Analysis of South Sudan past economic and finance.

By Hearty Ritti

Transitioning from dependency to independent nation, the Republic of South Sudan (RSS) had struggled and experienced a significant unpredictable and challenged economic and financial management turmoil including its private sectors since 2005.Officials concluded that this was due to the fact that, the GOSS/RSS’s interim period appeared to be relatively mix of unstructured and weak frame work measures in place which mitigated financial irregularity and practices.

Officials also stated and indicated that by then the system lucks transparency in which the public access to the nation’s financial data was limited and in-accurate. The structure was said to lucking improved budget structure, financial management mechanism, and accountability to complement proposed budget. Weakness had deepened through institutional and capacity development which failed to recognize efforts of collaborative country development initiatives from technocrats. Human capital was evident set back that slow South Sudan attaining its potentials officials reported.

 The record also saw that the system did not paying any close attention as to how external and internal landing disbursement or investment to ensure positive contribution to equitable and sustainable development. Most importantly the system did not acquire financial instrument or soft ware to prevent unauthorized from manipulating the system for their advantages.

At this point, South Sudan is said to have the cleanest domestic and international debt record compared to the rest of any country in the world. The only debt reported on South Sudan had been the one inherited form old Sudan; this is good news we could capitalize on. Sincerely speaking, we must do everything now at our disposal to save south Sudan from being buried in debt like other African Nations before it is too late.

Seriously speaking, with inflation above 60%, south Sudan is facing the daunting tasks of transforming from dependency to a fully sovereign state; however it is challenged by the extreme dependence on oil revenue, where 98 percent of (RSS) public/government budget came from oil. Economist and financial analyst experts have projected and predicted that the dependence on oil revenue will only last for short-term and has no long term constrain. These are indications that should alert RSS to adjust its dependency on oil and redeploy focus on exploring different sources of revenues to meet its national budget demands in long run.

This lead us to ask the question that when will south Sudan stand on its own feet and develop country system to contribute significantly to development and bring aboard diversity to the natural  development with ultimate hope and objective to transform and develop support for sustainable and measurable results? To-do that, RSS should enact tough rules for responsible financial cash flow where legal framework and enforcement mechanism is in line with what president Kirr called zero tolerance for corruption in any operation being internal, external, or foreign investment.

It is important to note that RSS private capital flows will not deliver for the country’s poor if ambitious regulatory measures to promote responsible finance, transparent and accountability are not urgently executed. Tentatively, in the absence of a fair and binding frame work for responsible finance, where billions are borrowed and un-documented/accounted for, RSS will face repayment difficulties if the borrowed loans or disputes with foreign investors are not transparently documented. The implication of financial crisis will leave lasting scars on the RSS financial system and will have protracted marks on poor people across south Sudan , some thing we must all prevent from happening.

Similarly, the fact that financial prediction is based on the speculation, as RSS economy hopefully rebounds, political leaders will tend to bid on fair and binding frame work for responsible finance negotiated by the other party; however, the bottom line is that someone will be held responsible when citizen suffer, complain, or protest.

With this in mind, I thought of dropping observations, recommendations and suggestions that might interest Key GOSS economic and financial decision makers to forge model to prevent inflation from skyrocketing, say no to heavy browed loans, and apprehend corrupt on time.

A) Urgently, South Sudan needs to develop a charter outlining standards to ensure government landing and investment rules and regulations to better monitor actively financial activities to deliver positive development outcome. The importances of developing responsible finance instrument framework for a decent accountable and equitable manner are essential.  

B) Urgently enact law that can expedite corruption allegations to the court of law for persecution through fair and balanced investigations.

  

C) Public access to national budget information and financial data to improve accountability and help link citizen to development plan, implementation and results.    

 

D) The fact that South Sudan does not yet acquired high tech financial soft ware to track its financial activities and cash flows, I recommend it should only accept grants from an external sources of borrowed finance and should not borrow excess foreign securities which are indirectly attached to the heavy loan that will eventually cause budget deficit, excess spending over income and decline on economic growth and possible inflation.

