By signing the Naivasha Peace Agreement in 2004, the warring parties in Sudan made possible a new beginning in the development of Southern Sudan. In addition to the construction of infrastructure and a new distribution of revenues from oil resources, the main priority was to guarantee security in order to resettle the displaced population. Associated with this was the reorganisation of national ministries and government offices in Juba.

Geographic information is the main basis for these development processes – be it for restoration of transportation routes, development of water resources, or construction of settlements. Spatially relevant projects require very different types of information, regardless of the decision-making level involved. Common to all projects is precise spatial location of information. This was either lacking or difficult to obtain. Given its experience with map projects for the peace process in the Nuba Mountains, logistics for humanitarian organisations in Darfur, and map series for nation-building in Southern Sudan, SDC decided in 2006 to give CDE a mandate for a comprehensive Capacity Development Programme in Geoinformation Management for the period 2006-2009. This mandate consisted of five activity lines:
 

• Data transfer, awareness creation and communication workshops
• Extension and improvement of the geospatial database of Southern Sudan
• Scientific and thematic mapping
• Capacity development and backstopping in support of selected institutions
• Maintenance and upgrade of Internet platform

In cooperation with SDC, UNMIS, UNFPA and UNDP, various workshops and training sessions were held as a platform for exchange in Juba, Rumbek and Khartoum. The goal of these events was to bring together all UN and governmental organisations and to create awareness of the great potential for common benefit. Concurrent with this geodata banks, evaluation of satellite images, maps and Internet applications were developed at CDE.

Interested individuals can download the reports to the right.