Final

REPORT OF AN INTER-AGENCY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO THE NUBA MOUNTAINS OF SOUTH KORDOFAN, SUDAN The challenge:

. . . the Nuba Mountains is not a poor region . . . it is a rich region inhabited by poor people

adapted from Mahatma Ghandi Table of Contents

GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS 4

PART A: CONSOLIDATED MISSION REPORT 5

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 2 CONTEXT AND MISSION OBJECTIVES 10 3 AREAS ASSESSED, METHODOLOGY AND CONSTRAINTS 12 4 FINDINGS 15 5 RECOMMENDATIONS 25

PART B: SECTORAL REPORTS 32

1 HEALTH AND NUTRITION 33 2 THE EDUCATION SECTOR 51 3 AGRICULTURE AND FOOD ECONOMY 69 4 WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION 90 5 GENDER AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS 96 6 REHABILITATION AND RECOVERY OF LIVELIHOODS 106 7 LOGISTICS 121 GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS

ARI Acute respiratory infections CHW Community health worker CAHW Community animal health worker EPI Expanded programme of immunization FGM Female genital mutilation GOS Government of Sudan HAMNM Humanitarian Assessment Mission to the Nuba Mountains IDP Internally displaced person INGO International non-governmental organization MUAC Middle upper-arm circumference NGO Non-governmental organization NID National immunization days NRRDS Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Society OLS Operation Lifeline Sudan OPV Oral polio vaccination ORS Oral re-hydration salts PHCC Primary health care centres PHCU Primary health care unit SCF Save the Children Fund SPLA Sudan Peoples Liberation Army SPLM Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement TBA Traditional birth attendant UNCERO United Nations Coordinator for Emergency Relief Operations WES Water and environmental sanitation PART A: Consolidated Mission Report 1 Executive Summary

1.1 The Nuba Mountains cover an area of roughly 30,000 square miles located in South Kordofan State. Its population consists of about fifty ethnic groups. The area has been a zone of conflict between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) since 1985. The SPLM control some 20 percent of South Kordofan with an estimated population of 200,000 (out of approximately 1.1 million total population for the State). The SPLM area consists mainly of rural mountainous zones with low agricultural productivity, where basic services are rare or non-existent. The Government of Sudan (GOS) controlled area contains most of the State’s urban centres, albeit it too is a predominantly agricultural region, including several areas of extensive rain-fed mechanized farming

1.2 Following various UN initiatives with the GOS, including a personal appeal from the UN Secretary-General to the Minister of External Relations in May 1999, the principle of mounting a humanitarian assessment mission in the SPLM-controlled areas was accepted by GOS and approved by SPLM. A United Nations Humanitarian Assessment Mission to SPLM areas of the Nuba Mountains (HAMNM) took place between 19 and 24 June 1999 with the participation of OCHA, WFP and UNICEF. The HAMNM recommended that a more detailed assessment mission be mounted as soon as practical. It was subsequently decided that the mission also assesses adjacent conflict- affected areas in the GOS-controlled areas.

1.3 The assessment mission of the SPLM-controlled areas was undertaken over a fifteen day period during the second half of September and the mission to the GOS- controlled areas was undertaken over one week, commencing 7 October. In both cases, the mission divided itself into two teams in order to attain greater Arial coverage. The mission included representation from UN agencies, namely, FAO, OCHA, UNDP, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, as well as four NGOs, namely, CARE, DED, SCF-UK and SCF- US. The team to SPLM areas was led by WFP while the team to GOS areas was led by UNDP.

1.4 The primary objectives of these two missions were to: q determine the needs of the conflict-affected populations in the two areas q determine the volume and nature of humanitarian assistance necessary to respond as it gained the confidence of the respective authorities through its transparency and non- partisan mode of operation.

1.6 The report of the mission consists of a general overview of its findings (PART A) followed by seven detailed sectoral reports with specific recommendations for follow-up action (PART B). It also includes a series of annexes, some of which include detailed primary statistical information. Given that there had not been any prior UN missions to the regions assessed, the data collected by the mission will be of utility to both the local authorities and to the international humanitarian and development communities.

1.7 While the original aim of the mission was to assess humanitarian needs in the conflict-affected regions of the Nuba Mountains, the prevailing situation in the region is one where the current coping strategies of the affected populations are best served by supporting their rehabilitation of livelihoods while simultaneously addressing the relief requirements of the most vulnerable and needy people. Consequently, the mission's focus was to assess both the immediate survival needs of the affected populations as well as the medium-term recovery and rehabilitation needs. Hence the report is a prescription of interventions that are intended to reduce dependency on relief while building the capacities for the populations to move towards greater self-reliance and eventual self- sufficiency.

1.8 In the health sector, the mission found very limited, inadequately equipped and supplied facilities existing in the SPLM area, largely staffed by volunteers who are poorly qualified or unqualified. Some training is being provided by a local NGO for health care workers, but the trainers are themselves poorly qualified. There is no referral system in place. EPI coverage is very limited or non-existent and children are therefore vulnerable to epidemic outbreaks. In the GOS areas, a good network of health centres is in place, albeit they are all in need of basic supplies. Some have no permanent staff. EPI coverage is almost total. A very high incidence of goitre exists in both areas but this can be readily remedied through distribution of iodized salt. Despite these limitations, neither area faces any major immediate critical health emergency, albeit mortality is needlessly high, as is the risk of epidemics, in the SPLM areas.

1.9 Education has been seriously disrupted, especially in the SPLM areas where a whole generation of children have been deprived of schooling. Basic education is slowly being re-established through a volunteer system, however, most teachers are poorly qualified or unqualified. There is an acute shortage of all forms of school supplies, 1.10 The Nuba Mountains were wholly self-sufficient in agriculture before the war. Over the past ten years this self-sufficiency has been completely eroded. The population has been driven from the fertile clay plains by insecurity and is currently cultivating lands in the mountains or in peripheral areas. Reduced to cultivating small plots, depending only upon hand cultivation, having limited inputs and no access to fertilizers, few households are able to produce much more than 25 percent of their food needs. Moreover, the livestock component of their economy has been almost completely destroyed resulting in both a decline in income from livestock and a reduced quality of nutrition. It has also eliminated the traditional safety net that allowed farmers to get through poor crop seasons. Consequently, people are supporting themselves with an array of ad hoc income generating activities in the GOS areas, while in the SPLM areas, a barter economy prevails. Food assistance meets only a small proportion of the food deficit, and often none at all.

1.11 The mission determined that while there is no critical food shortage at the moment in either area, albeit there remain many vulnerable populations who would benefit from further food assistance, there will be sizeable food deficit next year between May to September. This is due to the late onset of rains this season, coupled with their heavy duration once the season began, the small areas currently cultivated, and the lack of adequate inputs such as fertilizers. Plant diseases such as stalk-borer and striga are rampant and are a manifestation of lack of crop diversification. Access to markets is also a problem. Wild food collection is an important supplement to diets, especially in the SPLM areas.

1.12 Gender-issues raised by the assessment focus, amongst other issues, upon alleged human rights violations and the adequacy of health services, such as the quality of traditional birth attendants. In SPLM areas, maternal and child mortality was very high; in GOS areas it was found to be relatively low. There is a high prevalence of STDs in the SPLM areas, partly attributable to the widespread incidence of rape. This was not found to be the case in GOS areas. In contrast, FGM has declined markedly in the SPLM areas, partly as a result of strong opposition to the practice by the SPLM leadership. Women in both areas want to access adult literacy programmes.

1.13 There are large IDP populations in both areas, albeit the populations have generally displaced only over short distances. In SPLM areas this has usually been from the fertile plains into the mountains. Overall, the IDPs fare no worse than the local rural populations among whom they have settled. All get access to at least some land. the urban IDPs, would go a long way to strengthening the local capacities to increase their levels of self-reliance. However, micro-credit facilities must be introduced in parallel with basic with extension services since few people have ever had any experience with credit facilities. There is considerable scope for supporting projects that address vegetable production. Livestock herd regeneration can also best be achieved through micro-credit facilities.

1.15 Access is a major problem throughout the Nuba Mountains. There are virtually no roads and the few that do exist are usable only in the dry season. Lack of access is especially acute in the SPLM areas. A feeder road programme is, therefore, urgently needed. The improvement of the road from Dilling to Habeela must be given highest priority in order to gain better access to this rich area of mechanized farming. Security is also a problem in areas west of the Kadugli to Dilling road, which impacts upon the rate of rehabilitation of local trade and commerce.

1.16 While the mission was only able to assess a limited area of the conflict-affected regions of South Kordofan, data for other areas must also be acquired. In the case of Kadugli, the established presence of the UN will facilitate data from that region to be added to the global Nuba Mountain database for programme formulation. Any UN system programming must target all the affected communities and not limit itself to the assessed areas. It should also strive to address both GOS and SPLM areas as a single humanitarian aid and rehabilitation programme that promotes the peace process through preventive development initiatives. 2 Context and Mission Objectives

The Nuba Mountains cover an area of roughly 30,000 square miles located in South Kordofan State. It is a region of rugged and eroded granitic outcroppings, some of which are over 1,000 m high, interspersed and surrounded by low-lying and generally fertile clay plains. Its population consists of about fifty ethnic groups, some of which are small and remain relatively isolated.

The area has been a zone of conflict between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A)1 since 1985. The SPLM control some 20 percent of the total surface of South Kordofan with an estimated population of 200,0002 (out of approximately 1.1 million total population for the State). The SPLM area consists mainly of rural, mountainous zones with low agricultural productivity, where basic services are rare or non-existent. The Government of the Sudan (GOS) controlled area, with an estimated population of 900,000 contains most of the State’s urban centres, albeit it too is a predominantly agricultural region, including several areas of extensive rain-fed mechanized farming.

The conflict has resulted in widespread population displacement, serious reductions in agricultural and livestock production, lack of income generating activities and severe restriction of access for the provision of humanitarian assistance. United Nations humanitarian and development interventions are almost entirely limited to GOS- controlled areas where the specialized agencies operate through Government structures, NGO partners, or through direct implementation on the basis of independent needs assessments.

Following various UN initiatives with the GOS, including a personal appeal from the UN Secretary-General to the Minister of External Relations on 9 May 1999, the principle of mounting a humanitarian assessment mission in the SPLM-controlled areas was accepted by GOS and approved by SPLM. The United Nations Humanitarian Assessment Mission to SPLM Areas of the Nuba Mountains (HAMNM) took place between 19 and 24 June 1999 with the participation of OCHA, WFP and UNICEF.3

The Report from the HAMNM identified the following issues of concern and significant humanitarian needs: q food security and agriculture q health and nutrition q water and sanitation q basic education.

The report also made recommendations on follow up actions. It stressed the requirement for a comprehensive approach on policy issues for humanitarian interventions in all areas of South Kordofan State (both GOS- and SPLM-controlled areas of the Nuba Mountains). The Report also indicated that specific proposals for future mission assessments at the technical/sectoral levels and agreement on modalities for channelling aid relief to the area would be addressed subsequently between the Sudanese parties and the concerned UN agencies.

In a letter to the Minister of External Relations of the Republic of the Sudan, dated 9 July 1999, the Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator and Director of OCHA, Geneva, pointed to the urgency of undertaking further needs assessment missions, the modalities for the implementation of which were to be negotiated between the relevant GOS authorities and the Office of the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System and Humanitarian Coordinator (UNCERO) in Khartoum.

After consultations with heads of agencies in Khartoum, and Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) Southern Sector, a Working Group on the Humanitarian Needs Assessment Mission to the Nuba Mountains, under the chairmanship of UNCERO, agreed to field two missions composed of UN agencies and INGO sectoral specialists. The two missions were to address several sectors of humanitarian assistance identified in the HAMNM Report and were to be undertaken in succession, first to the SPLM-controlled areas, and the second, to the GOS-controlled areas of the Nuba Mountains.

To primary objectives of these two missions were to: q determine the needs of the conflict-affected populations in the two areas q determine the volume and nature of humanitarian assistance necessary to respond to these needs q assess the infrastructure and terrain q determine modalities for the provision of the assistance.

The mission was to analyze potentials for intervention and make recommendations for short-term, as well as medium- to long-term rehabilitation and development actions and programmes. 3 Areas Assessed, Methodology and Constraints

3.1 Areas assessed

The people living in the Nuba Mountains region belong to more than 50 ethnic groups. The term Nuba is used to describing all people living within the mountain ranges and the intervening plains of the region. It was noted during the Mission that in the Nuba Mountains, Moslems, Christians and Animists are living together in a state of harmony and mutual respect.

The SPLM-controlled areas: The SPLM-controlled areas of South Kordofan State are located in parts of the south, south-central, south-west and western parts of the Nuba mountains. There is no discrete ‘frontline’, rather the SPLM areas are usually pockets of higher land surrounded or flanked by GOS-controlled lowlands. The intervening areas are contested, and consequently are generally depopulated due to prevailing insecurity.

The SPLM areas of the Nuba Mountains are divided into seven counties, namely, Heiban, Nagorban, Buram, Lagawa, Dilling, Delami and Western Kadugli. The Mission visited two of these counties, Heiban and Nagorban. Each county is divided into payams, of which there are ten in Heiban and six in Nagorban. Payams are further subdivided into villages or bomas, of which there are sixty-five in Heiban and sixty- three in Nagorban.

Nagorban County is bordered on the south-west and west by Buram and Western Kadugli counties and on the north-east by Heiban County. The six payams in Nagorban are Um Dulu, Seraf Jamus, Tangal, Nagorban, Tura and Limon. The majority of the displaced in Nagorban come from Um Dulu, situated in the plains.

In Nagorban, many communities reside on the mountains. They are mainly peasant farmers with few livestock. These are the Tira, Acheron, Limon and Tosho. There are also communities living in the fertile plains and valleys (the Moros), who are primarily farmers but previously also owned a significant number of cattle.

In Heiban County, the ten payams are Atoro West, Atoro East, Atoro South, and Atoro North. Also Tira North, Tira West, Tira East, Lira West, Lira East and Abul Shwaia. Most of the displaced are originating from the same large plain that crosses through Nagorban County. controlled area of the seven counties in the Nuba Mountains of over 300,000 which contrasts with the GOS's estimate for the region of only 100,000.

The GOS-controlled Areas: South Kordofan State is divided into five provinces, namely, Kadugli, Dilling, Rashad, Abu Gebaiha and Talodi. The state capital is Kadugli town. Each province is further divided into local councils, which encompass village councils. The state is governed by a governor, and assisted by ministers. There is a State Assembly to which the governor is accountable. The total population for South Kordofan, based on the 1999 projections of the Central Bureau of Statistics, is 1,096,000. In the GOS areas the mission estimated the total population, based on local authorities figures, as about 900,000.6 The mission visited two provinces namely Dilling and Talodi. The Dilling assessment team managed to visit seven villages and one IDP quarter in Dilling town, but the Talodi Team was unable to proceed further because of inaccessibility and road conditions exacerbated by rains, and only managed to reach Um Dehaileeb village in El Salam local council.

