By William Madouk
The 8th Governors’ Forum is set to begin today, November 26, 2024, at Freedom Hall, in Juba, running until 2nd December.
All governors from the 10 states and chief administrators of the three administrative areas will be in attendance.
Michael Majok Agar, who is in charge of the preparations for the 8th Governors’ Forum said the objective is to promote dialogue and foster smooth communication at different government levels.
“The forum is also meant to facilitate effective dialogue and coordination between states and international development partners for increased partnerships and collaboration in the delivery of development projects and services to the people of South Sudan,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Agar, who also serves as the Director-General of the Decentralisation and Intergovernmental Relations in the Ministry of Presidential Affairs states that the annual Governors’ Forum will be officiated by President Salva Kiir Mayardit.
The 8th Governors’ Forum is under the theme: “Forging sustainable peace: committed in the extended R-ARCSS transition.”
However, As the Forum begins, civil society organizations express concerns that resolutions from previous governors’ conferences have not been implemented as agreed.
Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) said numerous resolutions and recommendations were adopted and endorsed by the country’s leaders.
CEPO, in a statement, said out of the 28 recommendations on intergovernmental relations agreed upon at the forum, none of them was actually implemented.
It, however, said while none of the resolutions on elections were implemented, there are some efforts for their implementation in process after it recently emerged that the National Elections Commission received funds for its activities.
“Out of 12 recommendations on elections, one recommendation was implemented and efforts for implementation of others is in process,” it observed.
CEPO, however, said the forum recommendation on ensuring freedoms and rights of expression and opinion including space for media was violated by the ruling party (SPLM) and the armed opposition (SPLM-IO) faction in Jonglei State.
Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of CEPO says much funds are spent annually on the forum and less is realized by the adopted outcomes of the event.
“This is absolutely unacceptable for the exercise of spending funds without concrete results. It is wasting taxpayers’ money minus proper and tangible returns,” he said.
Mr Yakani appealed for a functional system where the office of the president and development partners track how money allocated for the forum is actually spent.Ter Manyang, the leader of the Center for Peace and Advocacy (CPA), also called on the Presidency to evaluate and follow up outcomes of the previous 6th & 7th forum’s resolutions.
He stated that there must be an issue either within the presidency or among the ten governors and three administrators that is hindering the implementation of the resolutions.
“We urge the President and the 1st Vice President to follow up on the resolution from the 6th and 7th Governor’s Forum in collaboration with Civil Society Organizations engaged in advocacy in the country,” said Ter Manyang
The governors’ forum first commenced in 2006 with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
It was, however, put on hold following the outbreak of the civil war in mid-December 2013.