Southern Sudan: The Challenges of Building an Education System in the Wake of Conflict

Twenty-one years of civil war left Southern Sudan with one of the weakest education systems in the world. Since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2005, considerable effort has focused on constructing a basic education system. Six months before the referendum on whether Southern Sudan remains part of a united Sudan or secedes, and with expanding the educational capacity of Southern Sudanese an urgent priority, what is the state of education in Southern Sudan? What lessons have been learned about developing an education system in a place devastated by war and with a limited history of formal education?

Speakers

• Marc Sommers
  Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow, U.S. Institute of Peace
• Peter Buckland
  Consultant
  Human Development Network
  The World Bank
• Elizabeth Leu
  Senior Education Advisor
  AED/Global Education Center
• Jon Temin, Moderator
  Senior Program Officer (Sudan), Center for Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations

Multimedia Archive

• Watch video coverage of the event by C-SPAN