Dilling Province consists of eight local councils, out of which five were targeted as the most affected by the conflict. These were Sallara, Kurgol, Habeela, Dalami and Dilling town. The team was scheduled to visit sample villages in all five local councils but due to inaccessibility, Habeela and Dalami were not assessed. The mission confined its assessment to three counties, namely Sallara, Kurgol and Dilling town. In Sallara Local Council, four villages namely Tundia, Nitil, Al Fanda and Kujuria were visited. In Kurgol Local Council, the team visited three villages namely Kurgol, Angarko and Hajar Gawad. In Dilling town, the IDP quarter of Hilla Gedida was assessed.

Inference from the assessment for the whole Nuba Mountains region: A question posed by the restricted Arial coverage of the mission is that of the extent to which the assessment can be viewed as representative of the Nuba Mountains as a whole. Given the physical and ethnic complexity of the region, coupled with variations in the levels and intensity with which the conflict has impacted the region, there are clearly significant local variations in needs and capacities prevailing throughout the Nuba Mountains.

However, notwithstanding the limited coverage of both SPLM- and GOS-controlled areas during the assessment, the Mission believes that inference can be drawn from the rich primary data-base collected for the Nuba Mountains as a whole, as long as local geographic and ethnic variations are taken into account. Nevertheless, it is highly advisable to follow up this assessment with additional visits to areas that have not been and can be drawn upon in support of this assessment for future project formulation for the Nuba Mountains.

3.2 Methodology

The nature of the sectoral assessments required each sub-team to adopt methodologies that were most appropriate for the specific sectors. However, the standard practice was for the assessment team to meet with representatives of the community in order to introduce the purpose of the mission and to hear general concerns expressed by community leaders and spokespersons from the community. The team leaders ensured that women from the communities participated fully in this dialogue. Such meetings normally lasted up to one hour.

Following the introductory meeting, the assessment team broke-up to constitute sectoral working groups with community members. Local leaders were asked to assist in ensuring that each sectoral group had a mix of community leaders and local populations, as well as a representative gender balance. These working groups ranged in size from as few as ten people to as many as fifty. Often, the health and food security groups received the greatest attention. These meetings lasted anywhere from two hours to half a day.

3.3 Constraints to the assessment

A dearth of information on the SPLM areas, as well as strategic military considerations, placed some limits upon the degrees of freedom the mission had in order to accomplish the assessment. The itinerary was dependent on a sensitive military and security environment. It was also dictated by the UN’s own limitations in both logistics and security resources. This resulted in a reduction in the number of counties to be assessed. The SPLM provided discreet, efficient military escorts throughout and exerted minimal interference in the work of the mission. The SPLM, however, provided very little documentary information on the region under its control, obliging the mission to apply various techniques to extrapolate its findings from two counties to the entire seven county area.

Time constraints and weather conditions limited both the flexibility of choice and the length of the assessment in each location. Whereas the experience of the teams in the SPLM areas clearly indicated the need to devote an entire day for each location, the mission had to assess two locations every day in the GOS areas. This was made possible, 4 Findings

The mission covered an array of sectoral issues in both SPLM- and GOS-controlled areas. In many cases, the prevailing situations and needs were similar in both areas. On the other hand, some notable differences were manifest, such as the incidence of EPI or the alleged human rights abuses among women, as described in the sectoral chapters that follow in Part B of this report. The principal findings of the sectoral assessments are, therefore, presented below in some detail.

Three basic sets of guiding principles need to be addressed when evaluating the issues identified by the mission and when subsequent programme formulation is begun. These are: q The extent to which a reduction in violations of human rights can be incorporated into future programme strategies q The extent to which future interventions can be designed so as to support and strengthen peace-building in the region q The need to place increasing emphasis in transitioning from pure relief activities to those that help strengthen local coping capacities and begin laying the foundation to recovery and eventual return to sustainable development

After a decade of relief assistance in the region, much of which has been ephemeral, there is now an opportunity to begin transitioning away from pure humanitarian actions and instead support the desire among local populations to rebuild their livelihoods and re- establish their former levels of self-reliance. Initially, modest community-based interventions are appropriate and would have significant impacts in relatively short time frames. In turn, these would lay the groundwork for later longer-term development interventions. The Nuba Mountains is not a poor region; it is a potentially rich region awaiting reconstruction and development.

4.1 Health and Nutrition

4.1.1 The SPLM-controlled areas

The regions visited have a fairly good distribution of public health care facilities but these are without regular supplies and lack supportive supervision. The referral system for the existing facilities is grossly inadequate. There is also an unacceptably high level of child and maternal mortality from largely preventable causes. The high incidence of childhood deaths in particular requires intensive community education on weaning practices.

Secondary infertility and STD’s have high prevalence throughout the region, mostly resulting from frequent incidences of rape. There is, therefore, a great need for availability of STD treatment, as well as for counselling of rape victims.

Although the general nutritional status is good, there are foci of high micronutrient deficiencies such as iodine deficiency producing widespread incidences of goitre, especially in Heiban County.

The local NGO, NRRDS, was found to be the most appropriate coordinating body for health and nutrition activities. However, their technical capacity will have to be strengthened and their access to supplies greatly improved.

In sum, the health problems in the SPLM-controlled areas can be addresses through relatively simple and affordable interventions. The necessary interventions could readily be implemented using the established structures.

4.1.2 The GOS-controlled areas

Although there is good coverage of facilities in the Dilling Province, there are gross imbalances in human resources distribution. However, the referral facilities are adequate. There is an inadequate level of supervision, support and continuing education for personnel in a system where financial remuneration is inadequate.

Drugs and supplies to public health care units are inadequate. The cost recovery system, which is in place at all levels of heath care, does not have a mechanism for exemption for those who cannot pay and consequently, some people are unable to access the system or obtain appropriate drugs.

There are very successful outreach programs that have produced high immunization coverage. These programs are implemented by frontline health workers, primarily traditional birth attendants (TBAs) and the community health workers. These outreach programs, and the extensive use of TBAs, seem to have had the effect of keeping maternal and child mortality relatively low. In sum, the GOS-controlled areas had relatively good coverage of facilities but their functioning was poor due to inadequate resourcing. There were very successful outreach programs resulting in low child and maternal mortality.

4.2 The Education Sector

The civil conflict has had a very serious impact on education in the Nuba Mountains both in Government- and SPLM-controlled areas. In most cases, schools were closed at the beginning of the hostilities and children’s schooling remained interrupted for several years. In SPLM areas there was practically no schooling during the decade 1987 and 1996, whereas in the territory under Government control, the interruption lasted from 1990 until 1994. In the latter case, however, the failure of the public sector to sustain children’s education, mainly through an inability of local authorities to pay the salaries to teachers and other staff, has brought the education system to a standstill. The result is a fresh series of school closures begun in 1997 and a new interruption to the schooling of the area’s children.

Both sides of the civil conflict presently have a massive deficit in educational equipment including the most basic school supplies. Schools are in a state of dilapidation or are established in the most rudimentary way, which constitutes a serious impediment to learning. In the SPLM areas there are hardly any schools with stone or brick buildings. The remaining few which have not fallen into ruin because of disuse, or have not been destroyed in military operations, are a coveted asset which figures prominently in educational projects such as the establishment of teacher training institutions.

The territory under Government control boasts a number of schools dating back to the 1950s and 1960s. Some of them enjoyed a good reputation both for the quality of the education they provided and their capacity to offer full board to pupils from far away villages. Most of them are now in an advanced state of deterioration and the local authorities do not have the resources to restore or rehabilitate them. Furthermore, a number of schools whose construction began in the 1970s or 1980s were never completed and they either stand unfinished and unused or have been quickly mended with makeshift thatch additions. Both in the SPLM and in the Government areas, schools do not, on the whole, constitute a favourable environment for learning.

In both cases, the majority of teachers and headmasters have no access to any school equipment or furniture. They have no offices, no desks, no tables, no chairs and all The bare and highly alarming reality is that an entire decade has passed without education for many of the children of the Nuba Mountains on both sides of the conflict. This fact has enormous consequences on other sectors of life including health, nutrition, and, of course, the economy. Recovery measures are threatened by failure due to the scarcity of educated persons who could undergo essential training, especially where a degree of basic knowledge is a requisite. The number and quality of teachers in the SPLM areas is seriously deficient and the situation necessitates an earnest intervention.

4.3 Agriculture and Food Security

4.3.1 The SPLM-controlled areas

The conflict situation in SPLM-controlled areas has imposed major agricultural, economic and humanitarian effects. Farmers who used to produce the bulk of their crops on the plains, have been forced by insecurity to abandon their fields and to move to steep slopes and much smaller land-holdings having poorer soils. Up to 80 percent of the livestock formerly owned by these farmers have been lost, reducing the supplies of animal products and bringing poverty to formerly well-off livestock owners. Food production has decreased far below former levels and the poor soils in the mountains cannot sustain the population in the long term. Removal of natural tree and grass cover for agriculture and for firewood and poles is causing serious soil erosion both on the hill slopes and for the plains below. Infiltration rates for rainfall have been reduced and flash flooding and erosion of riverbanks is increasing.

The economic blockade has disrupted traditional trade routes, reduced the amount of cash in the economy, forcing dependence on less flexible and efficient barter systems. Necessities such as salt, soap, footwear and clothing are in very short supply in the markets. Agricultural inputs such as improved seed, agricultural hand-tools and pesticides are not available. Agricultural support systems such as credit, extension, plant protection, animal disease prevention and control systems are non-existent and need complete rehabilitation. Labour is also in short supply as the majority of households are headed by women who also have responsibility for collecting water as well as many other duties apart from agriculture. There are no facilities to grind sorghum, forcing women to carry out this time-consuming and arduous task. Prices of sorghum in the markets are significantly higher than in the GOS-controlled areas. to be lost through banditry and rustling. This greatly reduces the supplies of animal products for consumption and sale and thus decreases purchasing power.

Food production has decreased far below former levels and the poor soils in the areas around villages cannot sustain the population in the long term. Coping strategies that include removal of natural tree and grass cover for agriculture and for firewood, charcoal burning and building timber are denuding the natural vegetation and causing serious environmental damage.

Market access is relatively easier than in the SPLM areas, but prices for sorghum are extremely low. This is possibly related to the poor road access to Talodi Province, in particular, during the wet season. Markets are, however, better supplied with essentials such as salt and soap than are SPLM areas. There are adequate supplies of hand-tools available. Other agricultural inputs such as improved seed and pesticides are not available and there are no plant protection services. Levels of striga, stalkborer and other sorghum pests are very high near the villages and there is a need to diversify crop production to include improved varieties of sweet potato, cassava, beans and other crops which are unaffected by these pests and weeds.

Lack of credit to finance tractor ploughing is a major problem in Dilling Province, where there are large areas of good land available. The use of ox-draught has fallen into decline and needs to be revived to counter labour shortages. Labour is short supply as many households are headed by women and also because many people from country areas in Kordofan migrate to find employment in cities and towns during the off-season and only return just before planting time. Agricultural extension, animal husbandry and animal disease prevention and control systems need major rehabilitation.

4.4 Water and Environmental Sanitation

4.4.1 The SPLM-controlled areas

Most of the available aquifers in the SPLM-controlled areas are shallow, unconfined and underlain by rock. This limits the quantity of groundwater in many places. The larger/wider valleys have greater depths of sand and sediments and, therefore, wells in these valleys are more likely to be perennial and have greater yields. However, because of these areas’ accessibility from the plains, they are more prone to ground attacks. pumps were seen by the Mission and there were very few lined wells. It is common for women to take five hours for one trip to collect water in the dry season. Girls may have to drop out of school to fulfil their water collection duties. The clay pots traditionally used to carry water weigh about 15 kg when full and the trip to collect water very often includes a steep climb. Watering livestock in the dry season requires herders to use water sources prone to ground attack, risking loss of livestock and the herdsmen’s lives.

The level of hygiene education and understanding of the faecal-oral route is low. There are very few latrines and the land adjacent to streams is a favourite place for defecation despite the fact that streambeds are an important water source. The resulting high worm loads and incidence of diarrhoea have a major effect on child health and nutrition. Soap is not readily available and this has contributed to the low level of hygiene.

There are some good potential locations for the construction of small dams and storage reservoirs.

4.4.2 The GOS-controlled areas

The plains of South Kordofan State can be divided into two main hydrogeological areas: a deep, high yielding aquifer in the central and eastern part of the State and a shallow, relatively poor aquifer in the western part. Since the late 1970’s, more than 1,000 hand- pump-equipped boreholes have been constructed in the GOS areas of the State. When the hand-pumps are in working order, these boreholes provide safe water throughout the year. The majority of households in the villages visited in Dilling were within 500m of a hand-pump, and most villages had water committees composed of both men and women, as well as trained hand-pump mechanics. Despite the existence of these committees and mechanics, however, there was no agreed system for operation and maintenance. As a result, more than half the hand-pumps were out of order and many had been completely abandoned.

The level of personal hygiene seemed high with reported soap consumption of up to 45 pieces per month per family. In contrast, there were few latrines in the area. The level of understanding of the faecal-oral route of disease transmission was low, and the preferred places for defecation were in or around streams or “behind bushes”. Despite the poor knowledge of disease transmission and the indiscriminate defecation, diarrhoea was not reported in some of the villages. materials, water development, support to income generating activities, paravet training and community development work.

Religious organizations play an important role in the civil society. It is important to underline that Christian and Muslim communities, as well as animists, live together in harmony. It was reported on several occasions that places of worship, both mosques and churches, have been looted and burned during ground offensives, particularly in 1995 and 1996.

Another important element in Nuba society is the Women’s Association, represented at boma, payam and county level. The Association is self-funded through each member’s contribution in cash or kind. Whether working with NRRDS, religious organizations, INGOs, women’s groups or civil administration, all members of the community provide all their services for free.

In both counties the women spoke vociferously about progress made towards gender equality under the SPLM administration, particularly since 1996. Important changes promoted by the new administration concern regulation of bridewealth payment, appointment of women leaders working in parallel with men and strict prohibition of any form of FGM (female genital mutilations).

During the two weeks spent in SPLM-controlled areas, the Mission continuously heard reports of rape. The mission members were struck by the openness with which women spoke of their ordeals. It appears from discussions with women and men that there are patterns. Women allege that they are assaulted by armed persons in military uniforms while collecting water or cultivating their farms near the 'frontline' on the plains. In several locations, women and community leaders also mentioned that abduction of women and children is a major problem in villages near the 'frontline'. These abductions also seem to occur when women and children are ambushed while fetching water or collecting fruit in the abandoned farmland in the plain.

4.5.2 GOS-controlled areas

In the GOS-controlled areas the civil administration is organised at three levels: village (qaria), local council (mahallia) and province (muhafaza). At the local level formal structures co-exist with traditional forms of leadership based on ethnic affiliation. Islam is the most widespread religion, however, Christian and animist communities also live in the area and all are reported to live together peacefully. UN agencies and local and International organisations' support to women is mostly limited to the traditional package in use in the Sudan for many decades: training of women and support to the production of spaghetti and biscuits, handicrafts, soap, tailoring, etc. The items produced usually have little marketing potential and consequently have the ultimate undesirable result of only further burdening women.

