Written by Balghis Badri, Ahmed Gamal Eldin, Shahla El Tayeb, Nafisa Badri, Ammani El Khatem.

The EquitAble project focuses on the challenges that disabled people present to achieving universal and equitable access to healthcare in resource poor settings.

The overall project is organized into the following Work Packages (WP): Work Package 1 - Project Management, Work Package 2 - Review and Analyses of International and National Health Policies, Work Package 3 - Intensive Qualitative Studies of Activity Limitations and Access to Healthcare, Work Package 4 -Extensive Quantitative Studies of Activity Limitations and Access to Healthcare, Work Package 5 -Influencing Policy and Practice and Dissemination. This report presents the findings from phase 1 of WP3.

The aim of WP3 is to investigate the experience of health service users, non-users and health service providers. Phase 1 has focused mainly on users and providers, while phase 2 (to be conducted after WP4) will focus primarily on health service non-users. The report will also highlight the connection between findings from WP2 and WP3, and provide policy recommendations.

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Written by Balghis Badri.

This paper underlines AUW’s experience and role in the new millennium. It is divided into three sections. Section one is on the new role of universities. Section two reflects on AUW’s role in the new millennium by providing information on AUW’s structure, programmes, experiences and best practices. Furthermore, lessons learned are tackled. Section three is on the Humboldt-Ahfad link programme as a detailed example of the internationalization process that can contribute to the role of universities in the new millennium.

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Written by Balghis Badri.

It is crucial to begin our analysis with a definition of the term Sharia law and its sources and principles. Sharia law is the Muslim jurisprudence from which specific different types of family, penal, civil, labour, economic and monetary law can be derived.

The main two sources of Sharia law are the Qur’an and the Sunna. Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the word of God revealed to the Prophet Mohammed. The Qur’an as Islam’s holy book can be split into different parts. The part that contains most of its verses aims at convincing the non-believers, of the time the Qur’an was written in particular, of the concept of believing in the One God and the afterlife with its consequences of punishment in hell or reward in paradise. Many verses deal with how a “good” Muslim should behave by worshipping God, by oneself, and in relation to other people, especially other Muslims.

The Qur’an contains detailed stories about other prophets, the support of believers and the resistance of non-believers. There are verses that order Muslims to abstain from certain behaviour and actions and to practise others, while yet other verses recommend and commend behaviour to be followed.

The Sunna as the other source of Islamic teachings is the words or sayings by the Prophet or his doings, which mainly elaborate on what was revealed in the Qur’an, but also include other issues that need to be discussed according to ambiguous contents or in answer to queries of his followers. Hence, the main characteristic of Islam is that it is a religion that demands active faith of observance and practice. It is human-centred and emphasizes ideal human relations and behaviour. It is embedded in a call for communalism and social justice with degrees of individualism in property holding and in legal and faith responsibilities. It is not characterized by emphasizing dichotomies of duality but rather by triple or quadruple classifications.

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Written by Balghis Badri.

This paper draws from a workshop held specifically to discuss the characteristics of experiences in international research cooperation of different actors in Sudan. The author invited experts representing government research bodies, networks, NGOs, UN agencies, universities and INGOs.

The workshop objectives were to reflect on experiences of different types of research cooperation and to recommend principles for future ideal research cooperation. 

The focus of the paper will be in reference to the three main issues tackled at the conference “Research for Development in a Globalizing World”. These are namely: International Research Partnerships; Embedding Research for Society; and Capacity Building for Research. The reference will be to Sudan as a case study from which lessons could be drawn for developing pathways for future best practice in cooperation between countries of the South and North.

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Written by Balghis Badri.

This paper will first give a brief classification of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Sudan. In the second section an introduction to the evolution of SWEPD’s activities will be given. Section three will analyze factors that led to minimum links between FBOs and SWEPD, while in the conclusion the way forward for possible links and engagement are outlined.

The information is based on the writer’s experience and knowledge of the Sudanese context as well as some interviews undertaken with key members of three of the networks, namely civil society, Nuba women and Southern women.

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