Economic Development Challenges in Sudan and the Need for Skill Upgrading and Technological Development

This chapter explains the general socioeconomic characteristics of Sudan and strategic problems for development in the country, and discusses the impact of oil and the opportunities and challenges for enhancing economic development in Sudan, the strategic problems facing the labour market in Sudan and highlighting the need for skill development. This chapter uses new data on population, employment and unemployment based on Sudan Central Bureau of Statistics (Fifth Sudan Population and Housing Census 2008, Sudan Central Bureau of Statistics, Khartoum, 2010) to examine four stylised facts related to the high unemployment rate; interpretate unemployment crisis from two different endogenous and exogenous perspectives due to endogenous and exogenous causes; the high incidence of unemployment among youth population and the large mismatch between educational qualifications – supply – and labour market requirementsdemand in Sudan. The findings in this Chapter support the first hypothesis in Chap. 1 that Sudan needs to promote local skills and local technologies in order to facilitate implementation of the five strategies of reducing poverty; achieving economic diversification; reducing unemployment and restructuring the labour market; building local technological capacity and achieving long-term stabilised, sustainable and balanced economic growth and development.