 

E) RSS should develop principal proposal for practice. The current inflation is direct result of excess borrowed external finance corresponding to failed development projects, while exporting zero commodities to the foreign market with exception of oil revenue; causing risk and uncertainty for the new country economic growth.

 

F) To reduce hyper inflation, RSS needs to renew search for financial returns , meaning that there is currently an increase in short term and volatile private capital flows without frame work of binding standards for sovereign RSS, implying that borrowing, lending, and investment practice are left un-check.

 

G) It is advisable that RSS needs to propose a contractual change to avoid unwanted debts/loans and encourage responsible financing as its investment contract to ensure decent investment and help improve the quality of lending and investment that eliminates future illegitimate and unsustainable debt on RSS’s future.

H) RSS should capitalize on its experienced and professional human capital technocrats to create balanced experienced equivalent to that of the western free market economy to allow competitive business environment.  RSS nationals with certified Public Accountant (CPA, IMF, World Bank, UN, Wall Street etc) are typical asset that could reverse   and redirect expectations, in my view worth investing. e.t.c.

I) Diaspora being the seven (7^Th) fronts during the war should consider voluntarily or organized repatriation to south Sudan. Let us go to South Sudan and make difference and impact. Let us use our diverse expertise to make Republic of South Sudan the best nation on earth.      

In Sudan, peace remains elusive

Sudanese President Omar Bashir attends the funeral of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Oct. 25. South Sudan declared independence in July. But Sudan’s wars have not ended. They have, in fact, multiplied. (Hassan Ammar / AP Photo)

Hostilities haven’t ceased despite the agreement that ended the decades-long civil war. As aid blockades and bombings of civilians continue, the international community mostly stays silent.

By Jehanne Henry and Gerry SimpsonOctober 25, 2011, 5:01 p.m.

When South Sudan declared independence in July, the international community breathed a sigh of relief. A difficult six-year process, set forth in the ambitious 2005 peace agreement that ended Sudan’s 22-year-long civil war, was finally over. The world appeared to feel it could stop focusing on Sudan.But Sudan’s wars have not ended. They have, in fact, multiplied. Five of Sudan’s 16 states are mired in armed conflicts. Since June, new conflicts have erupted in two volatile states — Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile— just north of the South Sudan border, while the three states in the western region of Darfur are still a war zone, although that conflict has dropped from the headlines. These conflicts are a stark reminder that the 2005 agreement failed to address the root causes of Sudan’s problems. They are also a reminder that without justice, there can be no lasting peace in Sudan.In a grim reprise of the civil war, the Sudanese government of President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir has been fighting armed opposition groups with historical links to the former southern rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), in Southern Kordofan and in Blue Nile. Both states are home to ethnic African populations whose grievances and injustices were not appropriately addressed in the 2005 peace agreement or in its implementation. Adding insult to injury, the governor of Southern Kordofan is Ahmed Haroun, who, along with President Bashir, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes committed in Darfur.

Fighting broke out in Southern Kordofan in early June following hotly disputed state elections, in which Haroun narrowly claimed the governorship for a second term, and in the context of government attempts to disarm the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. The violence has included heavy shelling, widespread arrests, destruction of property and massive population displacement. It has been accompanied by a campaign of indiscriminate bombing, killing scores of people and wounding many more.

During our August trip to the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan, where more than 200,000 people have fled their homes, we witnessed aircraft on a near-daily basis dropping bombs and causing families to scatter. We found large numbers of people in caves and on mountaintops, terrified to return to their villages.

In early September, the fighting spread to neighboring Blue Nile, where Bashir declared a state of emergency and sacked the opposition governor. Government security forces arrested dozens of suspected sympathizers. As in Southern Kordofan, ground battles are ongoing while the government indiscriminately bombs civilian areas. More than 30,000 people have fled, most across the Ethiopian border.

