Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in the Sudan and their partners

Benefits of Attendance

This seminar aims at significantly improving the ability of the participants to meet the challenges of living and working abroad. The objective is to enable them to identify the stumbling blocks that lie ahead and to be able to adapt and integrate in the Sudan

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand Sudanese context and culture
• Analyse situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating more effectively
• Reduce and manage the symptoms of culture shock
• Understand Sudanese mindset, work practices, decision-making processes and negotiating styles
• Strike the right balance between personal et professional lives

Training Approach

• A cross-cultural approach of International Mobility
• Country specific trainers
• Personalized and familiy focused action plan
• Access to the Nomad’ Network, an exclusive online tool for Akteos’ clients and experts:  find resources, exchange experiences, knowledge and insights

Programme Outline

Module 1 : Successful personnal integration in the Sudan

1. Cross-cultural awareness : the key to a successful expatriation

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• Culture shock and the integration process
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Sudanese culture

• The largest country on the African continent
• A state situated at a meeting point between Africa and the Middle East
• An Islamic tradition peppered with animistic cults
• An age-old civilisation with a unique heritage
• A country ravaged by civil war

3. Sudanese values and behaviour patterns

• The pillars of Sudanese society: the family, ethnic origin and tribal identity
• Religious fervour and tolerance
• The controlled but gradually changing status of Sudanese women
• Deference to one's elders
• Propriety, reserve and distance
• A flexible and adaptable view of time
• Hospitality and affability
• Social events and strong community ties

4. Practical day-to-day information

• Focus on the host town
• Transport, administration, housing, security, hygiene and healthcare
• Social life, leisure activities
• Schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in the Sudan

1. The Sudanese corporate world

• NGOs, the UN and private companies
• The value attached to work and to learning
• Privileges and favouritism

2. Effective communication with the  Senegalese

• Verbal communication, tone and posture: Key aspects
• Greetings, politeness and courtesy
• A frank and direct communication style
• Arabic, Nubian, Ta Bedawie, nilotic, nilo-hamitic and English for business

3. Working with Sudanese teams

• Effective management: humility, perspective and experience
• Key traits for good management: a calm, firm and fair attitude
• Getting staff fully involved to encourage commitment
• Centralized decision making in a hierarchical environment
• The importance of socialising outside work

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Sudanese

• Building trust and confidence: dialogue and communication
• Etiquette and formality: making a good first impression
• Highlighting mutual interests
• Written contracts, their interpretation and implications

5. Final handy tips

• Caution, patience and humility
• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code
• Sensitive subjects: politics, history, religion
• Humour: a double-edged sword