudan debt, currency, the outstanding border
demarcation and the fate of a range of regional and international agreements
among others, are yet to be discussed, negotiated and resolved.
With the referendum completed, it is
imperative that North and South leadership engage and establish frameworks for
the constructive management of post-referendum issues during the six-month
interim transitional period. Principally, the Government of Southern Sudan must
now turn to the process of establishing a sustainable and credible statehood in
the South amid a myriad challenges of managing expectations, (re) settling returnees,
consolidating the diverse southern political elites and military formations,
and building positive relations with the North, sub-regional economic communities
and international governments among others.
Aims of the Seminar
The almost declared emergence of a new
nation state in Southern Sudan is a defining moment with significant implications
for Sudan, Southern Sudan, sub-region and the global political and security
environment. South Sudan currently borders five other countries in the volatile
Horn of Africa most of which have outstanding border issues and it is part of
the Nile Basin an internationally shared water resource –whose utilization has
been in contention for a very long time. There is an unresolved status of the
oil rich Abyei region among other unfinished business of the CPA - making the
management of post-referendum issues critical for internal and regional
stability.
To
interrogate key post-referendum challenges and develop practical policy options
for conflict prevention, high-level panelists drawn from the Government of
Southern Sudan, regional governments, academia, think-tanks and civil society,
will address the following key
issues:
- Reflections
on the conduct of the Referendum and Lessons Learnt
- Reflections
on the implementation of the CPA
- Nurturing
Southern Sudan’s Statehood
- Managing critical
post-referendum issues (Abyei referendum and other regions, status of
North-South negotiations on oil and wealth sharing, debt, border demarcation
and citizenship etc)
- Regional
and international dimensions of the South Sudan independence and implications
for sub-regional security and prospects for economic development of the
sub-region
The seminar aims
to stimulate quality discussion, in-depth and constructive interaction between
participants and brings together government officials, politicians,
diplomats, academics, researchers, the media and members of the civil society
to deliberate on this important issue.
ISS Rules
Please note that discussions occur under
the ISS Rule, which means no attribution without specific permission.
