PAC: Partners should build on the foundation laid by MS Sudan

PAC encourages the partners to make use of the abilities and support MS Sudan has given them and promises to do their best to secure funding beyond 2010.

By Janne Bruvoll, information officer, MS Sudan

11. February 2010

At their meeting in December 2009, the MS Sudan Policy Advisory Council (PAC) was informed that the MS Sudan programme will close by the end of 2010. The news came as a surprise to the members.

“I was shocked when I got the news because I did not expect this to happen. MS Sudan is really needed in Southern Sudan and what we do here with supporting democracy is really necessary,” says Abugo Charles Guya who is an independent member of PAC.

Steven Sokiri from Kajo-Keji Resource Centre, one of three partner representatives in PAC, agrees.

“MS in Denmark should have considered including the MS Sudan programme in their future structure so that we could go on,” he says.

Not a disaster
The PAC members spent most of the December meeting discussing how to make sure that the MS Sudan partners will be able to continue their activities without MS Sudan and the members agreed that PAC has an important role to play in the time leading up to the closure.

“One thing that we as PAC should do is to lobby for other donors who can take over after MS Sudan. MS Sudan is a good reference for the partners and PAC should encourage the partners to create a strong network so that we can make use of the link that we already have with each other,” says Abugo Charles Guya. He continues:

“My advice to the partners is not to see this as a disaster but to focus on all the good things that MS has done and exploit the abilities and the contacts that we have through MS. I believe that the partners will have good opportunities to find new donors and continue the work that they have started with MS Sudan.”

Steven Sokiri thinks that PAC should make sure that all partners are assessed and that MS Sudan does everything it can to make sure that the partners are ready to go on without them.

“And we must work to secure funding from elsewhere so that the partners can continue their work with building local democracy,” he says.

Steven Sokiri advises the partners to make sure that the support they get this year is used for setting a base for the future.

“I think it will be a good idea to have fewer activities and spend more money on investments which will make the organisations able to sustain themselves beyond 2010,” he says.