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2 - South Sudanese Women on the Move: An Account of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2021

Soumita Basu
Affiliation:
South Asian University
Paul Kirby
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Laura Shepherd
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
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Summary

Upon completing her first university degree in 2005, Rita M. Lopidia and seven other women from universities in Sudan came together to form EVE Organization for Women Development. EVE provides skills building, rights awareness and leadership training for young women in South Sudan. Since forming, EVE has broadened its scope to promote women's political participation and advocate for women's voices to be included at the peace table.

In this chapter, Rita M. Lopidia and Lucy Hall discuss Rita's firsthand experience of feminist advocacy on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in South Sudan and transnationally. Under Rita's leadership EVE has also played a key role in monitoring the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in South Sudan. South Sudan launched its first National Action Plan (NAP) in 2016 for a period of five years (2015– 2020).

Lucy Hall (LH): Rita, I understand that you spent the majority of your childhood in Sudan as an internally displaced person (IDP). Could you tell me about how this inspires your activism?

Rita M. Lopidia (RML): I was only eight years old when the conflict between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) intensified in Juba in the early 1990s. We lived through the horror of continuous shelling, students’ riots, demonstrations rejecting Arabization of the curriculum, and the disappearing of civilians at the hands of Sudanese government national intelligence services for allegedly supporting rebels. It was during this period that I started to realize that something was wrong with my country. At the age of 10, I was a restless kid and amid the uprising in town, I decided to join the students’ movement at St Joseph's Church in Juba and that was where the spirit of activism in me was nurtured.

My family was eventually displaced to Khartoum where I completed my undergraduate degree. I consider myself privileged to have completed my first degree, given the hardship and discrimination that South Sudanese people faced under the Sudanese government. Some South Sudanese women were not even able to complete their basic education. In 2006, my friends and I founded Eve Organization in Khartoum to support South Sudanese Women.

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Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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