In both states, the government has imposed a cruel aid blockade — in total disregard of international law and of repeated requests for access by United Nations and nongovernmental aid groups — preventing food and other goods from reaching needy civilian populations in opposition-held areas. The people in the Nuba Mountains are surviving on dwindling rations, supplemented by leaves and berries. The persistent bombing has prevented them from cultivating crops, raising fears of malnutrition and famine in coming months.

In these marginalized areas, as in Darfur, Sudan is violating basic precepts of international law with total impunity. The world has been too divided on Sudan, and too silent. Neither the U.N. nor the African Union has uttered a peep of condemnation for Sudan’s actions in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, even though the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that war crimes and crimes against humanity may have occurred in Southern Kordofan.

The U.N. and the African Union should demand an end to Sudan’s bombings, call for unfettered access for humanitarian agencies and press for the immediate deployment of an independent human rights monitoring presence. The United States should push for these actions at the U.N. Security Council and with key African partners. And it should remind other powers that Bashir continues to commit them elsewhere in Sudan.

Sudan’s conflicts all have the same root causes: the Arab-majority government’s economic and political marginalization and neglect of far-flung regions and populations of African ethnicity, and the use of military force to subjugate them rather than guaranteeing democratic reforms and respect for human rights.

But the 2005 peace agreement did not force Sudan to change its ways. Although the parties carried out parts of the agreement — elections in 2010 that were deeply flawed and a referendum on southern independence last January — they did not implement the ambitious reforms that could have helped address some of the inequities driving Sudan’s conflicts. It is no small wonder that the South chose to secede.

Sadly, for those of us who have followed the situation in Sudan for many years, the new wars were predictable. International supporters have repeatedly failed to press Sudan to make needed reforms or hold Sudan accountable for serious abuses — so the abuses continue. If the United States and others don’t insist that Sudan make changes, the conspiracy of silence will continue to perpetuate the myth that Sudan’s long war is over, when for many it is starting up again.

Jehanne Henry is a senior Africa researcher and Gerry Simpson is refugee policy advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-henry-sudan-20111025,0,2355857.story?track=rss

USAID Provides Equipment to South Sudan for Conflict Prevention

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2011
Public Information: 202-712-4810
www.usaid.gov

BOR, SOUTH SUDAN – USAID today handed over five speedboats to South Sudan’s Jonglei State government, to help state authorities deter threats to community security in a part of South Sudan that has experienced significant intercommunal violence this year.

By providing these speedboats along with accessories including lifejackets and 25 barrels of fuel to the state Ministry of Local Government and county authorities, USAID will further enhance the government’s capacity to reach isolated counties and deter emerging community security threats.

Delivery of this security-enhancing equipment is part of USAID’s program to support stability and prevent conflict in South Sudan by helping to extend the presence of state authority in isolated and conflict-prone regions, including Jonglei State.

Due to limited road infrastructure and rains that flood the area for many months of the year, many payams (sub-county administrative units) are cut off from county headquarters, which are themselves isolated from the state capital, Bor. River transport is often the only means to reach remote areas in the rainy season.

“We know that there is an inextricable link between peace and development,” Deputy Mission Director Peter Natiello told the crowd assembled at the Nile River in Bor. “And we know that the development that we seek to support the citizens of Jonglei with will not be possible unless we work together on the security issues, to help achieve peace. We’re happy to support the efforts of the local government in Jonglei.”

USAID has provided substantial transportation and communication support in a number of key conflict-prone counties in South Sudan, improving information flows between counties and payams and helping local government authorities monitor emerging threats with equipment including satellite phones, high-frequency radios, and motorbikes. In Jonglei state alone, USAID has distributed 60 satellite phones to county and payam officials, and 17 Codan high-frequency radios to improve communication between authorities. The communication equipment has already enabled local authorities to prevent cattle raids, which can become deadly, by warning communities at risk.

