As part of ongoing efforts to promote good governance and the rule of law in Southern Sudan, representatives of the University of Juba, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Joint Donor Team (JDT) attended a meeting at the UNDP's regional office on 8 March to discuss the return of the university's law faculty to the Southern Sudanese capital.

The university moved its operations to the national capital of Khartoum in 1989 as fighting in the country's second civil war intensified, and UNDP officials have been working with the institution of higher learning to complete its move back to Juba.

JDT head of office Michael Elmquist stressed the importance of reestablishing the law faculty in Southern Sudan.

"Studying the law in Khartoum and then applying it in Southern Sudan is not practical because they use different legal systems," said Mr. Elmquist, a lawyer by profession.

The university's vice chancellor Prof. Aggrey L. Abate described the meeting as timely because of a recent acceleration in the rate at which its schools and faculties have been returning to Juba.

"We want to be part of the process of transformation (of Southern Sudan)," Prof. Abate said. "We do not want to be non-participants."

He declined to give a specific timetable for the return of the law faculty, saying that it would depend on the availability of funding.

"We must support the building of institutions in Southern Sudan," said Joe Feeney, the UNDP head of office in Southern Sudan.

"A key element is third-level education institutions that will train highly qualified people to work and develop Southern Sudan.