South Sudan has been in civil war for the last five years that may come to an end soon. As the search for peace and stability continues, a three day grassroots participation forum under the theme ‘Our Peace Forum’ kicks off in Juba. The participants for the event come from across the country
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The grassroots participation forum draws representatives from all categories of South Sudanese; civil society members, opposition groups, religion groups, academia, women, youth, non-governmental organizations, and member of the international community, and even government.
The occasion premier to give platform to South Sudan people at grassroots level, to participate and share their stories and experiences from all corner of the country.
It is such forum that gives ordinary people in the country a chance to have their voices, and views listen to and incorporate into national decision-making.
To enhance peace and stability in the country, the event takes divergent views from all participants with sole mission to create cohesion and peaceful co-existence regardless of political affiliations or any other association. It is also envision that the forum will create a strong link between sub-national and national level strategy for peace and development in the country.
One of the opposition leaders, Dr. Lam Akol informs the participants that one of the challenges that lead to the collapse of the first peace agreement was having two armies in one country for one unified government.
He further reveals that consultations are on-going to have necessary unified forces and security arrangements in place before the transitional government is formed in mid-November this year.
However, Dr. Lam points out some challenges to the implementation of the peace agreements like the financial constraint to facilitate the different peace process as stipulate in the agreement.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General to South Sudan and Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan David Shearer appreciate the participants for coming to give their voice and tell their stories.
He urges the participants to own the peace process and make it workable in any way possible for the interest of their country- South Sudan.
The three day event is organized by the Center for Strategic and Policy Studies (CSPS), Finn Church Aid, United Nation Development Programme, and United Nation Mission in South Sudan and many other host of national non-governmental organizations, and civil society organizations.
Necessary Unified Forces
Different presentations were lined up for the first day of the highly interactive forum. Among the first ones, is the brief update on status of peace process in sub-national and national arena.
The National Pre-transitional committee (NPTC) representative Dr Olaw Adiang tells the participants that joint security technical committee has visited and established training centres across all the three former regions of South Sudan; Upper Nile, Bhar El Gazal, and Equatoria regions. Joint security technical committee has trained 83 000 necessary unifying forces to create environment for upcoming transitional government in mid-November this year.
He also stresses that one of the immediate hurdles is lack of funds to carry out those tasks.
During the questions and answers session on security sector reform many participants demand to know the ration of male to female security personnel in the 83000 necessary unifying forces.