Differences between groups of Arab and Nuba origin can be observed in the practice of FGM. This prevails amongst Arab groups, where the vast majority of women are subjected to pharaonic infibulation, while this is rarer amongst the so-called Nuba tribes, which, when they practise it, apply a different form. Although pharaonic infibulation is officially outlawed, there is confusion over whether the prohibition extends to the sunna form. The general feeling is that the local authorities tolerate both forms and no strong effort is made to enforce the law.

Several women spoke about the trauma caused by military offensives in 1991-92. During that time houses were looted and burnt down and many women lost their husbands in the fighting. There are currently reports of women being ambushed, usually deprived of their clothes and robbed of other belongings. However, women stated that rape was not a problem. In total they only remembered two cases that allegedly took place at the beginning of the 1990s, for which they hold soldiers responsible.

4.6 Rehabilitation of Livelihoods

4.6.1 The SPLM-controlled areas

Main livelihood sources for people in the SPLM-controlled areas are derived from agriculture and to a lesser extent livestock keeping. Manufacturing of mats and beds is also a source of income/barter. The war has produced changes in the availability and ranking of livelihood sources. Most cattle were said to have been looted over the years and access to other natural assets such as land, water and fisheries has significantly diminished. Changes have also been forced upon people’s land use patterns. Cultivation now takes place on the slopes of the mountains without any terracing system because of shortage of labour and absence of recognized land tenure. This has dramatically accelerated the process of soil degradation and erosion. As a result of these factors, the security of the livelihood system of the people living in the Nuba Mountains is constantly Although technical skills exist, they are very basic. Some international organizations are active in the area sponsoring training courses in different fields. In addition, training abroad is provided to women leaders from the area in the field of gender equality and advancement of women.

4.6.2 The GOS-controlled areas

The decade-long conflict in this region has reduced a once self-sufficient and relatively prosperous population to one that has become marginalized and living at- or near-poverty levels. Much of the rich agricultural land has been lost or is inaccessible due to insecurity and farmers have had to resort to small and often infertile plots near their homesteads. Food self-sufficiency has largely given way to dependence upon non-food sources of income, including seasonal out migration for temporary labour on mechanized farms or elsewhere.

The loss of almost all livestock has exacerbated the slide into poverty. Also, it has eliminated the time-tested safety-net farmers had to tide them through years when rains were poor and production was reduced. These losses to livelihoods have never been compensated for or replaced by relief intervention. Food assistance, at best, has contributed only marginally to the conflict-affected population’s well being. For the most part, survival has been ensured through the adoption of local coping mechanisms. One advantage of this is that no dependency syndrome has developed and most of the population would opt for assistance for rehabilitating their livelihoods rather than wanting relief handouts.

Notwithstanding the readiness to embrace rehabilitation interventions, there are some extremely vulnerable groups among the population that urgently require relief assistance in the form of food, improved shelters, blankets and clothing. Then elderly, denied access to traditional support mechanisms, and the many orphaned children, count among this vulnerable population.

The Dilling area accommodates many IDPs, albeit the majority are from the Nuba Mountain region and often have only been displaced over short geographical distances. They reside in Peace Villages as well as in settlements at the periphery of Dilling town. While the former exhibit much the same needs as their local rural counterparts, and as such should not be singled out for specific assistance, the latter are living in markedly poorer conditions and marginalized from the mainstream urban opportunities and access 4.7 Logistics

4.7.1 The SPLM-controlled areas

The findings of the Mission are that the Nuba Mountain people are not in any immediate critical emergency as far as food is concerned. They have experienced late and inadequate rains in 1999 but they will soon harvest their sorghum. At the time of the Mission, they were eating green maize. Farmers speculated that if the rains continue for some time then they would be able to go through the year 2000 without too many problems. Otherwise, the SPLM areas will require some intervention during the food deficit period expected from May to September 2000. A contingency plan should, therefore, be made for the delivery and distribution of about 2,500 metric tons of food to targeted vulnerable groups in SPLM area.

It was also very evident that no roads exist in the region nor any other logistical infrastructure. Therefore, any intervention planned by the UN system should consider air options unless a cross-‘frontline’ operation from GOS-areas can be brokered in the event that the current cease-fire is sustained. If not, air operations would be possible since a number of locations that can be used for airlift/drop activities. Local authorities are also in a position to assist in making air operations possible. However, should 'cross- frontlines' operations become an option, the exact modalities will require cautious negotiations.

4.7.2 The GOS-controlled areas

Several organizations, including WFP, are already working in the GOS-controlled area. Therefore, a logistics infrastructure is already in place. The current level of humanitarian assistance should be maintained. The main constraint for logistics in this region is rainfall. Therefore, this must be taken into consideration when planning deliveries. 5 Recommendations

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

The civil conflict affects every sphere of life in the Nuba Mountains both in SPLM- and in Government-controlled areas. The de facto blockade of the areas under SPLM control has had severe repercussions on all sectors of the economy and on the provision of social services. The balance in the SPLM areas between basic needs and availability of resources is fragile and it is further endangered by the reduction of these areas into an enclave. The lack of circulation of goods and services (health referrals, soap) not only creates a hazardous situation in the SPLM areas but creates a risk for Government areas since any outbreaks of disease or epidemics could quickly spread across 'frontlines'.

The blockade has effectively stalled the economy in the SPLM area. It has prevented access to essential goods such as fuel, clothing, salt and soap, and to crucial services such as education, health and water supplies. The lack of availability of tools, seeds, materials, and equipment, has inhibited improvements to food production, health provision, and a betterment of the living environment. At the same time, the denial of access to a major part of the most productive land has severely reduced food security in the area.

The prevailing conflict in the Nuba Mountains has, as is common in almost all conflict situations, led to serious violations of human rights and humanitarian principles. The increased insecurity due to the presence and activities of combatants in an area occupied by civilians has greatly elevated the levels of danger faced by indigenous populations. Civilians inevitably become the primary targets of such violations. Moreover, they are reportedly widespread and create a climate of fear and intimidation that forces the populations to vacate contested areas. Raids on villages, looting of livestock, abductions, rape, killing and maiming of civilians, including the widespread use of landmines, were widely reported by inhabitants to the Mission. Given the large number of armed groups in the region, many of which are in military garb of one form or another, it is seldom possible to verify beyond doubt the identity of the perpetrators.

However, international humanitarian principles and human rights standards cannot be disregarded and it is incumbent upon all national and international parties to work toward the goal of ending violations of economic, social, civil and cultural rights of the civilian provided could achieve definitive objectives in solving humanitarian problems in the Nuba Mountains. Such a programme conducted on both sides of the civil conflict divide has a potential of producing unprecedented results in peace building and reconstruction.

In both the SPLM and the Government areas, traditional social mechanisms have been preserved and blended with the modern administrative systems. They enjoy both the respect and the trust of the communities who continue to resort to them, especially in times of crisis. Their proven mobilising capacity and their ability to muster and channel the resolve of the communities can efficiently be used for the provision of assistance, organisation of delivery systems, conception of recovery programmes and the advancement of peace building. These traditional mechanisms must be taken into account in any the development of future programmes and interventions.

The common social and cultural organisation, and the similarity of problems and needs between the two areas, should make the implementation of common programmes feasible, cost-effective and efficient. 'Cross-frontline' communications must therefore be enhanced for the provision of assistance and the execution of programmes.

SECTORAL RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Health and Nutrition

1.1 SPLM-controlled areas

A) Short-term: q Medical supplies should be provided through existing channels and include STD treatment. The NID polio plus program should be extended to SPLM Nuba. q Vaccines should be provided from the UNICEF stores through the existing channels. Iodized salt should also be provided, either free of charge or at nominal cost, and soap should be made available to the population of the Nuba Mountains as a matter of urgency.

B) Intermediate-term: q Support of medical training (TBAs, CHWs, plus supervisory level), with special emphasis on maternal care to reduce the rate of mortality/morbidity, including treatment of rape victims and the relationship between rape, STD and infertility. Establish post-rape treatment in all health facilities; establish full EPI at fixed q Urgently establish an essential drug programme, providing emergency drugs freely to the patients. Establishment of vaccination, maternal and child health services.

2. Education

2.1 SPLM-controlled areas

The lack of education in the area permeates all aspects of life in the community. The shortage of educated people hinders the development of training programmes and threatens other areas such as health. Education should, therefore, be given the highest priority treatment possible.

q Teachers should be trained as a priority and trained teachers should be provided to the area; one possibility is to encourage the return to the area of Nuba children studying abroad. q Assistance should be given for the construction of schools, both in order to provide a more favourable environment in the classroom than shelters and trees, and in order to reduce the numbers of pupils per classrooms.

2.2 GOS-controlled areas

q As a matter of urgency, all salaries and arrears should be paid to all teachers, headmasters and other school personnel in order to allow schools to open for the forthcoming academic year. q All school buildings should be restored, rehabilitated, or completed urgently.

2.3 SPLM and GOS areas

q Schools should receive all appropriate furniture and equipment necessary for the proper running of both school administration and classrooms. q Textbooks are a top priority. Teachers are using available printed material without any possibility of harmonizing programmes and/or monitoring progress of pupils. q Equipment, furniture, and stationery should be provided to the existing schools as a matter of urgency.

3 Agriculture and Food Economy q Provision of village grinding mills to reduce the heavy workload of women.

3.2 GOS-controlled areas

q The purchase of a buffer-stock of grain is recommended. q Agricultural credit facilities should be improved and expanded.

3.3 SPLM and GOS areas

The long running conflict is the major cause of the poverty and of human rights violations in the Nuba Mountains, including the restrictions to the right to food and access to the land on which to produce it. All peace-building initiatives must, therefore, be encouraged and in particular those based on traditional mechanisms. Assuming the conflict will continue as before, the following recommendations are made:

q Courses in basic agriculture should be provided for farmers and extension staff and training programmes for community animal health workers should be further extended. q Improved sweet potato and cassava varieties should be introduced to diversify cropping away from sorghum and maize. Fruit tree seedlings should be provided in order to improve the local diet and to provide extra food and shade. q Provision of seeds of short-term crops to 25,000 households.

4 Water and Sanitation

4.1 SPLM-controlled areas

q Emphasis should be placed on the construction of improved hand-dug wells rather than boreholes in the short-term. Wells should be located adjacent to rivers and streams to make use of known aquifers and bank infiltration. q A participatory programme of hygiene promotion is essential to help people understand the dangers of poor hygiene and prioritize behavior changes including construction and use of latrines. q Ways of reducing the loads carried by women collecting water should be investigated such as making plastic jerry cans available for barter. q The potential for rainwater harvesting for domestic water supply and small gravity dams with storage reservoirs for watering livestock should be investigated. sources of spare parts. Refresher training should be provided for local hand-pump mechanics. q The water tariff levied on livestock at water-yards should be reviewed with communities and local administration.

5 Gender and Social Dynamics

5.1 SPLM-controlled areas

q Any planned intervention should make extensive use of the existing civil society structures and work within the established norms of remuneration. Collaboration with NRRDS should be sought, in order not to undermine the development efforts they have undertaken so far and ensure the long-term sustainability of any initiative. q A participatory programme should be developed aimed at building the capacity of the local administration, NRRDS and the Women’s Association staff. q The humanitarian aid community should take an advocacy role in favour of protection of women and children's rights, including the dissemination of documentation on human rights abuse, support to grassroots peace-building initiatives and special protection of at risk groups.

5.2 GOS-controlled areas

q The improvement of women’s condition and position in society should be a primary concern of any future intervention in the area. Projects and programmes should be designed with the aim of alleviating women’s workload and involving women in decision-making structures as much as possible. q Income generating projects should have vulnerable female-headed households amongst their primary targets. It is important that projects analyze in detail the marketing potential of the outputs they aim to produce and the relevance and long-term sustainability of the services they want to support. Calling upon women’s traditional expertise in the agriculture and livestock sectors could be an appropriate entry strategy. q Urgent action should be taken to raise women’s awareness about the issue of FGM, since they do not seem to understand the health hazards (both physiological and mental) associated with the practice. that allow them to move within these lands without interference, hindrance or attacks on their persons. q Income generating activities should be designed to specifically target the displaced populations taking into account the lowland farms and the significant potential source of income that they constitute.

6.2 SPLM and GOS areas

q The restoration of sustainable livelihoods will require, in the medium-term, support for the introduction or expansion of a number of income generating activities. Particular attention should be given to the expansion of vegetable production, the establishment of artisan activities such as tailoring, blacksmithing and carpentry, and the selective expansion of donkey-cartage operations. q Feeder road improvement is critical if the area is to make significant progress towards recovery and revitalization of traditional economic pursuits, as well as promotion of development of non-traditional income generating activities. q There is a need and widespread receptiveness for micro-credit facilities throughout the region. Such interventions will need to be complemented with training in the use of micro-credit and basic business concepts for small enterprise development. q The region is in need of a variety of agricultural and non-agricultural extension services. q More effort is required to build and capacitate national NGOs and CBOs. In the first instance, the local chapters of the Sudanese Red Crescent in the GOS areas and NRRDS in the SPLM areas should be strengthened.

7 Logistics

7.1 SPLM-controlled areas

q Establish field bases in strategic and secure areas with two cocoon stores or one rubhall in each location. These bases should have a full range of communication equipment powered by solar cells. Provision should be made for the construction of bomb shelters. q Preposition by air minimum quantities to the capacities of cocoons and rubhall for initial trial out of identified bases. q Locate UN/INGO and/or counterpart staff in beneficiary areas to organize systems q Establish bases in areas like Talodi where there is a possibility for intervention. q Rehabilitate roads and build bridges/Irish crossings. q Preposition food and non-food items in the dry season for all on-going projects. PART B: SECTORAL REPORTS 1 HEALTH AND NUTRITION

1.1 The SPLM-controlled area

The terms of reference for the health and nutritional assessment were to establish the level of provision of health services; the morbidity and mortality patterns; the health services coverage and referral systems; the health personnel, supervision and training; the medical supplies systems; EPI functionality and coverage; and the nutritional status, including micronutrients.

A convenience sample was taken of two out of seven counties. A limited number of villages were visited based on physical ease of access and security. Mainly qualitative methods were utilized due to logistical constraints.

1.1.1 Primary Health Care Centres (PHCC)

Five Primary Health Care Centres exist in the seven counties. Only one of these approaches the definition of district health centre, with limited surgical facilities and opportunities for vaccination. This health centre is externally supported. Apart from their role of providing medical care to the immediate population, the centres are also supposed to act as referral facilities to the lower level units as well as supervising their work. One of the PHCCs acts also as a training centre for Community Health Workers (CHWs).

All other health facilities are grassroots initiatives, referred to as Primary Health Care Units (PHCUs), with minimal external support in the form of drugs and equipment through the NRRDS. The four health centres have minimal laboratory facilities, a few inpatient beds and facilities for wound and abscess treatment. Only one of the NRRDS operated facilities has a medical doctor; medical assistants or nurses lead the others. Another physician, concerned with leprosy control and organizing referral of goiter patients for surgery, spends only part of his time in the Nuba Mountains and so the Mission was unable to meet him to find out the details of his role in the health care delivery. facility is therefore the security concern rather than accessibility. On the third day of our mission, the team met about forty community members who had to walk for seven days to collect supplies for one of the health centres.

