UNICEF
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SUDAN PEACE INITIATIVE
University of Pennsylvania
Summer program in Advances on Social Norms and Social Change
Case study by Valentina Rios
Case Study Title
Sudan Peace Initiative
Project Location
Khartoum State and Juba with gradual scale up to other
states in Northern and Southern Sudan
Issue
Violence as a way of solving conflict
verall goal
Promote positive messages about peace and conflictresolution, with the aim to get a critical mass of Sudanese
people to reflect seriously on the price of war and gains of
peace and as a result choose to demand peace and nonviolent resolution of conflict.
Expected Results
By the end of 2011, 50 per cent of Northern and Southern
Sudanese society have an enhanced awareness of their
need for personal engagement in prevention of violent
conflict and peaceful resolution of differences and conflict
at all levels, leading to a noticeable decrease in incidence
of violence and increase in de-escalation of existing
conflicts. Indicators: 1) reduction in violence as
documented through media reports of violence; and
reported through UN safety reports 2) increase in number
of civil society organizations and actors involved in
prevention of conflicts, de-escalation/resolution of existing
conflicts and engaging their leaders and authorities on
issues related to peace building and conflict prevention,
respectively.
Implementing Partners
Approach
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UN agencies, UNMIS
CBO, FBO, sports organisations
National and International Organisations
Private Sector and the Media, Sudanese Celebrities
Change of social norms and expectations related to violent
behavior
2
ISSUE
Current pressures in Sudan including, political, civil, environmental, and economic
situations clearly indicate that peace and stability in Sudan are essential if UN, in general
and UNICEF in particular, is to achieve its country programme objectives. UNICEF, is
proposing a multi-pronged strategy that includes national peace initiative with a broadbased partnerships and mainstreaming of conflict prevention and peace building in its
sectoral and cross-sectoral programmes.
Sudanese groups seem to be characterized by distinctive features such as perceived
similarity between group members, in their cohesiveness, their shared attitudes and
beliefs and strong conformity to group norms but the diversity of the inhabitants of Sudan
in religion, language and ethnic community raises the problem of how these different
groups can be in agreement in the political, economic and cultural life of the whole
country.
Their social identity is built around group characteristics and behavioural standards;
hence any perceived lack of conformity to their group norms is seen as a threat to the
legitimacy of the group, ethnic diversity, religious differences, and geographical and
cultural differences.
Reviewing the situation in Sudan we can infer that there are some normative
expectations among Sudanese related to the violent behaviour:
•
Sudanese people see that most people use violence to resolve conflict and that it
is the only way to obtain the individual/group benefit.
This leads us to think that in Sudan there is a social dilemma in which there is a situation
that violence is the way of solving conflict, in which groups dominate others by the use of
violence (armed groups/government law; spouses on each other; spouses on a child;
among community leaders; teachers on students, etc). There is a tension that suits the
stronger groups to dominate the more vulnerable ones that do not act in a violent
manner. The social norms make people continue the violence being legal sanctions are
in total contradiction with them. The prevalent situation is that in which ones and others
are violent and try to maintain dominance to get their own benefit.
The ideal situation would be to have a different relation for each party where legal
sanctions and social sanctions make a change in people’s expectations.
3
For the peace initiative in Sudan it is necessary to identify the causes that make
Sudanese people resolve conflict in a violent way, to understand the reasons why they
engage in conflictive ways. To recognize the social norms in those issues that lead to
conflict and to discover the new norms that can lead to a change in violent behavior.
The objective of the peace initiative should be the change to collective empirical
expectations that will lead to shared benefit in which the best for all is to be non violent,
to resolve conflict in a peaceful manner.
The main theoretical underpinning of the Sudan Peace Initiative is the change of
collective expectations from social norms that are related to violence at different levels,
especially on the scripts related to those norms and to work on the procedural justice to
make Sudanese people participating in decision making process.
The social dynamics of the change process will lead to an abandonment of the attitudes
that lead to potential conflict. It will be developed in the following steps: Vision of the
community; Social networks identification and Alliances; Reflection & discussion with a
focus on human rights and democracy; Developing common knowledge, alternative
behaviors and reasons to contribute; Decision making and taking action; Incentives and
punishments; The collective choice of Corresponsability and citizenship; Collective
commitment with public affirmation for peace; Organized diffusion in alliances with the
critical mass and tipping point of the social networks.
The activities to be developed in the Peace Initiative in Sudan are advocacy through
mass media campaign; Artistic Outreach; Peace Ambassadors; Regional and Global
Goodwill Ambassadors; Mainstreaming of Peace building in UNICEF assisted
programmes; Capacity building; Broad-based partnerships.