This is an evaluation of the Government of Sudan and UNICEF’s Grassroots Peace-building Project, part of UNICEF’s Rights, Protection and Peace-Building section. UNICEF began peace- building activities in 2000, after a mid-term review of its five year programme identified conflict as a major obstacle to the achievement of its goals in Sudan. The project began in 2002, a year of ceasefires, prosperity and hope in Sudan. It worked in six conflict-affected states.
The project aimed to reduce grassroots conflicts, and to mainstream a rights-based approach to peace-building in UNICEF’s counterparts, and in its own work. “Grassroots” conflict-reduction means that the project would not work on the main North-South conflict, but focus on local contests over local power or resources. These lethal, impoverishing conflicts are the immediate context for the denial of many children’s rights in Sudan.