One Community Health Worker (CHW) training centre exists that trains 50 health workers yearly. This facility has changed location for security reasons three times in the last nine years. Supplies to CHWs conform to the WHO PHCU kit guidelines. Supplies are, however, based on a population estimate of 64,000 only, while our population estimate is 300,000. The supplies to the health centres are sufficient for 30,000 population. As a result, a severe shortage of drugs is evident, with large queues of patient just after supply days. Two of the PHCUs visited recorded an attendance of over 120 patients per day when drugs arrive. We did not see evidence of over-prescription. Under- treatment for scarcity reasons is common, and will result in the development of drug resistance, certainly in malaria.

Standard diagnostic and treatment protocols are available but under-utilized. Health education is undertaken only to a very limited extent - no wall charts or posters were seen - and outreach is absent. The health workers seem motivated but are often short on basic education and specific training. All of them are complete volunteers, who work a few hours a week only, and spend the rest of their time cultivating. No referral, supervision or continuing education system exists. This way of working does not allow the CHWs to gain sufficient skills and experience.

Available human resources in the area assessed were: q one doctor for 300,000 population q one nurse per 50,000 population q one medical assistant per 50,000 population q one midwife per 50,000 population q one community health worker per 5,500 population.

It should, however, be realized that none of the health staff receives any form of payment or incentive. All work between 4 and 8 hours weekly, and have to spend most of their time cultivating.

1.1.3 Training and continuing education

There is a serious shortage of trained personnel in the Nuba Mountains. In order to trainers are invited for specific topics. These include the only medical doctor based in another PHCC and the NRRDS medical coordinator. None of the teaching staff is a trained trainer.

The curriculum consists of seven units, viz.: First Aid, Therapeutics, Childhood Problems, Midwifery/Maternal and Child Health, Health Education, Environmental Health, Traditional Medicine and Nutrition. Training facilities consist of two chalkboards and a small library donated by an international organization. In 1996, the Arabic version of “Where there is no doctor” and an Arabic version of internationally accepted diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines were introduced. Both books are, however, only partly suited for the Nuba situation. All past trainees were recalled in 1996 and 1997 to be reoriented towards the use of these books. Since then, they have been used as the standard references for all trainees. A practical and written examination is given at the end. Persons failing the assessment are re-admitted for another six months training with the batch that follows. Out of 70 candidates who sat the final examination in 1998, seven failed and will, therefore, repeat the course in 1999.

The training was considered fairly innovative and relevant for the situation in Nuba Mountains. The needs identified include: q training of trainers as part of a process of making the program preventive oriented, including the use of health education and outreach q providing resource materials including books manuals and teaching aids. q development of a manual specific for the Nuba situation of near total absent possibilities for referral and a severe scarcity of people with even primary education q redesigning the course to encourage more women to enter the medical system training. Six months is considered too long and one option could be modularization of the course.

After training, there is little opportunity for continuing education. There is need to recall the trainees back for regular refresher courses during the second part of the year when the course is not running. External trainers could be used more for this purpose. The community health workers production is almost outbalancing utilization.

In PHCUs visited, there were between ten to fifteen CHW. A fresh look into production versus demand needs to be examined through NRRDS. One of the options now would be to select some of the good CHW and to give them extended training as supervisors given 1.1.4 Quality assurance

World-wide experience has shown that community health-workers, working alone without a referral, supervision and continuing education system, are hardly able to make any impact on mortality. The current health system in Nuba is almost completely dependant on these isolated health-workers, further handicapped by the fact that supplies are grossly insufficient, and that most CHWs work very much part-time. Supplies could be improved in the very short-term.

If we aim to make a real impact on the appallingly high mortality, then a quality assurance system, inclusive of referral facilities, supervision and continuing education must be put in place in the medium term. This will necessitate a number of individuals to be trained to a considerably higher level. The demands of these posts, and the investment in training, will be such that it will no longer be appropriate for these persons to work part-time and voluntarily. These really are full time jobs. The current system of provision of all services in Nuba is totally based on voluntary contribution. Great care should be taken, therefore, that the introduction of salaried staff does not undermine the voluntary system.

Particularly, a system whereby money is paid from external sources could be extremely damaging. Consideration should be given to community contributions in kind, analogous to the system currently in use for the teachers. In the medium to longer-term, local revenue collection seems inevitable in order to guarantee sustainability of the service sector. Local communities must make these decisions and unilateral decisions by well- intentioned aid providers are very likely to actually do harm.

1.1.5 Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI)

Only one payam of one county has a functional immunization service, supported by external inputs. In the whole of this county, demand for vaccination was very high. People walked for up to two days to get their children vaccinated. The catchment area is about 25.000, but coverage is still low. The program reports repeated bombardment of the solar panels necessary for the fridges for maintenance of the cold-chain. All of rest of the counties and payams have no vaccination at all.

NID for polio in 1998 did apparently reach all of Nuba but had a very limited coverage in Polio remains very visible in Nuba society. The health units report new cases of AFP on a regular basis, and the medical team personally saw multiple cases of recent polio flaccid paralysis. Stool samples could unfortunately not be collected due to logistical constraints.

The meningitis epidemics of 1997 and 1998 left many spastic paralytics in its wake. No vaccination campaign was undertaken at that time. A large measles epidemic was reported for 1995, with very high mortality. No fresh measles cases were seen on this trip, however. The society is at very high risk of a new outbreak in the near future, but no preparations have been taken to initiate a vaccination campaign.

A large epidemic of whooping cough was reported from Dilling County, but we were unable to visit this area. A smaller outbreak of whooping cough in two other counties could be confirmed by personal observation of cases. Mortality was reported as high. One facility reported a mortality of 17 out of 49.

No diagnostic facilities exist for typhoid fever and the disease was not generally recognized as a separate entity. Cholera did not seem to have occurred in the last ten years.

Tuberculosis is clearly evident, but no facilities for diagnosis and treatment exist. Neo- natal tetanus was reported by many TBAs and midwifes. This is partly caused by harmful traditional practices. Attempts are being made to address this by training of traditional birth attendants. Vaccination of the mothers with tetanus toxoid could also eradicate this problem. No active cases of tetanus were seen during this visit. One trained midwife was able to name 14 cases of neo-natal tetanus, personally seen by her since 1991. This would amount to about one percent of all deliveries. All cases had received traditional treatment of the umbilical stump with a mixture of oil and soil.

1.1.7 EPI intervention

An intervention supporting routine EPI from fixed stations (with outreach) should have the highest priority. A community supported voluntary network of primary health care units already exists and has fairly good geographical coverage. The CHWs may be under-educated, but are well motivated to receive further training. Logistics are very difficult, but a system of hand-carrying supplies, sometimes for many days, is functioning. A potential constraint is the reported specific targeting of health units in method. For maternal mortality we used the year-group method and a limited amount of the sisterhood method. Male mortality was extrapolated from our work on female- headed households and orphan status.

Clinic morbidity data showed that in children, malaria and chest infections were the most common reason for attendance, closely followed by diarrhoea. The health staff commented that this was caused by the rainy season, while in the dry season diarrhoea was the most common disease.

The health facilities of one remote area report an epidemic of whooping cough of momentous proportion. We were, however, unable to confirm this due to remoteness and security problems. In adults, malaria is the single most common disease presentation.

Remarkable was the enormous variation in attendance at PHCUs. The first month after the arrival of drugs, attendance is ten times as high as for the average. Drugs then run out, expect for dire emergency, and attendance drops dramatically.

Population data on morbidity confirmed the clinic pattern. Diarrhoea is the commonest cause of morbidity in children, malaria in adults. "Humma" is translated as malaria but means fever and most likely includes other febrile diseases as well. A recent epidemic of common cold/flue had a lot of attention of our population, but was apparently not normally relevant. Respiratory infections were consistently second or third common cause of morbidity. Remarkable was the "total body pain syndrome" that was very prevalent in adults. This syndrome is common in the conflict zones of the world, and indicative of a high level of stress. High prevalence of gonorrhea, often following rape, and the absence of sufficient treatment, was also mentioned many times.

1.1.9 Secondary infertility

Secondary infertility is a new disease in Nuba. It probably existed before but it is only being recognized as a health problem since about 1993. It was mentioned as a major problem in every discussion with women's groups, health workers and birth assistants. In villages bordering the plains up to 30 percent of the women of reproductive age reported secondary infertility.

Secondary infertility is usually a complication of untreated sexually transmitted disease (STDs). Most women with secondary infertility reported rape preceding their infertility. Virtually no treatment of STDs is available in the Nuba mountains, nor is the general population aware of the chain - rape > STD > secondary infertility - and thus the need to seek medical treatment following rape.

The prevalence of HIV is unknown. No facilities for testing exist in Nuba. Several people from Nuba have however tested HIV positive in Nairobi. The relationship between rape, STD and HIV is very close. Treatment of secondary infertility is very difficult and expensive. Prevention of further cases by prompt treatment of women following rape is, therefore, an immediate humanitarian imperative.

1.1.10 Other diseases

Oncocerciasis was not seen in Nuba, a few cases of guinea worm were reported, but all imported from South Sudan. Kala Azar was not reported, but a few imported cases of cutaneous Leishmaniasis were seen.

1.1.11 Child Mortality

No register of births and deaths exists in Nuba, nor do health facilities attempt registration. Population data were our only source, but time restraints prevented a very thorough quantitative assessment. Through cross-checking with food security data we are nevertheless reasonable confident in the reliability of our data.

Interviews with over 100 women gave a current fertility of 5.5 and a child mortality rate of 367 per 1000. Focus group work and interview with traditional birth attendants utilizing the year group method produced a total fertility between 8.8 and 9.2 and a child mortality rate between 333 and 400 per 1000.

Diarrhoea remains the major cause of child mortality overall, with malaria second and respiratory infections third. Some seasonal variation exists, and variation between highlands and lowlands. Local definitions of malaria (humma) and respiratory infections (Koha) are probably broader then the strict medical definition.

1.1.12 Adult mortality - Females of reproductive age

Over 100 females were interviewed, including many TBAs, and results were remarkably The second most common cause of mortality in females of reproductive age was murder, usually following abduction and rape. The murder rate could not be established reliably, but it was certainly higher than mortality from all other diseases combined. According to several informants, the murder rate was higher in the villages bordering the plains than the mortality associated with pregnancy. Key informants were able to name the death of either cause and point out the former residences of the deceased. Due to time constraint we were, however, unable to confirm this by cross-checking. The data on violent death is based on interviewing 103 teenagers on causes of parental mortality, plus information from other key-informants, such as birth assistants and women leaders. We did not see a single woman bearing arms.

1.1.13 Adult mortality - males of productive age

War-related trauma appeared the most common cause, with over 25 percent of adult males reportedly killed in the past ten years. We base these figures on interviews with the above mentioned 103 teenagers and other key-informants, and combined these with food security data on female headed households. We were unable to ascertain which percentage of these were civilian deaths and which military deaths. All other causes of death appeared relatively insignificant.

1.1.14 Nutrition

As stated in the section on food security, there is currently no food shortage in the Nuba Mountains. The assessment was in fact undertaken soon after the lean season. If the current rains continue, the next lean season (May- September) will pass without crisis. Food shortages will, however, be experienced if the rains stop or if the dry season offensive is accompanied by burning of granaries and looting, as has been the case in the past. The population has, however, developed an extremely large variety of coping mechanisms. The Mission could hardly find an animal that is not eaten. A number of wild roots and plants are also consumed. For practical and logistical reasons, nutritional status of under-fives was assessed by MUAC and screened clinically for anaemia and Vitamin A. Facility based data as well general population assessments and observations were made. A total of 384 children were assessed. In most locations, particularly in Nogorban, global malnutrition was almost zero. This even included a sample of sick children. In Heiban the highest global malnutrition found was 6 percent.

The book “The Last of the Nuba” shows giant Nuba warriors and wrestlers. These (i.e., height for age, weight for age and weight for height). To what extent this has developed in the last few years will always remain an unanswered question.

Six marasmic children were found admitted in the therapeutic feeding of the PHCC in Heiban. All these were below five months. The principal reason for admission was that the children had not been breast-fed or had been weaned soon after birth. Weaning practices and caring for the new-born is unique among the Nuba. Weaning practices vary but the belief that colostrum is not good for the baby is almost universal. The baby is not given milk “ when it is still yellow”. The milk is described as “sour and harmful”. This belief was even shared among some trained TBAs. Wet nursing is practised in some areas otherwise other foods including porridge, goat milk, sheep milk or just plain water are introduced very early on. Among the Shwaya tribe near Debi, the first feed given to the new-born is merrissa (a local beer).

In one group of women, only 23 percent started breast-feeding soon after birth. Thirty- five percent did not breast feed in the first ten days. The nutritional problems observed were caused by lack of knowledge and inappropriate weaning practices and infections rather that lack of food. During the mission, the team learnt of an intention by an organization to open a therapeutic feeding centre in Heiban. This is considered inappropriate for the nutrition problems identified. A more appropriate intervention would be for this program to focus on intense community education and immunization. The Nuba society appears to be quite receptive and many long-standing practices were reported to be changing. The case in point is FGM practice that was reported to be fast disappearing. An educational campaign on weaning practices through influential women, religious and community leaders should be undertaken.

1.1.15 Micronutrients

The assessment for Micronutrients included Vitamin A, Iodine deficiency and Iron deficiency anaemia. Although night blindness is recognized by some of the communities visited (remotolunge), other communities have no word in the local language. No severe forms of Vitamin A deficiency or their sequel was encountered. A survey of over 200 children found no early eye changes. It should be re-called that immunization coverage is low and a measles epidemic occurred in 1995. The risk of causing overt Vitamin A deficiency therefore exists. There is urgent need to extend the NID campaigns to the Nuba Mountains and opportunity must be taken to include Vitamin A and measles vaccine. In one of the least affected location assesses, only 41 percent of women had used salt the previous day. High goiter prevalence was reported in Kauda, Kujur shaa’rbiya, Kerindi, Kumu, Kuchama and Kaldro. The estimated prevalence of visible goiter (Grade 2 by WHO Classification) in the worst affected area of Kauda is about 30 percent. In Kujur, 47 percent of the women in our focus group discussion had grade 2 goiter.

In Nogorban, only Acheron had visible evidence of Goiter, but below 10 percent. By WHO standards, prevalence above 10 percent require urgent public health action. It should be noted here that iodine deficiency contributes to childhood mortality, low resistance to infections, still births and lows birth weight as well as poor intellectual development. Given the high child mortality and the low level of literacy, this need cannot be ignored. There is, therefore, an urgent need to introduce iodized salt as one of the items to be bartered. The mere opening up of the area for trade with other communities would solve the problem as long as the salt sold is iodized. Small quantities of rock salt were on sale of the markets visited. A special campaign with iodized oil may be considered in the high prevalence areas. This intervention must be accompanied by intense public education.

