It was amazing experience for me to meet many different people across the globe with different cultural background and different experiences in their various field of work and governments approach to issues in their contexts.
 
The course and field visit in the UK introduced me to a wide range of government works with NGOs and Civil Society. My interest was to see how the government delivers services to the community and more than that, how the government treats NGOS in term of advocacy.
 

I felt my life changed in terms of the way I perceived things in the past, my approach to issues and attitude towards working with government. Before I went to the UK, I had no reference points and had nothing to compare; I thought all that  is happening is right, I had no confidence  in my work and working with government.  After I came back, I was able to realize my weakness. And be more confident in my work in facilitating workshops that involved senior government officials.   Now I am able to share lots of experiences I gathered from my Chevening fellows, UK government departments and NGOs.
 
I realized my potential, and I am able to see where I would be in the next five years and have opinions on some issues that require improvement in the government and with CBOs in Sudan.

Learning point:

• The strategies by NGOs to lobbying government for services delivery to the civil society.
• Advocacy roles by the NGOs to influence government policies
• The working relationship between the Government and NGOs  to achieve the common of  services delivery equitably
• All citizens concerns are respected
• Participatory governance, where all people voices are heard and respected
• Public  access to information
• Democratic system of governance, where people are not rule but govern through rule of law.

David Aleu Deng Dut
Juba, South Sudan.