The Republic of Sudan and The Republic of South Sudan

The Carter Center has worked with the peoples of Sudan and South Sudan since 1986 to help them resolve civil strife, achieve peace with their neighbors, increase crop production, and prevent or eradicate devastating neglected diseases.

Waging Peace

The Carter Center helped find ways to end Sudan's civil war, working with President Carter to directly negotiate between the parties and helping to focus local, regional, and international opinion on peace, not war. Milestones included negotiation of the 1995 "Guinea worm cease-fire," which gave international health workers almost six months of relative peace to enter areas of Sudan previously inaccessible due to fighting; and the 1999 Nairobi Agreement between the governments of Sudan and Uganda, in which the governments pledged to stop supporting rebels acting against each other's governments. The Carter Center also observed historic elections in Sudan in 2010 and the historic referendum on independence for Southern Sudan in 2011.

Read full text on the Carter Center's peace work in Sudan >

Fighting Disease

The Center's first project in the region formerly known as Sudan was agricultural development work begun in 1986 through Sasakawa-Global 2000. The work focused on helping farmers to greatly improve crop yields. From that first activity, the Center has continually expanded its efforts to help the long-suffering people of Sudan and South Sudan through four programs that have operated in the countries — two of which are active in South Sudan today. The Guinea Worm Eradication Program, the flagship public health program of The Carter Center, has helped reduce the worldwide incidence of Guinea worm disease by 99 percent since it started in 1986. Guinea worm disease will be the first parasitic disease to be eradicated and the first disease to be eradicated without using vaccines. Because South Sudan harbors the vast majority of the remaining cases of Guinea worm, it is a crucial site for eradication efforts.

The success of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program also has been a vehicle for development and has broadly promoted Sudanese and South Sudanese public health and welfare, while fostering the introduction of two additional disease programs, river blindness and trachoma, to the region. However, the continued vitality of this public health work relies on sustained peace between the two nations.

Read full text on the Carter Center's health work in Sudan >