No surgical facility exits for thyroidectomy in case of very large goiters. Currently, one of the medical doctors who are not currently residing in the Nuba Mountains arranges for patients with very large goiters to go for surgery outside. Although goiter (lungova) is well recognized by all communities, they have no knowledge on its cause. Women in the focus groups attributed it to God, carrying heavy loads, ill temper etc. No community made association between lack of salt and goiter.

Worm infestation was reported to be high by health facilities although there is hardly any laboratory service. The one laboratory that had data reported worms in only two percent of stools samples. This most likely points to poor laboratory quality rather then low worm infestation rates. Anaemia was assessed clinically as the pale tongue and conjunctiva. With the high prevalence of malaria, it is difficult to ascertain the cause of pallor. In one sample of school children, 26 percent were found to be pale. As stated in the water section, there are no latrines. Indiscriminate defecation occurs inside and around rivers. Mass de-worming in schools should be considered and the starting point for a health education on latrine use is schools. In one village, even the school did not have a latrine. The few latrines visited by the team were very clean and free of smells. We considered this a sign of under-utilisation. As a long-term strategy, schools should be targeted for hygiene education. 1.1.16 Coordination and the role NRRDS

The NRRDS plays an important counterpart and coordinating role in the health sector. The health coordinator is based in one of the PHCCs and is responsible for both supervision, planning and resource allocation. The relations between the NGOs operating in the area were found to be cordial and mutually supportive. NRRDS is also well trusted by communities and leaders. For the organizations operating in the area, they have provided a mechanism of identifying community needs especially in reaching agreement on the location of facilities. NRRDS policies on community involvement are sound and these need to be supported. For organizations not operational in the area, NRRDS has been used as an implementing partner.

Given the large area to be covered, NRRDS technical and management capacity is however limited. The coordinating role of NRRDS should be strengthened to be a repository of health information and reports from all organizations operating in the health sector. All organizations wanting to work or support projects in the health sector should be briefed by NRRDS. The level of material support to NRRDS in terms of drugs is difficult to establish. This is information, which is vital for the NRRDS liaison offices located outside the Nuba Mountains to share with partners. This would encourage transparency and accountability by both partners. Logistical, communication and security problems make regular technical coordination meetings at field level impractical at the moment.

1.1.17 Recommendations

A) Strategic recommendations for the short-term: q Medical supplies should be provided through existing channels, based on the revised population estimate of 300.000 population. Provision for the transport expenses should be included q STD treatment should be included now q Vaccines should be provided from the UNICEF stores through the existing channels. The existing vaccination facility should be stimulated to initiate an EPI training program q SPLM-controlled Nuba should be included in the NID polio plus program, utilizing the NRRDS and existing logistical channels q Iodized salt should be provided, either free of charge, or at nominal cost, to the population of the Nuba mountains q Strengthen the referral system q Build capacity at NRRDS

1.2 The GOS-controlled areas

Seven villages in Dilling Province and one displaced quarter in Dilling town were visited. A detailed study of the referral facilities was also made. In Talodi, only one village was visited due to the problem of accessibility described in Part A of this report. Access to services and availability of manpower is far worse in the latter region than in Dilling. The percentage of displaced persons in Talodi is also much higher, thus making the sample on which this report is made unrepresentative of the whole Nuba Mountain region..

In order to collect comparable data, the same protocol and indicators were used in the current study.7 It was assumed that logistics would be simpler in the government areas and information required would be easily retrieved from existing records and key informants. This was not the case. It is, therefore, strongly recommended that any future assessment undertaken in Talodi Province use the protocol developed for this study.

1.2.1 Primary health care units (PHCUs)

Seventy-two primary health care units and 11 dispensaries exist in Dilling. Although these facilities are many, their functionality is low primarily due to lack of drugs and supplies. Out of six units visited, only one had adequate supplies and equipment and was thus functioning well, but it also relied heavily on the cost recovery system that is in place. Two other units in two villages were supported with some essential drugs by SCF- US. Clearly supplies were in critical shortage. The single unit visited in Talodi had no supplies although it had a quite competent staff.

1.2.2 Health centres and hospitals

There are two health centres in the province. None were visited but it should be noted here that these are inadequate in number and in their capacity to act as supervisory facilities for PHCUs. PHCUs, therefore, refer patients directly to hospitals. Two hospitals exist in the province, one of which is solely for obstetric care while the other 1.2.3 Human resources and service availability

The health coverage ratios are as follows: q One PHCU/Dispensary for 1,800 persons q One HC for 75,000 persons q One hospital for 75,000 persons q One doctor for 75,000 persons q One MA for 9,000 persons q One nurse for 8,500 persons q One HV for 21,500 persons q One AHV for 50,000 persons q One CM for 2,500 persons q One TBA for 7,000 persons

Although there is a fairly good distribution of health units, there are gross imbalances of health teams and human resources distribution. Tremendous progress has however been made in the training of community health workers (CHWs) and traditional birth attendants (TBAs). The community pays CHWs while TBAs are paid in kind by their clients. Local councils pay the other cadres, however, personnel frequently go without pay for months.

Drugs and supplies to the units are through a cost recovery system at all levels, with the exception of drugs donated by INGOs. User fees for laboratory services, x-ray and beds for inpatients are separately charged. Drugs are purchased from the Central Medical Stores through the Popular Pharmacies. These are about 25 percent cheaper than the commercial private pharmacies. Despite the low cost, it is estimated that up to 3 percent of people attending health units are unable to pay for a full cost of a prescription. The system of exemption for those who cannot pay is not clear although there were claims that people would not be refused emergency treatment. Of great concern is treatment of displaced persons in the area. There is no system for exemption of this group of people.

The two main referral facilities in the province are the two hospitals. The Mother Bakiita Maternity Hospital is jointly funded and managed by the Sudanese Government and the Roman Catholic Church. It has an Out Patient Department for all cases but the inpatient facility is only for pregnant women. The attendance is about 30 patients per-day and it the handles about 20 deliveries a month. The hospital charges for all services. The cost of delivery is Ls 14,0008 and cost of an antenatal visit is Ls 1,000. There are facilities for None of the two facilities have blood banks or HIV screening. Referrals from the furthest facility are about a day’s walk away. From these units, the next level of referral facilities is in Kadugli (130 km), Abuzabab (100 km) and El Obeid (160 km).

1.2.4 Training and continuing education

Although there is a relatively good availability of human resources, the system of continuing education is very ad-hoc. The hospital in Dilling runs a nursing school but it appears to have problems of attracting nurses to work in peripheral rural facilities. The only existing stem of continuing education is through occasional seminars and workshops supported by UNICEF, WHO, SCF-US and other external organizations. There is lack of reference material and standard treatment protocols.

SCF has trained 22 TBAs and these have contributed immensely to encouraging mothers to attend antenatal clinics for screening and receiving Tetanus Toxoid.

1.2.5 Quality assurance

The weak system of supervision and continuing education, coupled with poor and irregular remuneration, seem to contribute to the gross inefficiency of services. The Mission is convinced that the relatively low child- and maternal-mortality is likely attributable to the good outreach EPI services and resources spent on training more frontline workers. It is imperative, therefore, that these efforts on preventive and promotive services be maintained. The Mission also feels strongly that the local councils in these areas should have adequate resources to pay health care workers as long as they see value for their money. Support through providing necessary equipment and training (both technical and management) would give health personnel the credibility required.

1.2.6 EPI

WHO and UNICEF, through SCF-US, supports the EPI program. SCF had also been providing cash incentive to supervisors but the new SCF management has now abolished this practice. Federal Ministry of Health contribution is mainly provision of trainers, cold chain, infrastructure and personnel. A 1999 report on immunisation coverage indicates remarkably high coverage, in some cases over 100 percent. These are 120 percent for 92 percent in Angargo, 98 percent in Hagar Jawad, 93.5 percent in Kujuria, and 86.4 percent in Al Fanda. One hundred percent of the selected children in Hagar Jawad had received DPT, 94 percent in Kujuria and 91 percent in Al Fanda. Likewise, 92.3 percent of children in Kurgol and 97.3 percent in Ankargo had received at least two doses of OPV. Immunisation programme activities are targeting children under one year of age and children under five for polio eradication both together in one campaign, yearly from January to April.

These findings are also consistent with very high immunisation coverage of 100 percent reported in the single village of Daresalam – Um Delhaileeb in Talodi province. The very high immunisation coverage is, however, attributable to the support provided by SCF in terms of transport and incentives to EPI personnel. UNICEF provides the vaccines and WHO provides technical support through building the institutional and personnel capacities. A number of volunteers from Sudan Red Crescent are also said to be involved in immunisation. It is not likely that this coverage could be maintained without donor support and local councils commitments.

1.2.7 Immunizable diseases

In October 1995, a large measles outbreak was reported in Mohitan. Some cases were again reported in Katla in 1998. None of these villages could be visited, but the total number of cases in the two epidemics were 150 with 20 fatalities. No cases of measles have been reported this year. Nor were any cases of tetanus or polio reported by health facilities. Meningitis cases were reported during the 1998 epidemic. From report received by WHO, in May 1999 Dilling province meningitis cases were 379 with 24 deaths. No cholera, dysentery or other epidemics were reported.

1.2.8 Morbidity and mortality

For morbidity, the Mission was able to analyse monthly reports of 6 PHCUs in Dilling Province, one in Talodi, and the records for the two-referral facilities in Dilling town. The major cause of morbidity among adults, based upon hospital statistics, was malaria, ARI, trauma and diarrhoea. Among children, causes of morbidity in order of magnitude are malaria, ARI and diarrhoea. In adults, malaria is the most significant cause of death followed by diarrhoea, ARI and then trauma. Among children malaria, diarrhoea and ARI are the causes of death in order of magnitude. It is likely that diarrhoeal deaths are proportionally high due to low usage of ORS. 1.2.10 Adult mortality

The maternal mortality is around 333 per 100,000, which is on the lower side of the average for Sudan. Health personnel described maternal death as a very rare and unusual happening in the area. Even in the maternity hospital, where at risk pregnancies are referred for management, there were only two maternal deaths in the last nine months. The relatively low maternal mortality is attributable to the wide use of traditional birth attendants and relatively good screening for at risk pregnancies. In Kurgol, for instance, the medical assistant reported having only one maternal death in the last six years. When a woman is found to have cephalo pelvic disproportion, the husband is advised to have his wife admitted to hospital at 38 weeks. Severe forms of female genital mutilation (FGM), an important cause of difficult delivery, are rarely practised in this area. The practice of FGM is not in the tradition of the Nyimang tribe residing in the areas of Tundia and Nitil. However, for a while they were influenced by the wide practice in the country. Nevertheless, it almost disappeared again. Those who still practise it in the other villages visited only perform sunna Islamic circumcision.

In the villages visited, about 32 percent of women do not attend antenatal clinics at all. Despite the relatively low maternal mortality rate, institutional deliveries are very few. A trained person attends only about 30 percent of deliveries. Untrained TBAs normally attend the rest. Despite the low Tetanus Toxoid coverage in the SCF-US EPI report, it is surprising that neo-natal tetanus incidence is so low.

In the village assessed in Talodi Province, only two maternal deaths could be recalled. There were four untrained TBAs who were described by the midwife ‘to be practising illegally’.

Given the positive effect the frontline health workers have had on the promotive and preventive activities, support is recommended for strengthening supervision and further training of TBAs and CHWs. The experience of TBAs and CHWs training in Dilling region needs to be documented and replicated elsewhere in the Nuba Mountains.

1.2.11 Male mortality

Of the 134 women interviewed in the various focus groups, only 9.7 percent were widows. Of those widowed, only one (0.7 percent) had lost her husband in war. All the rest had died from disease or other natural causes. War is, therefore, a relatively minor 1.2.13 Nutrition

The assessment was undertaken at the end of the lean season. The area is, however, very fertile and a variety of crops and fruit trees are grown. The population also supplements its diet with a wide variety of wild foods and milk. The prevalence of global malnutrition by MUAC was 12 percent. Most of those classified as malnourished had diarrhoea. Breast-feeding is widely practised and most women introduce solids after four months. A supplementary feeding centre opened by SCF (US) in Kujuria village was closed as it is no more needed.

Anaemia was assessed clinically among childbearing women. Prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women was estimated at 30 percent. Despite this high prevalence, no folic acid and iron supplementation was provided at antenatal clinics. It is strongly recommended that folic acid and iron be routinely distributed free of charge at antenatal clinics and TBAs should be given these for antenatal care.

Goiter was found to be a widespread public health problem in most of the villages. Assessment was by palpation. The prevalence of palpable goiter was estimated at around 45 percent. This must be considered as a major public health problem. NGOs and health authorities in the area need to discuss with local government on ensuring that all salt coming into the area is iodized. The feasibility of using iodized oil for women should also be urgently explored with the Nutrition Unit in the Federal Ministry of Health.

1.2.14 Co-ordination of services

A number of organizations and agencies, such as MSF-France, SCF-US, UNICEF, WHO, UNDP, Sudan Red Crescent and national NGOs are involved in supporting service delivery. The health program is managed by the Chief Health Inspector under the leadership of the Director of the Rural Hospital. This arrangement is said to be working well, at least in the EPI program. Evidently, more collaboration and integration is imperative.

1.3 Recommendations

The following recommendations are made for both SPLM- and GOS-controlled areas:

To provide increased support for strengthening the supervision capacities and q An essential drug program should be instituted immediately, providing emergency drugs freely to the patients q That an intensive campaign be initiated to address the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases as an integrated part of the health service. Additional training of health workers in the treatment of rape victims is required, as is a health education campaign on the relationship between rape, STD and infertility. This recommendation applies especially to the SPLM-controlled area. 2 THE EDUCATION SECTOR

2.1 The SPLM-controlled areas

Education is one of the most seriously affected services in the SPLM-controlled areas of the Nuba Mountains. In most cases, schools ceased to operate at the beginning of the conflict in 1987. In 1996 an SPLM initiative was launched throughout the area and at the local level many schools were opened with the most rudimentary of means. Thus, with a few exceptions, the majority of schools in both Heiban and Nagorban date from 1996. The gap of nearly a decade in the provision of education has had a very serious impact on the area and has resulted in serious deficiencies at every level of the educational system.

2.1.1 Existing schools

Before the beginning of the conflict in 1987, many schools in the Nuba Mountains were housed in traditional tukuls. Others organized classes in makeshift classrooms consisting of thatched shelters to provide shade and stones for the children to sit. With an almost total absence of school activities for a decade, many of the original tukuls were abandoned and are now in ruins. Schools operate during the dry season (November to May) while agricultural activities occur during the rainy season (May to October). This does not leave any time for the maintenance of school buildings. Some schools, therefore, fall into disuse during the rainy season and have to be rebuilt at the beginning of each academic year.

