NEWS AND EVENTS

3-4 December 2003

Second Workshop: National Capacity Building for Sustainable Development Strategy in Sudan

The second workshop, convened 3-4 December 2003, aimed at developing the structure of the national sustainable development strategy. Whilst the first workshop identified and prioritized seven strategic core areas encompassing the most important elements of a sustainable society, the second workshop sought to develop the elements of the NSDS based on the elaboration of these sectoral issues.

• Poverty reduction
• Natural resource base
• Patterns of production and consumption
• Population and public health
• Human resource development
• Macro-economic policies
• Governance, political stability, peace building and social stability

One month prior to the workshop, the project sponsored the preparation of background discussion papers on the seven sectors by a team of experts in the relevant ministries. Each sectoral paper consisted:

• review of the present situation
• analysis of problems/constraints;
• overall objectives to solve the identified problems;
• policies;
• measures and efforts to achieve the desired objectives; and
• risks.

The core area teams were requested to base their assessments on a wide range of available sources including the draft 25-year strategy, poverty reduction strategy and other sectoral policy papers and reports. The papers prepared by the seven core area teams were presented in plenary session of the Second Workshop on 3 rd December 2003. Discussions of the papers continued in working groups, i.e., beyond the workshop.

The Second Workshop, among other things, recommended that urban development and housing as well as spatial aspects of NSDS be included in the list of NSDS sectors. The project sponsored the preparation of papers on these sectors.