Democracy promotion is viewed as a key intervention for international development co-operation in order to achieve the Millenium Development Goals, as well as it is a key activity in the German Plan of Action 2015.

In Sudan, DED contributes to the promotion of democracy by supporting Sudanese civil society. Support in this sector is highly requested, and efforts should be increased especially in this time of preparing the upcoming elections, which are scheduled for February 2010. Focal points of the sector besides the elections are Human Rights, the eradication of harmful practices like FGM, and the support of CBOs.

DED supports local civil society networks and organisations, including NGOs, INGOs and CBOs, increasing its impact by co-operating with other agencies like the UN and EU. The aim of DED´s assistance is to improve management and organisational structures, to develop planning, implementation and evaluation capacities, and to increase visibility of the organisations in order to multiply the impact on the final target groups in the field, which are mostly marginalised groups like women, youth or IDPs. However, DED is less supporting direct activities of the organisations in the sense of “service delivery”, but focusing on democratisation processes, lobbying and advocacy for rights, and the promotion of better living conditions.

These activities are presently carried out in Khartoum, Kordofan and Juba by Development Advisors seconded to and Local Experts working for local partner organisations of the civil society as well as through CSO Advisory Offices.

The objective of the CSO Advisory Programme is to strenghten CSOs in terms of management, organisational structure and planning, as well as implementation and evaluation of their programmes. The CSO Advisory Offices are a tool for CSO capacity development. They should not be misunderstood as a ‘donor institution’. However, CSOs should be capacitated to plan, conduct and evaluate projects according to international standards, and to successfully seek funds for their activities. The overall objective is to support civil society and to enable CSOs to articulate their needs and rights, promote them and finally guarantee human rights for the entire society.

At present, there are three CSO Advisory Offices, one in Khartoum, one in El Obeid in North Kordofan, and one in Juba.