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Fiscal federalism training provided to newly-elected politicians in Southern Sudan

Workshop participants pose for a post-workshop snapshot. In the front row centre is Daniel Awet Akot, the Deputy Speaker of the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA). To Mr. Akot's right are Prof. V.N. Alok of New Delhi and Prof. David Solomon of Johannesburg. To the left of Mr. Akot in the front row are Todd Dusenbery and Jada Modi Albert, both of the Forum of Federations’ Sudan team. The other four persons are members of the SSLA.

The Forum of Federations recently delivered presentations on the features of fiscal federalism in different countries to 90 newly-elected members of the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly.

The politicians, representing all of Sudan’s10 southern states, attended the event in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. The learning session was chaired by Deputy Speaker Daniel Awet Akot.

The presentation was led by David Solomon, an expert in local government finance and a public finance economist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa; and Mr. V.N. Alok, a professor of public finance and Chairman of the Centre for Economic Analysis and Financial Management at the Indian Institute of Public Administration in New Delhi.

Parliamentarians discussed and raised numerous questions about:

• the suitability of federalism for countries that have entered a post-conflict stage of development,


• how revenue and expenditure assignments should be determined between different orders of government


• the unique challenges facing Southern Sudan around building capacity for public administration and accountability on the subnational level.


At the end of the July 1, 2010 workshop, participants agreed and acknowledged that fiscal federalism and fiscal decentralization will continue to be an important tool for managing diversity and promoting sustainable development in Southern Sudan – whatever the outcome of the upcoming January 2011 referendum on self determination.

The Forum’s fiscal federalism program works to strengthen the capacity of Sudan’s and South Sudan’s fiscal commissions to serve as independent fiscal oversight institutions as designed in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement and under the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan.

The Forum is also working to engage a broader emerging constituency for improved management and oversight for implementing fiscal federalism throughout Sudan. Its work in Sudan is funded by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.