Local Lobby and Advocacy Networks Meet in Bor to Share Experiences on their Activities

With support from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs through Search for Common Ground, CEDAR is implementing a five-year “Just Future” project in collocation with other civil society actors in the Just Future Alliance which is led in South Sudan by Cordaid. Through this project we strengthen the capacity of local stakeholders to build peaceful, just and politically inclusive communities. We support regular women peace networks, youth peace networks and the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) to actively engage local authorities towards the achievement of the project’s outcomes; (1) people-centered security; (2) access to justice;and (3) inclusive political decision-making and peace processes. These local networks enhance relationships and trust between the community and duty-bearers, and promote their collaboration on issues affecting the community.

CEDAR implements this project in Bor and Torit where 5 local lobby and advocacy networks have been created and supported.

In Bor, the three committees; Women Peace Network (WPN), PCRC and coalition of Women and Youth Peace Network (WYPN) met together on 12^th October 2022 in an experience sharing session facilitated by Search for Common Ground to create space for them to share their experiences on the recent lobby and advocacy activities they have been undertaking to improve security in Bor. The three networks have been working actively in the last two months to address the issue of gang crimes in Bor that threatens the security of women and children at night. In today’s experience sharing meeting, they discussed challenges they faced while lobbying security actors to undertake and implement recommendations that came out from the community consultative dialogue sessions there organized by CEDAR in September. They discussed new opportunities and strategies to step up their engagement.