For more information about USAID and its programs in South Sudan, visit http://www.usaid.gov.

http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2011/pr111025_1.html

South Sudan moves to end Arabic schooling

By Hannah McNeish (AFP)

JUBA, South Sudan — Newly independent South Sudan will change the language of schooling to English this year, shrugging off decades of Arabic imposed from the north, the government announced on Wednesday.

The new nation’s parliament passed the Higher and General Education Bill late Tuesday that all education from primary level will be taught in English.

“This new year, we are teaching our national languages at the pre-school and the rest of the instructions, mathematics or science, all in English, there’s no Arabic. We’ll have Arabic only as a language as a subject”, Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told reporters.

“That’s how it used to be, till it was changed, since 1898. They changed it only in 1989 when they declared sharia (Islamic) law in the whole country”, he said of the former British colony.

The fledgling government faces a host of daunting challenges in building a nation from scratch after gaining independence from the mainly Arab north in July after decades of civil war that left the country in ruins.

After years of fighting and neglect, only 16 percent of South Sudanese are literate, and very few of them women.

The government hopes the move will unify the new nation, which is thought to have over 60 indigenous languages, and also bring it into line with neighbouring countries’ education systems.

“This will also make it easy for the syllabuses within South Sudan to fall within the context of East African syllabuses and universities”, Benjamin said.

Khartoum will still set exams for those already at secondary school for the next three years while the country makes the transition to English, which was made the official language in a new constitution last month, Benjamin said.

South Sudan has around 18,000 teachers, many of them from Kenya or Uganda.

The government plans to train 7,000 teachers to use English as the language of instruction and build 11 national secondary schools covering all 10 of the country’s states.

The new act makes primary education free and compulsory for all in a country lacking basic infrastructure, where only 10 percent of children complete primary school and 64 percent do not attend.

The UN children’s agency (UNICEF) said enrolment has increased from around 343,000 in 2005, when the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed with the north, to 1.6 million last year.

Benjamin said renovating “crumbling” schools in the underdeveloped nation was a priority that could tempt the largely pastoral nation with many nomadic tribes into investing in education as well as cows.

“”If you build proper schools, they will take their children there”, he said.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

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South Sudan schools to teach in English, not Arabic

Wed Oct 26, 2011

JUBA Oct 26 (Reuters) – South Sudan said on Wednesday its schools will start teaching English, phasing out Arabic that had been used as a tool to spread Islamic law and Arab heritage by former civil war foe Khartoum.

The mainly Muslim north imposed Islamic law and Arabic on the south, which seceded in July to become the world’s newest nation, and where most follow Christian and traditional beliefs.

The language move is symbolic of the nation’s vision of closer integration with African neighbours, said Samson Wattara, an associate professor in political science at Juba University.

“The switch will not be automatic and will probably be problematic but South Sudanese want to look southwards,” Wattara told Reuters.

“This is a departure from the arabisation doctrine which was consistently opposed by different rebellions,” he said.

South Sudan’s government passed a bill making English mandatory for teaching in primary and secondary schools, Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told reporters.

“Under the Khartoum government subjects were universally taught in Arabic. We will teach our national languages at pre-school and for the rest, the instructions in mathematics or science will all be in English,” he said.

South Sudan has dozens of local languages and dialects, but the most commonly spoken languages are English and Arabic.

Benjamin said the country is training 7,000 new teachers to help launch the new syllabus, to give students easier access to universities in east Africa. Secondary school students will continue to sit exams in Arabic for the next three years.

South Sudan’s independence vote, agreed under a 2005 peace deal, ended decades of civil war with the north over religion, oil, ethnicity and ideology.

North and South Sudan yet have to settle a range of disputes such as sharing oil revenues and other assets and find a solution for the disputed border region of Abyei. (Reporting by Hereward Holland; Editing by Louise Ireland)

http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E7LQ4XX20111026 

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