What north and south need

The largest country in Africa split in two recently but violence continues between the two new countries. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rightly called on the new nations to "quickly return to the negotiating table". The ‘redoubling' of American engagement could give new momentum to stalled talks. It also presents an opportunity for the American, Sudanese, and international partners to re-think who should be welcomed back to the negotiating table.

For years, I've worked with Sudanese women who cross regional, political, tribal, and other divides to end violence. During the years of war between north and south, they'd gather under the shade of trees to resolve disputes and organise communities to make peace. Now, as these women call for a formal place at the table to determine the two countries' future, they're often told progress is simply too tenuous to allow for ‘new' voices. But a new round of negotiations is an opportunity to acknowledge what these women have been saying for years: Their exclusion is a cause of instability, not its cure.

The peace agreement that ended Sudan's decades-long civil war called for decisions on borders, citizenship, wealth-sharing, and other key issues to be made before separation. The African Union is facilitating talks between the two major parties, yet most issues remain unresolved. If the current talks don't resolve major issues through a process that incorporates the perspectives of a broad set of Sudanese citizens — particularly women — violence will continue to roil just below the surface. There are strong and capable women at senior levels of both parties. Yet, when the parties named their lead negotiators, neither six-member team included even one. Estimates of each side's extended team say there are, at best, five women out of more than fifty negotiators.

Unwilling to be excluded, Sudanese women have crossed traditional boundaries to organise themselves. In the South Sudanese city of Juba last February, more than 100 women from throughout the country gathered to tackle the most contentious issues in the negotiations, including divisive questions around citizenship.

Free movement

Women emphasised how many families across Sudan include one spouse from the north and one from the south. They talked about how family obligations require wives to travel across borders frequently to their home village. Women explained that if they're unable to move freely between the two new countries, the fabric of entire communities will be eroded. Jointly, they called for parties to allow dual citizenship for men and women.

On issues like oil, negotiators struggle. The majority of petroleum deposits lie in South Sudan, while most refineries, pipelines, and export ports are in the north. Women realise the communities that will be deeply impacted by oil drilling and transport need to be involved in the decisions that affect them. Women have identified ways in which entire communities could determine how and where to build oil transport routes and drilling facilities so that impacts on farmland and the environment are mitigated.

The need for women to be involved in high-level decisions is just as acute after separation. Both countries are writing new constitutions, reforming laws, and redesigning elections. Fortunately, women are preparing for these challenges as well. They're organising to preserve decades of hard-fought gains, such as laws requiring state and national legislatures to comprise at least 25 per cent women.

In a climate where almost no one will go near the topic, several women have already called for joint reconciliation and healing processes. They assert that relationships can't remain frozen where they were when the war ended. Women want both countries to engage in truth telling, accept accountability, show remorse, and commit to not offend or avenge again. They want it to happen between and within both new countries, and they want their leaders to accede that as neighbours, there won't be genuine stability without it. To end the current fighting and prevent more, women need to be at the negotiating table.