2.1.2 Physical Profile of Schools

Following the 1996 initiative, many villages opened schools with hardly any of the old school tukuls remaining. New ones had to be built and many classes took place under large trees. This practice continues to be the case as new classes at new grades are established every year. As an example, in Heiban County, in the eight payams (out of ten) surveyed, there are 22 schools with a total of approximately 109 classes. Of these 109 classes, 54 are in “permanent” (i.e., tukuls) structures, 26 take place in “temporary” structures, i.e., shelters (rukubas), and 13 classes are held under a tree. initiative, have since had to closed again for reasons of insecurity. Those affected are mainly in the counties subjected to a higher levels of conflict. For example, in Heiban County, the school in the village of Zera was closed because of insecurity and one school in Kauda was also closed because of recurring aerial bombing. The Mission found numerous pieces of cluster bomb sub-munitions in the vicinity. In addition, it was alleged that the school at Tajura was burned down by GOS troops.

2.1.4 Equipment

Blackboards: The critical shortage of school equipment and stationery throughout the region continues to hinder proper schooling of children. Some materials were distributed by NRRDS to the various counties but it has not been possible to equip all schools. In Heiban County there are, for example, only about 56 blackboards available for the existing 109 classes. In Nagorban County, blackboards are very rare, at best the ratio is approximately 2-3 blackboards for 5 to 6 classrooms. The majority of schools have built makeshift blackboards in the “permanent” classrooms (tukuls), in the form of flat, vertical clay surfaces painted black with a mixture of gum arabic and charcoal. In open air classes (shelter and trees), the teachers improvise with sheets of (rare) paper and sticks planted in the ground.

Writing material: A total lack of furniture (desks, chairs, etc.) and a very severe shortage of stationery and other equipment characterize the schools throughout the area. There are on average 3 to 4 boxes of chalk per school, practically no pens and very little paper. In Nagorban County, NRRDS has been able to distribute some stationery but in insufficient quantities and the needs are growing as more classes and schools are being created.

2.1.5 Availability of teachers and headmasters

Numbers: The absence of qualified teachers is one of the most serious problems facing the educational system in the area. Teachers were selected from among the few people with any type of education that remain in the Nuba Mountains. In a very few cases, villagers in 1993-1994, faced with the closure of schools, had taken the initiative to create a schooling environment for their children and had asked young people with mostly primary, but some with secondary, education, to take responsibility for teaching the children. These schools are now the oldest operating in the area (e.g., Seraf Jamus in Nagorban and Lira West in Heiban). The teachers educated in the pre-conflict educational system have the highest level of education. Some of them have studied up to a course at the teacher-training workshop organized by NRRDS in Kauda, Heiban County.

Qualifications: Heiban County, as already mentioned, has the greater concentration of teachers with higher qualifications. The levels of education of these teachers range from Grade 2 of the old system to grade 12 (Higher Secondary School), with an average level of Grade 6. In contrast, Nagorban County has very few teachers with a level of education higher than Grade 4. In some cases, the teachers are pupils who have just completed Grade 2 and are required to teach Grade 1 class since no other people with a more advanced primary education were available. The average level of teachers in Nagorban County is Grade 2-3.

Length of service: In Heiban County, because of the existence of a number schools predating the 1996 initiative, some teachers have been in service for 4 to7 years, while in Nagorban County, where older schools are the exception, most teachers have only been in service between 1 and 3 years. Exceptionally, some of them have been teaching for 5 years.

Remuneration: As with most activities in the SPLM areas, teaching is a voluntary and unpaid profession. The teachers are often fed at school with dhurra (sorghum) collected from pupils. Teachers, like all others in the area, subsist from the land that is cultivated during the rainy season.

2.1.6 Curriculum

The school curriculum prevailing in the Nuba Mountains before the beginning of the conflict was the national Sudanese curriculum which uses the Arabic language as the medium of instruction. The conflict has put a halt to any interaction between the SPLM- and the GOS-controlled territories and this has caused the current shortage of textbooks and qualified teachers. The SPLM recently decided, in line with neighbouring countries, to use the East Africa curriculum. Some textbooks are obtained from Kenya. The educational system, however, faces a series of obstacles: q the Kenyan textbooks are very specific and contain material alien to Nuba children thus hindering their understanding q the shortage of teachers with a sufficient command of English renders the use of the East Africa curriculum impractical, if not impossible in the early stages q the presence of Arabic as a vernacular language and a lingua franca between the create writing systems for some of them and encourage the development of standard varieties10 q developing an adapted East Africa curriculum to answer the needs of the Nuba Mountains. This new curriculum, being prepared by NRRDS, will correct some of the “Kenya-centric” aspects of the East Africa curriculum which hamper learning through the injection of cultural elements of the Nuba Mountains to which children can relate q organizing teacher training courses to provide basic teaching skills to selected teachers. Three such courses have already been organized by NRRDS in Kauda.

2.1.7 School children

Nuba totals: It has not been possible to obtain total numbers of pupils currently enrolled in schools in the SPLM areas of the Nuba Mountains. Although fairly accurate in Heiban, generally, records appear to be poorly kept. Some teachers and headmasters are unable to keep of the children in their schools since there is a relatively high drop-out rate. Numbers for the region can only be extrapolated from the data for the two counties assessed.

In Heiban, the aggregate number of school children in the eight payams was 6,924 of which 2,537 were girls (36.6%) and 4,387 boys (63.4%).

Nagorban’s documented figure is a total of 5,076 total school children, roughly estimated at 60 percent male and 40 percent female, but these proportions lack realism since in some schools the number of male pupils is substantially greater to that of female pupils.

2.1.8 Attendance

Attendance rate: From discussions with the various actors, the attendance rate of children appears to be approximately 75 percent. Because the incentive to create schools and recruit teachers often come from the villagers, the need for education appears to be widely appreciated and parents do, therefore, encourage their children to attend school.

Reasons for non-attendance: A number of reasons were given for the non-attendance of school. Besides the complaint in some villages in Nagorban that children were not learning anything because of the poor level of the teachers, the main concerns were sickness, insecurity, lack of clothing, distance to school, hunger, participation in school for the higher grade classes. The reasons given for dropping-out were similar to those for non-attendance.

Reasons for dropping-out: In Heiban, insecurity ranks high in the list of reasons. This includes alleged aerial bombing, military engagements and abductions. For example, a school in Kauda was allegedly bombed in May 1999 resulting in two boys being killed and the headmaster injured. The incident resulted in a dramatic rise in the number of children dropping-out. In the payam of Shwaia-Abul, 15 children were allegedly abducted from Shwaia village in 1999, and 8 were abducted in Abul.

Marriage did not rank very high as a reason for dropping out. As it affects mainly girls a special effort to investigate gender imbalance was deployed but this showed fairly low figures. Explanations tended to point to an absence of early marriage in the Nuba Mountains, the majority of informants indicating 18-20 as the favoured ages for girls to marry.

The reasons commonly cited included, lack of school materials, lack of clothing, lack of teachers, lack of qualified teachers, the distance to school, sickness, hunger, lack of grinding mill at school (meals have to be ground at home), lack of water at school.

2.1.9 Classes

Classes and classrooms: As mentioned above (paragraph 2.1.1) there are many different types of classes, some of a more permanent nature, others in a shelter or under a tree. What all classrooms have in common is the total absence of equipment and comfort. Even in the tukul classrooms, children sit on stones arranged in rows and are crowded in a very small environment, with few or no windows for ventilation or light.

Size of classes: Most classrooms are crowded with numbers averaging 70-80 pupils, a very high figure, especially in relation to the small size of the tukul-classrooms.

Age of pupils: The gap in schooling between 1987 and 1996 has produced a variation in ages ranging from 6 to 21 for the four prevailing grades. Children and adolescents registered with a ten-year delay and often stay at school until early adulthood. This is made feasible by the lack of agricultural activities after the harvest and throughout the dry season. The average age for leaving school appears to be 15-16. pupils will pay. In both Heiban and Nagorban, when parents are not able to pay, their children can still register and attend school.

School curriculum: The new curriculum is in the process of being developed (see 2.1.6). Currently, the lack of textbooks results in total irregularity in the contents of the teaching and absence of syllabus. The teachers use whatever books are found in the county, in Arabic or English, and often their own education level presents an obstacle to the use of designated syllabus.

Adult education: Although this is a programme introduced in 1996, attendance appears irregular. In Heiban there are 15 schools offering evening classes to adults with some 205 women and 287 men between the ages of 25 and 35, and 118 women and 210 men between the ages of 35 and 50. Nagorban’s attendance appears less significant.

2.1.11 School needs

Teachers, headmasters, community leaders, parents and pupils have provided the Mission with their respective lists of needs, albeit with differences in ranking (see ANNEX VII). These needs include: training, school materials, clothing, incentives, permanent buildings, watches (for keeping time in class), security, medicines, water, transport, scholarships for higher education abroad, radios, sports equipment, training for teachers.

2.1.12 Special institutions

Teacher training school (Kauda): Although NRRDS has organized training for teachers, there is no permanent dedicated institution for teacher training. NRRDS is planning – and seeking funds for – the rehabilitation of a school in Kauda to establish a Teacher Training Institute.

School of tailoring (Limon): With the realization that the absence of clothing is one of the main problems in the SPLM area, NRRDS started a project funded by an international organization to train women and girls in tailoring. The tailoring Institute was established in Limon (Nagorban County) and two generations of students have already graduated from it.

Boarding school: In addition to the Teacher Training Institute projected in Kauda, NRRDS is also planning to create a boarding school. This would serve the seven SPLM and NRRDS to become future teachers in the Nuba Mountains. However their absence from home, life in a totally different environment, and the continuing conflict in the Nuba Mountains, will constitute serious obstacles for such repatriation. Incentives should be given to them but this could, in turn, create problems by introducing discrimination between the old and the new teachers.

2.2 GOS-controlled areas

Education is in crisis throughout Sudan and the Nuba Mountains probably best reflect the extent of this crisis. At every level the educational system needs urgent intervention lest an entire generation or generations suffer from lack of schooling. The detrimental effect on the nation needs no description. Basic education is by policy - and law - compulsory. But many people cannot afford it and therefore their children are de facto excluded.

2.2.1 Existing schools

The villages visited in the Dilling Province seem to share a common insufficiency of equipment and absence of resources. Apart from schools built in the 1960s and 1970s, which were completed at the time, most new projects for school construction seem to stand unfinished and outside of Dilling, classrooms are of the traditional style thatched huts called durdurs or tukuls. Dilling town itself seems to harbour the better schools both in terms of buildings and in quality of the services. Some of the villages in the province used to have establishments of repute but these were either closed because of the insecurity of the early years of the conflict, or felt into - at least partial - disuse because of the decline in the numbers of students.

Parents sent their children to schools in Dilling and other more protected environments (e.g., Khartoum, El Obeid) or to no schools at all. The reopening of schools after 1995- 1996 did not attract pupils back to the schools; instead the institutions had to cater for a couple of generations of entry-level children and to those whose education was interrupted for two or three years because of the insecurity. Most children at school have experience one to three years of delay in their schooling and must therefore catch up before considering further education.

2.2.2 Physical structures of schools

Schools buildings in Dilling town are brick constructions. Several schools have been in establishment/construction took place in the 1990s use makeshift shelters made of wooden poles and thatch (rakubas with flat roofs, and galunas with sloping roofs). Many of these new, makeshift schools were built especially to provide education to the newcomer children of the displaced populations that flocked into the province in the early 1990s. Hilla Guided, an area of Dilling town that has received a large number of displaced persons of various ethnic origins, including from the war torn south, has had to create two schools, at Dambra and Kanyer. The majority of the population hails from Sillier locality and they still consider themselves part of Sillara. Some of their children are apparently being sent to schools in Sillara.

The establishment and construction of new schools, which was hitherto the responsibility of central (now federal) government, has now been devolved to local government (mahalias). Without Government (federal or state) subsidies, the mahalias found themselves with no resources and both construction and equipment dwindled to a stop. The localities levied taxes from a variety of sources but have had to face a sharp drop in resources that the extra responsibilities only managed to accentuate. Secondary schools still fall within the responsibility of the State Government but they share many of the problems of the primary school system.

Sillara locality has 35 schools of which only 15 are still functioning. The southern part of the district is now under SPLM control. According to the local authorities, practically all schools closed down in 1990 and several in GOS-controlled areas still remain closed. For example, the villages of Sillara, Nitil and Ankargo, each had three schools before 1990 but only one in each village is currently open. Three schools only out of the 15 currently functioning schools in Sillara locality have been completed. Six are a mix of brick and thatch and other materials, the rest are traditional huts and shelters.

One of the 18 village clusters (a cluster is composed of between three and six villages) of Sillara locality, Tandy had schools built in the 1950s, 1960s and 1980s. Tondia Afunj and Tondia Wernye were established in 1983, Tondia Gaw in the 1950s and Tondia Koshel in the 1960s. All stopped functioning between 1991 and 1996 and were slowly started again when the population began to settle again in the village cluster. The schools are either unfinished or are in an alarming need for repairs. Nitil village has three schools established since 1964 and which used to welcome pupils from other villages. One is a secondary school (intermediate until 1992 and higher secondary under the new system) and two are primary schools. Nitil Boys School and Nitil Girls School have brick buildings, unfinished, whereas Dambra is composed of traditional Durdur thatched huts. displaced populations of the villages of Kalindi, Ato, Al Berdab, Bahasha, Al Hisaw. Other children had also come because the schools in their own villages had closed down.

The two schools have eight classes each. The boys’ school, formerly the boarding school, has six classes with timbered roofs and two with corrugated iron roofs. The girls’ school has two classrooms in a brick building, two thatched huts (durdur) and four thatched shelters (rakubas).

The village of Ankargo, in the locality of Kurgol, has one school built in 1963-1964. It has been closed for two years. It received children from the neighbouring villages of Kwannes, Faggusa, Samasim, Ras el Fil. It has eight classrooms of which four are in a “permanent” brick buildings and the others in thatched durdurs.

In the same locality, the village of Hagar Gawad also has one school for both boys and girls, established in 1976. It was closed from 1995 until recent attempts to open it again have had relative success. Out of the total of eight classrooms, only two built recently are permanent brick buildings, the other six original classrooms all being durdurs. For the reopening of the school for the year 1999-2000, as the school receives children from adjoining villages, each village will build a kurnuk (thatched shelter) and the Government will be asked to provide materials for the restoration of the permanent classrooms. The community seems determined to reopen the school even if government subsidies fail to materialize and a collection is already being planned to cover basic expenses.

Kujuriya, another village with a large displaced population, has six classrooms in an old stone building. The building has, however, deteriorated considerably with four of the classes with no roofs and only two with zinc roofs.

2.2.3 Schooling and the conflict

The beginning of the conflict, and especially the military confrontations of 1990, resulted in the evacuation of many village in the frontline. Many people fled the fighting and went to neighbouring villages or to the large towns (e.g., Dilling, Khartoum). The frontline villages were empty and the schools were closed. Upon arrival in the host villages, the displaced populations took part in building new schools or adding new classrooms to existing schools. The emergency and the lack of funds meant that most of the new constructions are traditional huts, durdurs, or shelters. Sometimes the community had to settle for trees as classrooms. the villages or towns where they had sought refuge. As a result fewer schools than before the beginning of the conflict now exist in many villages. For example, as mentioned above, the villages of Sillara, Nitil and Karku had three schools each in 1990 but only have one each at present.

