Building Capacity to Support the Sudanese Civilians in Ceasefire Service Contract: Terms of Reference (TOR): Prediction of Ceasefire Training
Search for Common Ground, Ethiopia

1) Assignment Background
Sudan’s perpetual transition to democratic civilian rule started after the 2019 revolution that ushered in the fall of the Omar al-Bashir regime of almost 30 years. Soon after the establishment of a civilian transitional council in Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized control of the state and dissolved the transitional council. With the help of Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hemeti Dagalo, SAF amp; RSF took control of Sudan from the civilian-led sovereignty council. Since October 2022, civilians, international partners, and the two militaries worked to find an agreeable solution for civilian rule in Sudan. Dynamics quickly shifted as a nearing agreement between the two militaries required the integration of RSF into SAF. Leading into April 2023, both parties disagreed on the integration timeline and civilian-led transition.
On April 15th, 2023, the city of Khartoum became the epicenter of armed conflict between the SAF and RSF. Both generals launched attacks on each other, with Sudanese civilians caught in the middle of the fighting. With the RSF originating in the Western part of the country and SAF being relegated to the East, Sudan is now fractured by two powerful war parties. Over the last 7 months, over 9,000 people have been killed and over 6 million displaced due to conflict. As fighting continues in Khartoum with constant shelling by armed forces, reports of atrocities in Darfur raise the alarm of potential ethnic cleansing.
While the war wages on in Sudan, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the African Union, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) are all working to establish a ceasefire between SAF and RSF. Ceasefire talks taking place in Jeddah have not resulted in a ceasefire yet, but the latest round of talks beginning in late October 2023 show promising signs. Running concurrently with ceasefire talks in Jeddah is a civilian-led preparatory meeting in Addis Ababa. The dialogues taking place in Addis Ababa brings together Sudanese civilians to unify their voice around a minimum political agenda and peace process. As Sudanese civilians look to participate in the Addis Ababa process, Search for Common Ground looks to strengthen the capacity of those Sudanese women and civilians as they engage in Addis Ababa.
The delivery of the in-person ceasefire training of about 20-22 participants from Sudan traveling to Addis Ababa and separate online sessions for 20 online participants. The training should focus on what tools local people will need to negotiate and monitor ceasefire. This practice-focused training with team-building elements should include ceasefire training materials.2) Description of Assignment:
(2.1) Assignment Objective(s)
Produce and lead a ceasefire negotiation and monitoring training for Sudanese civilians. Giving participants the ability to practice negotiation and ceasefire monitoring skills.
(2.2) Training Materials
A. Guided handbook on ceasefire negotiations and the process for local civilian monitoring and reporting. a. Confidence- and Security-building Measures (CSBMs): including field-level trust-building, joint activities for confidence-building, etc. b. Effective Stakeholder Engagement: including communities, field commanders, and civil-military relations. c. Conflict Resolution Aspects of CoH: including mediation and de-escalation.
B. Production of materials for both in-person and virtual training.3) Target Groups
Sudanese women and civil society organizations in Sudan and outside of the country, who are likely to participate in the Addis Ababa political dialogues. Groups will participate in-person or online. 4) Services Required

(4.1) Craft Materials in Arabic - A coherent handbook that can serve as a didactic reference guide for training participants. The handbook should not just compile the documents, but guide the reader through the materials and be designed to include visual and graphic elements to enhance its user-friendliness. This handbook will be in two parts: one part containing Sudan CoH materials and a second part containing international reference materials.
(4.1.1) Delivery of training materials provided in Arabic.
(4.1.2) In-person Facilitation: Session outline, agenda and content for a 2 day training session detailing the time length of each module session.
(4.1.3) Online Facilitation: Session outline, agenda, and content for an online training that matches the content of the in-person training, detailing session breakdown and time length of each module.
(4.1.4) Session handouts for future reference of the training for participants.
(4.1.5) Clear key substance, take-aways, learning objectives, and adult-learning based training methodologies that emphasize practice and interactive learning over 'frontal lecturing'.