Sudan is in crisis after 18 months of a brutal civil war. The effects of this emergency on the civilian population are devastating. The food system faces collapse and multiple regions are facing famine. According to the World Food Programme, 30 percent of children already suffer from acute malnutrition.
This Cambridge Sinews of Development special event will feature a panel of international experts to discuss the roots of the crisis and the wider, regional context. We will consider what is actually happening and why the crisis is so complicated. We will tackle the issue of what the international community could do now, not only to alleviate the immediate crisis, but to set Sudan and the region on a path towards stability, peace and prosperity. As an audience member, you will be able to ask our experts questions.
Please join us online for this FREE University of Cambridge Sinews of Development event.
Panellists
Dr. Abdalla Hamdok
Former Prime Minister of Sudan
Prior to becoming Sudan’s 15th Prime Minister, Dr. Hamdok had a long career in public service, international organisations as well as the private sector. From 1981 to 1987, he served as a senior official in the Sudanese Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. In the 1990s, Hamdok held senior positions first at Deloitte & Touche, the International Labor Organization in Zimbabwe and the African Development Bank in Cote d’Ivoire. Hamdok was the Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance from 2003 to 2008. He worked for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in 2001 and 2002 as Director of Regional Integration and Trade and from 2011 to October 2018 was the Deputy Executive Secretary of UNECA. Following the transfer of power from the Transitional Military Council to the Sovereign Council of Sudan, the Sovereign Council appointed Abdalla Hamdok as Prime Minister for the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy. He was sworn in on 21 August 2019. Dr. Hamdok holds a B.Sc. from the University of Khartoum and a PhD in economic studies from the University of Manchester in the UK.
Mr. Jan Egelend
Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council
Jan Egeland has been the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council since August 2013, a role which oversees the work of the humanitarian organisation in both new and protracted crises across 40 countries. Jan Egeland has 30 years of experience from international work with human rights, humanitarian crises and conflict resolution, and was among the initiators of the peace negotiations that led to the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation in 1993. From January to May 2021, Egeland was appointed by UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, as Chair of the Independent Senior Advisory Panel on humanitarian deconfliction in Syria.
In 2015, he was appointed by former UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, as Special Adviser to the UN Special Envoy for Syria. Within this position he chaired the humanitarian task force responsible for the safety and protection of Syrian civilians. He stepped down from this role on 1 December 2018.
From 2011 to 2013 Jan Egeland served as the European Director at Human Rights Watch. He was appointed Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General for Conflict Prevention and Resolution from 2006 and 2008.
Prior to that, Jan Egeland was UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from 2003 to 2006.
Mr. Rein Andre Paulsen
Director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Mr. Rein Andre Paulsen is Director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), a role to which he was appointed in June 2021. Prior to joining FAO, Mr. Paulsen served as Director a.i. of the Coordination Division in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In this role, he had oversight of the Response Services Branch, the Assessment Planning and Monitoring Branch, as well as the Interagency Services Branch. Before leading OCHA’s Coordination Division, he was in charge of OCHA’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean and had served earlier as Head of OCHA’s office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A 30-year veteran of international, humanitarian and emergency affairs, Mr. Paulsen also brings extensive operational and policy experience from within the NGO sector, primarily from work in African and Latin American contexts. His areas of expertise include humanitarian action, disaster response, famine prevention, and, food crisis response.
Dr. Shadia Taha
Research Fellow, School of Global Studies and International Development, Department of Anthropology and International Development, University of Sussex, Governing Body Fellow Wolfson College, Affiliated Research Scholar McDonald Institute For Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.
Taha has obtained a BA (Hons) in Archaeology from the University of Khartoum (Sudan), a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and a PhD – both from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, BA (Hons) in Social Policy, Department of Social Studies, Anglia Ruskin University (based in Cambridge). Using anthropological research methods, Taha’s doctoral desertion investigates attachment to abandoned heritage. Her PhD was published by Archaeopress, Oxford, U.K. in 2013. In 2011, she co-edited ‘Historic Cities’, proceedings for the 10th Heritage Seminar with Chatzoglou, Polyzaoudi and Sørensen. In 2004, she co-edited. ‘Fifty years in the Archaeology of Africa: Themes in archaeological theory and practice’, in: Papers in honour of John Alexander, with Wahida, Smith and Rose.
Currently, she is a Research Fellow, at the School of Global Studies and International Development, Department of Anthropology and International Development, University of Sussex. A collaborative research project, directed by Professor Raminder Kaur, University of Sussex and funded by The Leverhulme Trust. The research Project examines Global Pilgrimage and Circuits of Exchange.
Her research interests include ethnography, sustainable development, forced relocation, oral traditions, cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, local communities, trade routes, the Beja Nomads and the history of incense use and trade in Sudan. Her expertise includes Qualitative Research Methods, Cultural Heritage (Tangible & Intangible), Material Culture, Traditional Knowledge, Sustainable Development, Nomads and Nomadic Heritage, coastal communities’ and Ethnographic Research Techniques. A Researcher with the Civilisation in Contact Project, a Research Associate with the Indian Ocean World Centre, and a Visiting Lecturer at Cambridge Heritage Research Centre. Taha was Included in the TrowelBlazers series of Women in African Archaeology 2020.
Chairs
Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP
Former Shadow Foreign Secretary and former Deputy Foreign Secretary and Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development). Fellow, CRSD, Cambridge University
Andrew is the Member of Parliament for Sutton Coldfield. He was appointed Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development) in October 2022. Andrew was the Secretary of State for International Development in the British Government from May 2010 until he became Government’s Chief Whip in September 2012. He was a member of the National Security Council in Britain and a Governor of the World Bank between 2010 and 2012. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 2010. Before joining the cabinet in 2010, he held numerous junior positions in Government (1992-1997) and in opposition (2003-2010). He served in the Army (Royal Tank Regiment) as a UN Peacekeeper before joining the International Investment Bank, Lazard where he worked on and off for 30 years. He was a Director of Lazard Asia and Lazard India as well as of Lazard London. He is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Resilience and Sustainable Development (CRSD) at the University of Cambridge; and an Honorary Professor at the School of the Social Sciences for the University of Birmingham.
Prof Nazia Habib
Prof Nazia M Habib, FRSA is the Founder and Research Director for the Centre for Resilience and Sustainable Development (CRSD), at the University of Cambridge. She also holds academic positions in the Department of Engineering and the Department of Land Economy. Trained as a political economist, Nazia specialises in using systems thinking approaches with political economic theories to influence one’s worldview of decision making with an emphasis on Sustainable Investment, Responsible Innovation, and Good Governance. She focuses on emerging issues within economies and has since worked with governments from over fifty-seven (57) countries. Nazia has received several awards notably, the Commonwealth Fellowship, Newton Fellowship, and Harvard Sustainability Science Fellowship. She is currently a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), a special advisor for the EAT Foundation, a Non-Executive Board member for TISATech, and a past Fellow with the World Economic Forum (WEF).
nsh29@cam.ac.uk
https://www.landecon.cam.ac.uk/centre-for-resilience-and-sustainable-development/centre-resilience-and-sustainable-development
Producer
Steve McCauley
Fellow, The Centre for Resilience and Sustainable Development
steve@stevemccauley.com
