Huda Shafig: Women Task Force in Sudan

Written by Mujuni Baitani

Huda Shafig is a member of the Taskforce for the Engagement of Women in Sudan, where she advises the government on how to make the country’s national dialogue process more transparent, accountable, and inclusive — increasing the positions reserved for women from 10 to 200 seats (29 percent of the total).

It was a pleasure meeting her here in Dar-es-Salaam attending the World Movement for Democracy conference. She is a true patriot for her country, we got time to share about Sudan and she had a lot to tell.

Recently she has joined a fellowship Taskforce on the Engagement of Women in Sudan and South Sudan as they meet with government officials, opposition leaders, international policymakers, and other advocacy groups to push for women’s inclusion in peace processes in both countries. The Taskforce is supported by Inclusive Security, a small group of leaders who have mobilised women for peace on both sides of the border since 2013. They advocate key decision makers about women’s priorities, and act as a conduit between senior officials and communities.

She shared her experience on women involvement in peace resolutions. She was willing to share the experience of how she engages with political leaders and civil Society leaders to discuss and champion peace resolution not just in Sudan but also stretching their wings to South Sudan. Through the fellowship, she got a chance to attend the AU Summit, Ethiopia in August which was conducted in early August, where leaders discussed the implementation of South Sudan’s peace agreement that would have been signed but failed to agree on next steps. But she also spoke out her engagement in different movements that ,

”Outside the walls of the AU, we were developing and presenting specific and concrete policy recommendations on how to move forward in the midst of political deadlocks and shrinking space for civil society engagement.”

As a young devoted leader, she and others recommend a focus on relevant and actionable ideas to break the impasses. I was really inspired by her experience and devotion on how they conduct campaigns in the area of crisis such as Sudan. Honestly, it needs a wholehearted to do this. Lastly, she explained how it is hard to mobilize young people in good governance in Sudan but she believes that very soon the situation of their country will change, as they are struggling for a huge number of women in leadership. As a young patriot lady, she believes that women have got a lot of potential in changing the situation to better.

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