Nation-Building and Women's Participation - the Case of the Southern Sudan Referendum

Yukari ANDO Secretariat of the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters, Cabinet Office International Peace Cooperation Program Advisors

From January 9 to 15, 2011, a referendum on the independence of Southern Sudan was held in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement concluded after the more than 20-year-long civil war. How did women take part in the referendum that would determine the fate of the nation, unity or secession? I interviewed Ms. Yukari Ando, International Peace Cooperation Program Advisor and a member of the Japan Referendum Observation Mission to Sudan.

What's Sudanese women's life like?

Our main observation sites were centered in Juba in Southern Sudan. Southern Sudanese women are so industrious and so busy taking care of several kids, they couldn't go all the way to registration centers. So, the Southern Sudan government announced a couple of holidays so that their husbands could take care of their children while their wives went to voter registration.

Statistics (ISSP 2002 - "Family and Gender Roles III" - ZA No. 3880) show that women's working hours becomes the longest when they have both job and children in industrialized countries. It's also the case with Southern Sudan, isn't it?

Yes. Many measures were taken to encourage women to take part in the referendum. The UN worked on female voter education. At the community level, those mobilized women wrapped their waist with a cloth for the referendum campaign and went around, calling for women busy with housekeeping to go to the referendum. These efforts paid off; as high as 52% of registered voters in Southern Sudan turned out female.

Great! While we need to take into account how many women actually voted of all the registered women, still, that simple fact shows how enthusiastic they were about the referendum.

I saw a lot of women during the referendum. They made full use of this opportunity to dress up. It was like a festival. I remember they treated their identification card like a gem or alike. I'm sure they'd kept it carefully since the day they'd gotten it until the referendum. They wrapped it up tightly in cloth and proudly turned it in to the staff in the voting stations.

There's a lot to learn from them about the weight of a single vote.

Definitely. I can't forget a woman I met at a polling station. She seemed to have burnt her identification card with trash by mistake. She came to vote all the same, but her identification number was missing and her name was barely discernible. She learned that she couldn't vote any longer unless the authorities took some measures. She sat down off the polling station, disappointed.

The "Evaluations and Suggestions of the Japan Referendum Observation Mission to Sudan" released in February notes that women, if few, were appointed the chief of referendum centers.

Yes, women took part in the referendum in various ways. I volunteered the Observation Mission because I'm interested in the way the locals decide their own nation's future. And I think it's very important for women to engage in nation-building by not only voting but actively participating in organizing the referendum.

The checklist the Japanese Mission used during the observation included an item asking about women participation. The checklist had revised several times and finally took gender into account. Both voters and observers should pay more attention to gender equality.

I'm with you. When an observer team is deployed, both male and female observers can tap into their advantages. We made a point of pairing a man and a woman rather than two women for our safety when we carried out observation. Being a woman, I talked to both male and female voters without hesitation, and it felt like they, in turn, got relaxed and more open.

When you studied in Cairo, you traveled with an Eritrean mother and her daughter, who you'd shared a room with, when they returned to their homeland that had just become independent. As a result of the referendum, Southern Sudan is going to be a new state. What do you think about the independence compared to its case of Eritrea?

It isn't easy to compare, but I think one thing is in common: the joy of having "their own country." The joy is literally immeasurable. As soon as the provisional result clearly showed that the majority had chosen secession, Southern Sudanese were already in a festive mood. But nation-building doesn't just mean to celebrate and look on, but solve each problem one by one for the way forward. Eritrea's experience isn't simply applied to Southern Sudan.

Right. Nation-building requires a whole lot of people and their efforts, so I hope Southern Sudanese women will continue to actively take part in the process. Japan has kept a good relationship with Sudan, and will cooperate with both Sudan and Southern Sudan. There will be more room for Japanese women to contribute to Sudan in various fields.

It was a Japanese woman who led the Secretariat of the UN Secretary General's High Level Monitoring Panel. Women engaged in the referendum from each position in each field. Five out of fifteen members of the Japanese Mission were women this time. I hope more and more women will be interested in, and work on, Sudan.

Interviewed on February 18, 2011, at the Secretariat of the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters, Cabinet Office
Interviewer: Interviewer: Tomoko Niino, International Peace Cooperation Program Advisor

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