Kick-off Seminar and Workshop, Khartoum, Sudan, 19-21 January 2020

The implementation of this project requires a close collaboration between international researchers from Sweden and the Sudan across various disciplines. This requires not only a clear communication of research purposes and goals but also an understanding of each-others’ fields and empirical/theoretical frameworks and approaches. The objectives of the kick-off seminar and workshop were three-fold:

1. To launch the interdisciplinary research project Resilience in Urban Sudan. This seminar is the first encounter and exchange between the Swedish research team and their partners at the UoK and local stakeholders. It is also the first opportunity for the entire team to visit potential fieldwork case study sites.

2. To provide a platform for communication between the different disciplines and stakeholders involved in the RUS project. To provide a presentation of the state of the art in each respective field.

3. To give facilitated training on participatory research methods and the Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to provide a common denominator between the different disciplines and synthesize the main environmental urban climate change challenges in Khartoum

Swedish and Sudanese research partners at the IES, 19th January 2020. Photo: V. Felci.

Kick-off seminar and presentations

Presentations and debates took place during the course of the kick-off seminar in January 2020. The first two days consisted of presentations and a workshop, followed by field visits and management meetings. The presentations were held in a conference room of the Ministry of Information Khartoum, the fieldvisits took place in Omdurman and Khartoum and the management meeting at the Institute of Environmental Studies (IES) at UoK.

The first part of the kick-off event consisted of selected presentations for the project, presented by partners from Sudan and Sweden. The aim of these presentations was to inform each other of the latest update and research state of the art in respective fields of enquiry. Furthermore, the presentations communicated research theoretical framework and methodological approaches for further reflection and discussion. Participants in the first part came from various departments of the UoK as well as external institutions. In total some 75 participants joint during the first part of the kick-off seminar to launch the RUS project.

• Introduction and welcoming addressed by Professor Osman Ali, one of the founders of the Institute for Environmental Studies and Faculty member of the University of Khartoum, and by Professor Muna Ahmed, the current director of the IES. 20.01.2020

• Introduction of the objectives and general description of the RUS project by Dr. Josepha Wessels, project leader of the RUS project. 20.01.2020

• State-of-the-art overview of the field of climate change at global level and climate change research in Sudan, presentation by Dr. Sumaya Zaki Eldeen. 20.01.2020

• Interdisciplinary research approaches, presentation by Dr.Josepha Wessels and discussion/sharing experiences. 20.01.2020

• Presentation on temporal analysis & discussion, by Dr. Vittorio Felci, Malmö University. 21.01.2020

• Presentation by on spatial analysis & discussion, by Dr. Fanny Christou, Lund University. 21.01.2020

• Presentation by Ms. Dalal Babiker Mohamed Homoudi, Sudan Meteorological Authority (SMA), about the current state of research and available data on weather and the climate at the authority. 21.01.2020

• Presentation by Ms. Aya El-Tom, graduate of urban architecture from 2017 and worked on a study on the development of an environmentally friendly urban design for Tuti Island. 21.01.2020

• Data management: presentation on the use of NVivo and Storymapping by Josepha Wessels, Malmö University, 21.01.2020

• Roundtable discussion on theoretical framework; synchronicities and holistic approach. 21.01.2020

An interactive workshop

An interactive workshop took place on the 20th of January 2020, facilitated by Dr. J. Wessels of Malmö University, with a specific interactive method that was employed in delivering the workshops to ensure the following outcomes:

• Participants would learn about history, theory and practice of Participatory Action Research (PAR);

• Participants would understand how to promote community driven research, and develop a clear understanding of why other approaches often fall short in this regard;

• Participants would see the power of PAR in the field, and from that experience learn how to nurture appropriate community approaches

After a presentation on the history, main principles and tools of Participatory Action Research (PAR), the participants were divided in five different groups for group work. One of the exercise consisted in developing a problem tree and ranking solutions. The problem tree entailed identification of causes of a main problem and their effect. The problem tree was focused on the question what stakeholders perceive to be the greatest climate disaster-related threats facing their community and what steps can be undertaken towards these environmental threats? The five groups, consisting of each 6 to 8 participants, identified the following most important climate change and environmental problems; Flooding, Waste Management, Poor Physical Planning and Urbanisation in Khartoum. The identified causes for flooding were high rate of rainfall, changing weather patterns, rising sea levels, higher temperatures, blockage of water ways but also the industrial revolution and modernization. The main causes for urbanisation were identified as follows: climate change and natural disasters, war and human made disasters, concentration of services in Khartoum, human demands and governmental policies and internal displacement and refugees.

Followed by a second exercise, dealing with principles of community mapping and participatory photography, the workshop concluded with a plenary discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the Participatory Action Research approach.

A final presentation was given by Ms. Anwar Sidahmed, Head of the Department of Monitoring and Mapping of Natural Resources at the Remote Sensing and Seismology Authority (RSSA) in Sudan on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) work and remote sensing for climate change research.

Workshop, Photo by Dr. J. Wessels

Workshop, Photo by Dr. J. Wessels