From Presence to Impact: Youth Participation in Sudan’s Peace ProcessesA Comparative Study of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and Abuja, Doha, and Juba Agreements
This research paper examines the extent to which major peace processes in Sudan have provided real and meaningful opportunities for youth participation and influence in peacemaking, through a comparative case study of four key peace agreements: the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the 2006 Abuja Darfur Peace Agreement, the 2011 Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, and the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement.
The paper hinges on the distinction between mere youth presence or representation in peace processes and meaningful participation that empowers them to shape agendas, decisions, and outcomes.
Adopting a qualitative comparative case study methodology, the study relies on textual analysis of the four agreements as its primary comparative benchmark, alongside negotiation documents, relevant reports and studies, and semi-structured interviews with key informants possessing direct or analytical knowledge of the peace processes.
The study applies a unified analytical framework across all four cases, focusing on four main dimensions: inclusion and youth representation, influence on decision-making, communication, consultation and feedback loops, and involvement in implementation and monitoring.
Findings indicate that youth participation in Sudanese peace processes was not entirely absent; however, in many instances, it took limited, consultative, or symbolic forms rather than translating into sustained leverage over decision-making. Furthermore, the paper reveals a stark gap between the numerical presence of young people and their social and demographic weight on one hand, and their actual standing within decision-making institutions and negotiation tracks on the other.
The paper concludes that enhancing youth participation in future peace processes requires a shift from representation to influence, from individual selection to mandate-based delegation, from limited training to political and organizational capacity building, and from temporary involvement during negotiations to continuous engagement across the entire peace process lifecycle. It recommends formulating a national youth agenda for peace, establishing democratic and inclusive representation mechanisms, building youth and civic coalitions, and developing participation evaluation metrics that go beyond mere headcount to assess their level of influence on agendas, decisions, implementation, and follow-up.
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