Mawlid sweets in our lives may seem like a detail associated with joy and religious and social memory, but this year they open a window onto an important issue related to the nature of the state and society: How does the state protect its citizens, regulate its markets, and build an economy that regains its health on the basis of quality and trust? Behind the inspection campaigns on sweets, requiring traders to use legal weights, and reviewing ingredients, the importance of monitoring commodities becomes evident, as one of the manifestations of the state’s presence in daily life, and of protecting citizens through good and safe products.
Perhaps the significance of the national campaign launched by the Sudanese Standards and Metrology Organization in conjunction with the birth of the Prophet, peace be upon him, lies not only in protecting consumers from products that do not comply with standards and specifications, but also in redefining this function as part of the economic and social security system. A standard is not merely a technical text, nor an administrative procedure concerning factories; rather, it is a rule that regulates the relationship between the producer, the market, and the citizen, and defines the minimum acceptable level of quality, safety, and transparency.
In a country exhausted by war and whose production and supply chains have been weakened, protecting families from unsafe food has become both a developmental and political issue. The standard that determines the ingredients of Mawlid sweets, prohibits harmful substances, regulates the use of colors, requires safe packaging, and determines the proportions of basic ingredients, affirms that citizens’ health is not a secondary matter that can be postponed until after the economy stabilizes. Indeed, the economy itself loses its meaning if it is unable to protect the human being who produces, consumes, and pays the price.
From this perspective, the decision to abolish the “ratl” and adopt the kilogram and its derivatives should not be viewed merely as a replacement of a unit of measurement. Accurate measurement is one form of economic justice. When the seller, buyer, manufacturer, and exporter know that there is one clear standard for weight, the space for confusion and fraud is reduced, and the market becomes more transparent and easier to regulate. The matter may seem small, but the modern state is sometimes built through such small details that, through accumulation, become a general culture and stable rules for the market.
Therefore, the joint action between the Sudanese Standards and Metrology Organization, the Supply and Consumer Protection Investigation Department, the competent prosecution, and the National Committee for Consumer Affairs provides a model of integrated roles, reflecting what the state should be at this stage: institutions that complement one another instead of operating in isolated islands, moving from reaction to prevention, and from addressing violations after they occur to building an environment that prevents them before they turn into economic or health harm.
However, the true value of this movement goes beyond protecting the domestic consumer market. Standards are among the most important tools of the state’s economic policy. Sudan, which is seeking a way out of the war economy, needs not only to restore factories, fields, and markets, but also to restore its ability to produce reliable goods that can reach consumers. Quality is not an economic luxury; it is a condition for entering markets and regional and international value chains.
Hence, the praise expressed by the Employers’ Union for the Organization’s performance reflects the integration of roles. The private sector needs a strong and reliable authority as a partner in quality and opening markets, while compliance with standards represents an investment in the competitiveness of the national product.
What is required is for the support announced last week by Prime Minister Dr. Kamil Idris to be transformed into a vision that places standards at the heart of economic recovery, through developing laboratories, providing technical guidance, keeping pace with international standards, and linking them to production, trade, and productive investment. Sudan does not lack resources; rather, it lacks the capacity to transform them into reliable products with added value.
The Organization’s media and awareness message also deserves special praise, because it represents the essence of development-oriented media when it transforms standards from technical language into daily awareness that protects consumers and supports producers. Raising awareness of consumer rights and quality, and encouraging the reporting of violations, is no less important than laboratories and inspection equipment, because it builds community oversight that reduces the space for fraud. The Organization should therefore seek to develop this message as a partner in shaping a regulated market, and use the media not merely to introduce its campaigns, but to establish a culture of quality and link it to development, production, and competitiveness, thereby making the citizen, the producer, and the state parties to one system for protecting the economy.
In conclusion, according to #The_Truth_Perspective, the distance between “Mawlid sweets” and “the state economy” is not as far as it may seem. The standard that protects a family from a non-compliant product, guarantees a fair weight, and helps a factory reach markets is the same standard that lays the foundation for an economy governed by quality, trust, and discipline. In post-war Sudan, reconstruction does not mean building buildings and factories alone; it also means rebuilding the rules that govern the market and protect citizens. Perhaps the state economy begins where the story appears small: safe sweets, a fair scale, a factory that respects standards, and a Sudanese product that reaches consumers and the world with confidence.
Wishing you continued health and well-being.
Thursday, August 20, 2026
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