Back in early June, the Save Darfur Coalition urged Vice President Biden to keep Sudan a priority as he embarked on a weeklong trip to Africa. The letter reminded the Vice President that the United States, as a guarantor of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, has an obligation to ensure successful referenda in Southern Sudan and the Abyei region. On Sunday, June 18 in an interview with Jake Tapper on ABC’s This Week, Vice President Biden assured audiences that he is still “hopeful” that the referenda will occur as planned. He went on to say:

[The referendum] must be viewed as credible to keep that country, that region, from deteriorating. The last thing we need is another failed state in the region.

As the administration’s Special Envoy for Sudan, General Scott Gration, mentioned in his speech during the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom, the U.S. has “waning influence” in Sudan, so it is paramount that we work multilaterally in order to see that the referenda occur on time and the results are respected internationally. In order to achieve these goals, Vice President Biden has been working with the UN, Southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir, Chairperson of the Africa Union High Level Implementation Panel Thabo Mbeki, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

As 26 organizations stated in a recent joint paper, “Renewing the Pledge,” it is imperative that the United States and the other guarantors continue working together to “bring in the requisite diplomatic, financial, and technical resources to put in place the requirements for the referenda, and after the vote, to improve Sudan’s stability and dire state of human development.” Vice President Biden’s efforts are a good step forward, but for the international community to be confident that the referenda will be successful instead of just “hopeful,” there is still much to be done.