Following the fighting, Government troops occupied and established military garrisons in some of the villages (e.g. Kalindi) re-taken from the SPLA. Some of the frontline villages were reportedly subjected to raids attributed to SPLA and having lost livestock and cattle the populations had decided to move out. Their return was, consequently, made possible by the military presence in their villages. These garrisons have, however, in some cases occupied the school buildings and have not handed them back to the communities upon their return. The populations had to resort to substitute classrooms.

2.2.4 Equipment

Blackboards: All schools in Dilling Province seem to suffer from the same, very serious, shortage of all school equipment. The shifting of responsibility from the Federal and State governments to the local communities have made this shortage even more acute. Blackboards are very rare in the area surveyed. Surviving blackboards are of low quality plyboard and mostly broken. Some schools have wall plates made of cement and painted black. In some cases the teachers prepared every week a number of “blackboards” with wooden frames and papers on which they wrote with felt pens and markers (when available). At Kurgol, the boys’ school had six cement blackboards for eight classes and two good commercial ones, whereas the girls’ school has two cement blackboards. The school at Ankargo has four wall plate blackboards but they are in serious need of repair and there is neither cement nor paint. Hagar Gawad school has a few cement plates also in need of repairs and at Hilla Gedida, the cement blackboards in all its eight classrooms were broken and need rehabilitation. Those in Kujuriya are in a similar state. Al Fanda school has one good blackboard for its five classrooms. In Nitil all 12 classrooms have cement plate blackboards while in Dembra all six classrooms have each a genuine wooden blackboard.

Writing material: The absence of equipment is general. Most schools have no desks, no tables, no seats for either teachers or pupils. Makeshift arrangements are provided by the community in the form of seats carved out of wooden logs and high benches used as writing tables, although this is by no means widespread. In Tondia Afunj two children’s “tables” are used as desks by the teachers. The pupils sit on the floor. Nitil school is many parents cannot afford to provide their children with the required items, especially those with many children. Children find themselves unable to participate in the work of the class because of the lack of adequate supplies. Some are sent away from school because without writing material they cannot follow the lessons and will not make any progress.

Textbooks: The price of textbooks is supposedly included in the fee paid by the pupils at the beginning of the school year. Textbooks should therefore be provided by the State to each student in each discipline studied at the various grades. This is, however, rarely the case. At best, it was reported that each class was provided with one set of textbooks for the teacher’s use. Pupils have to purchase them separately and they are not always available.

2.2.5 Availability of teachers and headmasters

Numbers: There did not seem to be a shortage of qualified teachers for the province but schools are finding difficulties to recruit, and particularly to keep teachers. For Dilling town alone there are, according to official figures, 374 teachers with a maximum of twelve teachers per school. Sillara locality boasts 102 teachers, a decrease from the previous figure of 172.

The localities have inherited from the State the responsibility of paying teachers’ salaries and the salaries of school employees. They have not been able to levy sufficient funding to honour this commitment and most teacher and school employees have not been paid for the past 12 to 28 months. This has resulted in a very serious defection of teachers who, even with the greatest commitment and dedication, have not been able to continue working without wages. Many teachers have therefore resorted to other means of making a living (farming, or even selling charcoal, etc.) and the education system has witnessed a dangerous haemorrhage. Villages have sometimes succeeded in keeping the teachers in the schools by ensuring a minimal payment in kind or cash or a combination of both, in the hope that the Government will honour its obligations. In most cases, this has resulted in excluding children whose parents cannot pay. Through these private initiatives parents have been able to keep the schools open or to reopen them after a long closure mainly due to non-payment of salaries. Coming after the closures stemming from insecurity, this latest challenge to the normal running of schools has resulted in a serious deficiency in the education of several generations of young people in the area. functioning has 14 teachers for 452 pupils. These figures produce an average of 30 to 40 pupils per teacher. There are nine teachers in Ankargo for 425 pupils (47 pupils per teacher) while Hagar Gawad has kept the seven teachers its school had in 1995 because they are all from the village. The number of pupils has dwindled from over 400 in 1995 to less than 300 currently. The school has five teachers for 243 pupils (between 40 and 50 pupils per teacher).

Gender Balance: Although not absolutely equal, men and women seem to be fairly represented in the teacher profession. Some schools have more males than female teachers but others have the opposite ratio. In the absence of accurate figures a general statement can be made that the gender balance seems to be respected. In Nitil, out of the ten teachers of the boys’ school, six are women and four are men, whereas in the girls’ school only one out of eight teachers are male. Among the nine teachers of Dambra there is only one male. Kurgol’s 14 teachers are equally divided into seven males and seven females and Ankargo’s nine teachers were originally five women and four men, but currently there is only one woman for eight men. The balance is in favour of women in Hagar Gawad with five to two men and in Kujuria with three women and two men. Fanda has four teachers all male. Kurgol’s 71 are divided into 28 males and 33 females.

Qualifications: The level of education in the Dilling Province appears rather high. Most teachers seem to have completed their secondary education and have subsequently taken a teacher training course of usually two years. Some have graduated directly from Teacher Training Institutes, and a few have university education. Dilling Province wants to introduce a minimum requirement of a university degree. Each province has a Teacher Training Institute and many teachers in the Dilling Province have studied at the Dilling Teacher Training Institute. The courses at these institutes are ten years of studies whereas the short course for Higher Secondary School graduates is three years.

Among the Kurgol area’s 71 teachers, there are 12 university graduates (from the universities of El Obeid and Dilling) some ten have had teacher training and the rest have completed secondary education (Higher Secondary School). The teachers at Ankargo included graduates from the University of Dilling and from the Dilling Teacher Training Institute, but these left after they did not receive their salaries and the current volunteers have high secondary school level. In Hagar Gawad, two of the seven teachers are graduates of the Teacher Training Institutes of El Obeid and Wad Medani, the others higher secondary school graduates. Remuneration: Teachers are not considered well paid although, to a great extent, a certain amount of the prestige enjoyed by the profession still survives. The status of teachers has declined since the 1970s and the situation is still deteriorating. Other civil servants such as health workers may have similar salaries, but the main difference is in the fringe benefits to which, in the main, teachers are not entitled. The salary scale for teachers and headmasters is Ls 54,000 to 150,000 monthly. Headmasters are chosen according to seniority based, inter alia, on a grading system comprised of 14 descending grades.

The local government’s failure to pay the salaries of teachers and school employees has resulted in a real crisis of the education system. In some cases the situation began in 1995 and many schools had to close down and remained closed for nearly four years. When it became clear to communities that no improvement was in sight, local initiatives took place at the village level and decisions were taken to open the schools again with the communities’ private contributions.

The village level initiatives, taken during consensus meetings of the communities, were always seen as provisional, stop gap measures designed to keep schools open until return to normalcy. There seems to be no doubt about teachers’ entitlements although not many people believe that the local administration will be able to pay the salaries. Expectations are rather directed towards State and Federal government.

Each initiative is independent although there is a great deal of emulation between villages. In some cases cash is paid to the teachers but the payment is mostly in kind. This varies between villages and consists usually of a combination of 1 or 2 malwas (1 malwa = 3 kg) of sorghum, different measures of sesame seeds, groundnuts, and up to Ls 50 in cash. There is a tacit understanding that these payments are only an inducement designed both to keep the schools open and the teachers fed, while the teachers’ normal salary will be paid as arrears.

School children: The total population of Dilling Province is officially 150,000 out of the 1,300,000 for South Kordofan. It has not been possible to obtain figures for school children in the State or the Province. The closure of many schools in the past five years has resulted in a very sharp drop in the number of children at school. At the same time the number of children reaching school age remains unknown particularly since these children are not being registered. Gender Balance: As with teachers, gender inequality does not seem to be significant despite recent economic constraints which tend to resuscitate the use of traditional preferential treatment for boys. Whenever the value of education is acknowledged it applies to both girls and boys. In some cases parents stated clearly that if forced to make a choice of sending only some of their children to school they would favour boys because their value for the family is superior. Girls in contrast marry and do not directly benefit their parents’ families. In other cases both men and women stressed their commitment to the education of children of both sexes and claimed that they would evenly spread the benefits of schooling between girls and boys were they to send only some of their children to school.

Figures for the villages assessed vary but reflect a certain reality in the claims for equality. In Tondia Afunj for 1998 in the three classes available, Grade 1 (20 pupils) was said to have 12 girls and 8 boys, Grade 2 (40 pupils) 25 girls and 15 boys, and Grade 3 (60) 33 girls and 27 boys.

The three schools of Nitil together registered some 600 children with approximately 200 in the boys’ school, and 180 in the girls’ school. The real figures were not available. Dambra for its part, hosted 220 children, with 120 boys and 100 girls. In Kurgol the two schools still open host 241 boys and 211 girls, whereas in Ankargo at the closure of the school the figures were 200 girls and 225 boys.

In Kujuria (243 pupils) there were 127 girls and 116 boys. At the closure of the school parents held a meeting and decided to reopen it and pay teachers from their private contributions. Many girls either orphaned or from poor families were excluded and UNICEF stepped in with an emergency programme of evening education targeting the most destitute girls. Apart from paying a salary to the teachers, UNICEF supported the two classes with supplies, clothes, stationery and textbooks. The programme was not popular with the rest of the population who accused UNICEF of discrimination, notwithstanding the disparity created by the community’s own original decision. Parents who could not afford to send their own boys to school in the first instance complained that the programme should have been directed at all the poor children irrespective of their sex.

Attendance: Closure of schools between 1990 and 1994 and since 1997-1998 has made irrelevant any attempt to compile figures of school attendance. The determination of communities to reopen their schools despite lack of Government funding and shortage of Drop-out rate: It is impossible to calculate the drop-out rate under the present circumstances, although it would not seem, generally, that the rate should be high especially given the efforts of the community to re-open the schools. Schools have however been re-opened and then closed again after a short time because of the inability of the community to raise enough resources to sustain both the teachers and the school employees during an entire academic year. Furthermore, the reasons given above with relation to attendance could be used to explain also the drop-out rate.

A variety of explanations have been given for dropping-out: q parents, on occasion, have pulled their children out of their schools to take them to different places and register them in other schools q some families have also, allegedly, had their livestock or cattle taken away by armed groups and they had to flee the area q some children used to be given at least one meal at school (when the boarding schools functioned) and this is no longer available. For those whose school is far from their village, this could constitute a reason for dropping out q boys are said to drop out more frequently than girls in order to seek employment in towns and other places q At the end of primary school, girls tend to interrupt their education to get married. The earliest age of marriage is said to be 18 years but given the disruptions encountered by most children because of school closures and security concerns, most children complete their primary education at a very late age. Marriage per se would not, consequently, be considered a reason for dropping-out. q Inability to purchase the basic school materials including stationery and textbooks; q Lack of clothing. This has often been cited as a reason for non attendance or dropping out. Although traditional Nuba society gave low priority to - modern - clothing, it is said that clothes are now part of the Nuba people’s cultural requisites. As a result, children, especially girls, who have no clothes to wear avoid embarrassment by not going to school.

2.2.6 Classes

Classes and classrooms: Many schools built in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s have permanent buildings of brick and/or stone. Some of the boarding schools had refectories and dormitories also of a solid construction. The closure of many of them for a number of years and, in particular the disappearance of the full board, have resulted in the formed with 60 new pupils and ten repeating pupils. This class of 70 pupils stood apart from the other two, one of 30 (40-10) and the other of 20. In Nitil, the smallest class in the girls’ school had 19 pupils and the largest 30 while in the boys’ school there were 23 pupils in the smallest and 50 in the largest class. In Ankargo, the average number of pupils per class is 50 - 55 with Grade 1 class reaching 70.

Age of pupils: The disruption in schooling between 1990 and 1994 and the closures of schools that have occurred since 1997-1998 because of insecurity has resulted in serious delays in children’s education. Many children and young people do not therefore complete primary school until a relatively advanced age. This means that at the time when children would in normal circumstances, complete secondary school, the children in the area often barely finish primary school.

In the locality of Sillara, the youngest children in the first year, Grade 1, are six years old and the oldest ten years old; in Grade 4, the youngest are about ten years old and the oldest is 14. At the end of primary school, at Grade 8, the youngest pupils are 14 and the oldest 17-18 years old.

2.2.7 Conditions of schooling

State of the schools: A large number of the schools established from the late 1970s or early 1980s have not been completed. Construction usually began before the beginning of the conflict and was interrupted by the insecurity created in the wake of the fighting and by the subsequent raids. As already mentioned, only eight out of the 27 schools in Dilling town have been completed. In the other ten the buildings begun in brick or stone were hastily finished with thatch. These partially finished buildings were then supplemented with thatch shelters, rakuba’s or gamalun’s. In addition, only five of the 27 schools have electricity.

School fees: The increase of the needs for schools has coincided with a shrinkage in resources that was made more acute by the devolution of the responsibility for primary education to the localities. A school fee of Ls 3,000 is payable every year by each schoolchild. The fee was designed to support the maintenance of the schools and the provision of materials to the children, including textbooks and stationery. These are, however, no longer provided and a large of parents cannot afford to purchase them. Textbooks cost Ls 8,000 - 9,000 each and in some schools they are shared by a number of pupils who use them together or in turn. Not all parents pay the school fees and schools had to close down again for lack of incentives for the teachers. Reasons for non payment are diverse. Sometimes the pledge to pay was not sustained by the harvest and despite good intentions families find themselves unable to honour their promise. On occasion disillusionment about the merits of education has caused parents to refrain from paying. This enforced system of payment has resulted in income-based discrimination that eliminates children whose parents are unable to pay for their education.

Adult education: The disruption of children’s education in the past years has made adult education seem like a luxury. Many people, however, have expressed a desire to benefit from, and requested, adult education. Women especially have equated adult education with training for income-generating activities. Examples given are a combination of general education and training in such activities as clothes-making or sewing. The late age at which many finish primary school (17-18 years old) which often fringes on adulthood may partly explain the interest.

School needs: The primary and most marked need expressed by the communities is the payment of salaries to teachers. This was repeated like a leitmotiv by all members of the communities. Secondly the need to complete the construction of unfinished schools was prominent. A long list of needs followed subjected to partial ranking. This includes the provision of food, medicines, stationery, equipment and furniture, transport, clothing, full board, teacher accommodation, textbooks.

Special institutions: Teacher Training Institutes have been created in every province and have produced many qualified teachers. Many of these, however, are abandoning the profession because of the decline of their status and especially the non payment of salaries. Active teachers are not usually properly trained. Teacher Training Institutes may consider special training for the benefit of these new volunteer teachers.

Few boarding schools remain open. These have been able to provide education to children of villages without schools, especially at the secondary level. Among the requests expressed by the communities is the re-instatement of the boarding schools and their rehabilitation.

