Economic Provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) contained a detailed economic blueprint for the “New Sudan”. The provisions of the Wealth Sharing Protocol established institutions and laid out principles to address key issues, including: oil sector management and the sharing of oil revenue; ownership and tenure of land; fiscal decentralisation; transparency and accountability; development and external assistance; currency and banking; and debt. During the Pre-Interim period and the Interim period, these provisions were implemented very selectively. This chapter looks at which parts of the economic agreement were prioritised and which sidelined, and weighs up alternative explanations for these choices. In particular, it assesses whether they can be attributed to the drafting of the original agreement (for example, because key clauses were dictated by outsiders, or had inadequate enforcement mechanisms), or to the changing interests of the parties and observers during implementation. It then considers how far the specific economic provisions and institutions established under the CPA had long-term consequences, whether positive or negative, for the two countries of Sudan and South Sudan, during the 2011 secession and beyond. The aim is to establish lessons that might contribute to the realistic design of future peace settlements.