Analyzing Sudan in Marketing Terms
Strengths:
- A huge and abundant amount of natural resources.
- Enormous expanses of fertile land.
- Diverse wild life.
- A highly-skilled and well-educated large Diaspora.
- Ancient sites and ruins dating back thousands of years to the Nubian Civilization.
- Unique geographic location.
- Afro-Arab identity.
Weaknesses:
- Underdeveloped infrastructure.
- High illiteracy rate and underdeveloped human capital.
- Extremely poor leadership.
- Rampant corruption.
- Lack of human rights.
- Lack of rule of law.
- Extreme disparity in wealth allocation.
- Ongoing identity crisis.
- Widespread tribalism.
- Victimhood mentality thanks to post-colonial hangover.
Opportunities:
- Attracting tons of foreign investment.
- Developing vast oil reserves.
- Big biotechnology and agricultural initiatives.
- Tourism (Red Sea resorts, developing Ancient Nubian ruins, wild life parks etc.)
- Port Sudan, a stopping location for ships passing in and out of the Suez Canal.
- Economic growth that is not reliant solely on oil.
- Bridging Africa and the Arab world.
Threats:
- Potential rebellions breaking out elsewhere besides Darfur.
- Possibility of war breaking out again if South decides to separate.
- China hindering democratic progress.
- More US sanctions.
- Intervention in Darfur.
- Increasing sectarianism and tribalism.
- The continuing spread of HIV/AIDS.
- al-Qaeda.
- Sharing our endless border with 9 countries.
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Just off the AP:
The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur on Tuesday to try to help end four years of fighting that has killed more than 200,000 people in the vast Sudanese region.
The force — the first joint peacekeeping mission by the African Union and the United Nations — will replace the beleaguered 7,000-strong AU force now in Darfur no later than Dec. 31.
among the strengths i would add:
• easy-going and generous people (within their available means).
among the weaknesses:
• inefficient/predatory bureaucracy and government structures.
diversity (ethnic/cultural/linguistic/tribal/religious/geographical/environmental/….)is rather problematic. in the case of sudan it could appear as a point of strength/weakness/opportunity/threat.
LOL Ammar! And ya you’re right about diversity being a weakness and a strength at the same time. However I think our Afro-Arab identity is more of a strength than a weakness really.
Your analysis is correct but lack of good will from international community in supporting peace and stopping wars in various part of Sudan is real hinder to the development of that country. Sudan is not only south and Darfur,and the suffer in Darfur is not because of one party. It’s shared responsibility between rebel groups for their miss calculations and the GOS for their missmanagement.
I can say that, Sudanese nationals are among the most educated in Africa & the Arab world if all parties work for the benefits of their country and without others agenda.
I think this is a great post, Drima.
Although this seems unlikely to occur anytime in the near future …
Imagine if Sudan were to strike a peace agreement with Israel. Israel would get plenty out of such an arrangement, and in return, they could provide comprehensive, modern training in a variety of arenas to Sudan: agriculture, technology, medical, finance, municipal services, etc.
By doing so, this would also: enhance peace inside Sudan by training people from the north, south, east, and west in sustainable methods of development so that root causes for conflict (e.g. disenfranchisement and lack of equal access to resources) become minimized, all of which would incorporate team-building between the different groups while they are being trained; create jobs in both countries; connect Sudan to the west, thereby leaving them with a new network beyond China and Iran and the AL so they can develop and enhance their democratic institutions; provide Sudanese with new education that they can use to continue training their own people; and hence, stem the flow of refugees from Sudan into Israel. It’s a win-win.
Keep in mind that the more that Israel is connected to Arabs in general, the less reason there would be for her Jews to be in conflict with local Arabs, so such an arrangment could enhance peace between the ethnic groups in Israel and the WB/Gaza too. Rather than entrench the Palestinian situation, it very well may help to alleviate it through a process of interaction that is built upon less intergroup suspicion between Arabs and Jews overall.