Training courses on Peacebuilding, Decentralisation and Local Government in South Sudan

In 2010 and 2011, The Hague Academy gave two trainings on Peacebuilding, Decentralisation and Local Government in South Sudan. The general objective of the training courses was to strengthen the decentralised government in South Sudan by training the staff of the Local Government Board (LGB) and other civil servants at various levels of government that work on the nexus of peacebuilding, decentralisation and local governance. The 2010 course focused on increasing insight into the possible impact of decentralisation reforms in South Sudan on the stability of the country. It also provided participants with insights on how to design and implement the process. Based on outcomes from the 2010 course and lessons learnt from recent capacity development efforts of the LGB and their development partners, an advanced course on how to better manage this highly challenging process was also organised in 2011. This course adopted a two-stream approach: (i) further improving technical competency in decentralisation (ii) and building leadership skills.

Objectives

Teach the participants to be able to:

• Judge the impact of local governance and decentralisation reforms on realizing sustainable peace and building state legitimacy in South Sudan;
• Analyse the state of local governments in South Sudan;
• Design and implement initiatives aimed at strengthening local governments and stimulating active participation of citizens;
• Understand the role of local governments and communities in restoring service delivery;
• Design strategies for more effective implementation of decentralisation;
• Establish a common diagnostic and analytical framework for leadership challenges; and
• Bring together relevant stakeholders and mobilise them for advancing decentralisation reforms.

Partners