BACKGROUND ON BGS

dominated by urban poor women. When asked about the safety of women street vendors, a representative from the Khartoum Employment Office stated that the law does not recognize this as employment as it is unregistered. Khartoum’s legal framework in concert with other practices, illustrates the ways in which marginalized women are both severely exposed and invisible to the eyes of the law. In Greater Khartoum, there is a link between formal law, violence and material realities in relation to gender, class and ethnicity. Considering this, the following section will examine how the abovementioned landscape has shaped women’s relationship to non-traditional employment with focus given to the findings of SIHA’s Breaking Gender Stereotypes Project.

SIHA’s extended work with women street vendors provides unique access to the issues facing these women. The Head of the Women’s Cooperative Union (union for women tea-sellers) Awadia Mahmoud Kuku stated:

“We were struggling from the police raids, especially the younger women tea-sellers who were trying to get an education and make a living at the same time. We came to SIHA with our problem and stated that we wanted a solution to help elevate urban poor working class women from their precarious employment and stop their exposure to state violence. We were particularly excited about vocational training since it provided women with a skill. We did not want the young women to live the harsh realities we lived; the loss of our possessions, the prison cells and the violation of our bodies.”17

Throughout the years of the former regime, many of Sudan’s vocational education institutions deteriorated due to lack of funding and poor management. Teachers frequently went on strike because of salary cuts and delays in payments.18 In recognizing its importance and the potential value of reviving vocational education training for women, SIHA, in collaboration with other civil society actors namely Al Taadood, Nuwayda, Niwa, SPCR, Women’s Union Association (made up of 13 cooperations), SDA, SORD, Babiker Badri Cooperative, Diar, and other self help organizations, developed the Breaking Gender Stereotypes Initiative (BGS). This is part of SIHA’s larger program of empowering women from displaced and urban poor backgrounds in Greater Khartoum. In the initial phase of the project, SIHA’s partners gathered statistics on the

17 FGD, Khartoum, SIHA Partners, January 23rd 2020 18 FGD, Vocational Training Staff, Khartoum January 7th 2020

number of school dropouts, identified target areas, announced the training opportunity and accepted candidates on the basis of their age, literacy and general desire to train in vocational education. Phase II of the project placed a group of 100 women in training, allowing them to choose their apprenticeships (carpentry, air conditioning/refrigerator services, general electricity, car electricity). Most of the direct participants did not have a steady income prior to the training and worked in precarious situations doing domestic work, selling small handmade products (bags, earrings) or serving food and beverages as street vendors. Their precarious employment situations were attributed to a number of factors including a lack of sufficient education, often due to their displacement.

With a few exceptions, women chose their fields of study based on personal interest. A handful of women chose a similar field to those of men in their families.19 The fact that women applied to the program speaks to the desire and readiness of women to engage in vocational training. More importantly, it speaks to how this project met a demand in the population. It showed that women are interested in taking part in vocational education and it effectively eliminates the assumption that women only wish to engage in ‘soft’ employment. The following sections will a) examine the obstacles in the way of women’s vocational education and b) document the women’s experiences of entering into the skilled labor market.

19 FGD, Women Participants, Khartoum January 6th 2020