2.3 Recommendations

2.3.1 Recommendations for the SPLM-controlled area q Equipment, furniture, stationery should be provided to the existing schools in the Nuba Mountains as a matter of urgency q Assistance should be given for the construction of schools, both in order to provide a more favourable environment in the classroom than shelters and trees, and in order to reduce the numbers of pupils per classrooms q Textbooks are a top priority. Teachers are using available printed material without any possibility of harmonizing programmes and/or monitoring progress of pupils q Teachers should be trained as a priority and trained teachers should be provided to the area; one possibility is to encourage the return to the area of Nuba children studying abroad

2.3.2 Recommendations for the GOS-controlled area

The Mission makes the following recommendations with respect to the GOS areas: q as a matter of urgency, all salaries and arrears should be paid to all teachers, headmasters and other school personnel in order to allow schools to open for the forthcoming academic year q the State or the Federal Government should reclaim its responsibility for the payment of salaries to education personnel q all school buildings should be restored, rehabilitated, or completed as a matter of urgency q military personnel occupying school buildings should vacate them and hand them back to education authorities q schools should receive all appropriate furniture and equipment necessary for the proper running of both school administration and classrooms q boarding schools should be reopened in the medium-term to enable schools, in particular secondary schools, to welcome pupils from distant villages q school fees should be abolished or reduced to affordable levels by all parents or a system of subsidies be created to allow children of all economic backgrounds to attend school q textbooks should be provided to all pupils, preferably for free or at affordable prices q local authorities should receive subsidies to allow them to distribute stationery to schools q incentives in the form of higher salaries or greater benefits should be provided to teachers in order to restore their social status and encourage them to remain in the profession 3 AGRICULTURE AND FOOD ECONOMY

3.1 SPLM-controlled areas

3.1.1 The 1999 agricultural season

The 1999 agricultural season has been characterized by a long dry spell in June and July, leading in some cases to failure of the maize crop, which is eaten green. The erratic rainfall has exacerbated the effect of two major pest and weed problems, stalk-borer and striga. Following many years of continuous cultivation of sorghum, the level of both these pests is extremely high.

Striga is a parasitic weed of cereals, particularly affecting sorghum, with lesser damage being done to maize and millet. It uses the sorghum plant as its source of water and nutrients, reducing potential yields, sometimes to zero. Stalk-borer is seen on all crops and it has a serious effect on the yield of crops already suffering from moisture stress and the effects of poor soil fertility. As a result, crop yields of the staple long-term sorghum crop will be reduced considerably, that is assuming that the rains continue as normal.

If rains are reduced during October, both the sorghum and the groundnut crop will be much smaller than usual, placing even more pressure on food supplies, especially for the 60 percent of the population who are judged to be poor or very poor. It is too early to provide final estimates of the outcome of the 1999 harvest, but there is a need for a buffer stock of food to assist the poorer half of the population over the ‘hungry gap’ period from April to July, 2000.

3.1.2 Agricultural production systems

Agriculture in the Nuba Mountains is carried out on small plots of land, some less than 0.1 ha, with a few large plots of more than one hectare. There is no formal land tenure system in operation and farmers cultivate whatever land is available to them and for which they have sufficient labour. Cultivation is done exclusively by hand labour, with no ox or camel draught now being used.

In order to understand and compare crop production within the seven counties controlled Table 1. Food production in the Nuba Mountains

County Payams experiencing food Surplus areas/payams in a deficit in a normal year normal year - West Kadugli - None - Sogholi, Katcha and Korno

- Buram - None - Kalulu, Tabanya and Farma - Delamy - None - Nyukur, Nyigil and Dherh - Western Legawa - Turshe - Tima - Nogorban - Tasbo, Limon and - Umdulu, Umjabrala and Achurun Lado - Dilling - Temin - Juludi and Wale

- Heiban - Kauda, Tira, Western - Kadhoro, Kubang, Tira and Eastern Tira Western Turu and Eastern Turu

3.1.3 Description of wealth groups prior to 1983 in Nogorban County

The Nuba population in Nagorban County have for years lived in the fertile plains surrounding the Nuba Mountains. They are traditionally agro-pastoralists. Surplus grain, tobacco and cattle were the main items of trade and exchange. The wealth groups shown in Table 2, below, reflect livelihood patterns before 1983 when the community was stable.

Baseline information on wealth ranking, marital arrangements, land and livestock holdings in Nagorban County before and after the conflict is shown in Tables 2 and Table 3 below.

3.1.4 The current situation

There have been significant changes in people's livelihood in the Nuba Mountains in the last sixteen years due to the effects of war. This has led to an estimated 80 percent reduction of livestock numbers as a result of expropriation and diseases for which no Table 2. Baseline Information on Wealth Ranking**, Marital Arrangements, Land and Livestock Holdings in Nogorban County Prior to the Conflict

Description Very Poor Poor Group Medium Better off Group Group Group % Population 6 – 14 % 22 – 30 % 18 – 30 % 35 – 45% Milking cow/s 6 – 10 10 – 20 30 – 50 50 – 100 Shoats 5 – 10 15 – 20 20 – 30 35 – 50 Cultivated land 4 – 6 feddans* 7 – 10 feddans 10 – 14 feddans 15 – 20 feddans size in the plains Harvest obtained 10 – 15 sacks 20 – 30 sacks 30 – 50 sacks 50 – 70 sacks - Sorghum 1 – 3 sacks 3 – 5 sacks 6 – 8 sacks 9 – 15 sacks - Simsim 1 – 3 sacks 4 – 6 sacks, 7 – 9 sacks, 10 – 15 sacks, - Ground nuts unshelled. unshelled. unshelled. unshelled. Chicken 5 – 8 9 – 12 13 – 20 20 – 25 Number of 1 – 2 1 – 2 2 – 3 2 - 4 wives · 1 Feddan = 0.42 Hectares. ** The system of wealth ranking of communities is a Food Economy Assessment technique developed by Save the Children Fund (UK) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

Table 3. Description of Wealth Groups in Nogorban County, 1999

Description *Very poor Poor Medium Better off group % Population 36 – 49% 25 – 35% 15 – 20% 6 – 14% Milking cow 0 0 – 1 2 – 3 4 – 10 Shoats 0 1 – 3 4 – 6 6 – 10 Land cultivated 0.25 – 0.5 0.5 – 1 feddans 1.5 - 2.5 2.5 – 3.5 feddans feddans feddans Harvest in a normal year - sorghum 4 tins – 1 sack 1 – 3 sacks 5 – 10 sacks 10 – 15 sacks - simsim 1 – 2 tins 3 – 4 tins 5 – 10 sacks 10 – 15 sacks

3.1.5 Major agricultural and food security problems in the Nuba Mountains

The following were reported as the main risks to food security in the Nuba Mountains:

Insecurity and displacement caused by the conflict: Prior to the war, the Nuba Mountains, as indicated in Table 2 above, was relatively well off, with assured food security. Now, however, the opposite is the case and should the war continue, the poor soils of the Nuba Mountains can not and will not continue to sustain such a large population in the long-term. Burning of crops in the plains by combatants is commonplace and has forced most farmers, except those well away from Government garrisons, off the fertile plains. This displacement of population into the villages of Limon, Seraf Jamus, Um-dulu and Nogorban and various villages in Heiban County has placed greater demand on wild foods and on the scarce food resources of relatives and kinship groups already living in these villages.

Absolute shortage of land: The land area of the Nuba Mountains used to provide only a small proportion of the food needs of families. Now it is expected to provide for a much larger population, without the benefit of fertilizer, improved seeds or livestock manure.

Soil erosion: Soil erosion on the slopes of the mountains is very serious due to farmers being forced to cultivate land which is too steep for sustainable agriculture. Terracing systems in use are largely ineffective as they typically cover only a small proportion of a given slope. Due to shortages of labour and the absence of any recognized land tenure system, it is highly unlikely that an effective terracing system can be put in place in the short term. In the longer-term, all the soils will be washed away by the heavy rain- storms, which are a regular occurrence in the area. Thus, the already limited land resources are being depleted by uncontrolled erosion and this will have serious environmental consequences not only for the Nuba Mountains land, but also for the plains land below.

Shortages of labour: Declining population due to the consequences of the conflict, including abductions, rape, killing, especially of male farmers, and forced migration north and south, reduces the availability of labour for crop production. Women reported incidents of abduction and rape when they go to collect water and wild foods, especially in the dry season. Many women requested the Mission to consider some means of providing grinding mills for sorghum and oil presses to supplement the camel driven oil pressing machines, one each of which are sited in Nagorban and Heiban Counties. year and these stocks were extended in 1999 by inputs of short-term sorghum and maize provided by the NRRDS.

Need for increased production of sweet potato and cassava: Sweet potato and cassava used to be produced on the plains. Farmers consider them unsuited to the mountains, but there are suitable areas on the plateau where these crops, which are much higher yielding than any cereal and which are also immune to Striga can be grown successfully.

High percentage of households headed by women: The high proportion of households headed by women at 60 per cent indicates an extreme labour shortage, given that women have the arduous and time consuming task of finding water, which can take four or more hours in any given day.

Crop pests and diseases: Monoculture of sorghum has increased the incidence of crop pests such as stalk-borer and the parasitic weed, Striga hermonthica, both of which combine to reduce potential yields of both sorghum and maize. Millet, which has greater resistance to the effect of striga, is not a favoured crop in the Nuba Mountains. Both these pests are more serious when the crop is under water stress as many are this season.

Livestock diseases: Livestock diseases especially in the beginning of the rainy-season, reduce an already depleted herd, removing sources of milk and meat. More Community Animal Health Workers are needed. Livestock are prone to diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease and no sustainable system for supplying veterinary drugs has yet been devised. Some drugs were provided through the NRRDS in 1998.

Considerable numbers of chickens were seen but Newcastle Disease is a common cause of large-scale mortality in poultry. No vaccine for this disease is available for use in the Nuba Mountains.

Eight Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) were trained during 1999 in Bahr El Ghazal and in Eastern Equatoria.

Erratic and insufficient rainfall: Insufficient or badly distributed rainfall reduces yield. In 1999, rainfall has been badly distributed in many areas, leading in some cases to outright crop loss early in the season, forcing replanting. Yields of replanted crops were also affected by long breaks in rainfall during August and September. The soils of the Nuba Mountains are coarse textured, have low, and declining organic matter content and hours each way to collect water. This reduces the time available to carry out agricultural tasks such as weeding.

Lack of extension advice: There are few extension workers in the Nuba and those who are lack up-to-date training. Only one extension worker and the Agricultural Coordinator of the Nuba Mountains area (who has been trained at a secondary school in the North).

Expropriation of livestock: It is estimated that up to 80 percent of the original cattle and goat herd have been expropriated over the past ten years and this has sharply reduced supplies of milk and other animal products.

Lack of ox draught or other mechanization: Ox-ploughing used to be very important up to the beginning of the conflict, but has now declined due to expropriation of cattle and the unsuitability of the Nuba Mountains terrain for ox ploughing. As more than 60 percent of households are headed by women, availability of labour is a major constraint to agriculture. Despite this, the quality of tillage and weed control is very high, especially for the groundnut crop. There are no tractors in use for land cultivation in the SPLM held areas.

Lack of irrigation, terracing and water harvesting systems: No irrigation is practised anywhere in the Nuba Mountains. Terracing is seen occasionally, but it is not well constructed and many terraced areas seen had no crops, due to soil exhaustion and to soil erosion.

Limited access to traditional crop and grazing lands: Prior to the war, farmers produced most of their food and grazed their cattle and collected wild food and fruits such as mangoes from the plains. Now it is impossible for most families to cultivate on the plains and even collecting wild fruits, mangoes and even water is fraught with extreme danger. The Mission was informed of many instances of killing of men, rape and abduction of women and children while they were engaged in farming or collecting food or water.

3.1.6 Food sources

Own crops: The main crop and staple food is sorghum, with long maturing varieties (Bandura and Ubala) being much more important than short maturing ones (Umzera). Sorghum and maize are planted in May/June, with groundnuts and sesame (simsim) In a normal or good year, the poor, medium and better off members of the community usually go through the year without any food deficit. The very poor wealth group receives kinship support from the rich and medium wealth groups.

With a few exceptions caused by generally favourable localized rainfall, the community in both Nagorban and Heiban is expecting a poorer harvest this year than in 1998, due to the effects of the dry spell in June, pest attack, especially of striga and stalk-borer, and the effect of inadequate and badly distributed rains. It is essential that the rains continue through October in order to provide sufficient moisture to allow the groundnut and simsim crops to complete their growth cycle.

Wild foods: The community living in Nogorban and Heiban counties of the Nuba Mountains depend heavily on wild foods during the cultivation period and before the harvest of the main crops. The wild foods include Aluk, migaa fruits, tabaldi, nominia, dhom, rimu roots, uzu, honey, lalop, apak and megum grass grains.

There is reduced access to most of the wild foods and mangoes in the plains due to women being abducted and raped as they move to collect them. The displaced, returning population, poor and very poor communities collect more wild foods in order to fill their food basket.

Trade and exchange: Even though trade plays a major role in food contribution for the Nuba people, there is minimal trade and exchange taking place in Nogorban and Heiban counties. Trade and exchange was reported to increase during and after the harvest.

The following items were observed in the markets: tobacco, a few clothes, cooked food (kisra), vegetables (cucumber, tomatoes and okra), salt, tea, grass ropes, fruits (mangoes and guavas) and some wild fruits including palms. Some sorghum grain from the surplus areas was available in only small amounts. One goat was slaughtered for meat each market day. Very small amounts of sugar, salt or soap were seen in some markets visited, but in others these items were entirely lacking.

Fish: Small amounts of mudfish are usually available in September and October when the streams are filled with water. Fishing in Nuba Mountains is traditionally a job for men. Grass baskets and sticks are used for fishing. In the past, people used to fish in Lake Abyad but it’s not possible any more due to the conflict. Fishing is no longer possible in Heiban for the same reason. the displaced, returning population, poor and very poor wealth groups during the hunger gap. The contribution is done on voluntary basis with the household determining the amount to contribute.

The estimated percentage contribution of each of the major food source to the annual average diet of the people in Nagorban is shown in Table 4 and Table 5 below.

Food aid: The Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Committee (NRRDC) reported that it provided 150 tons of food aid in 1998 and a further 80 tons in March, 1999.

Table 4. Annual food contribution for communities in Nagorban County in a normal year: Percent annual food distribution by various means for the poor and very poor wealth groups

DESCRIPTION JANUARY- MAY – AUGUST SEPT-DEC APRIL Own Crops 25.7% 4.4% 29.8% Wild Foods 4.3% 5.4% 2.4% Petty Trade and Exchange 0.5% 2.2% 1.2% Fish - - 2% Livestock Products - 0.2% - Food from Labor activities - 4.8% 2.4% Kinship support 0.5% 1.5% - TOTALS 31% 18.5% 37.8% Annual Surplus - - 4.8 Annual Deficit - 14.5 -

Table 5 reflects the situation as it has been in 1999 with a projection being made for October to December, 1999. Table 5. Annual food contribution for communities in Nogorban County in 1999: Percent annual food contribution by various means for the poor and very poor wealth groups

DESCRIPTION JANUARY- MAY – AUGUST SEPT-DEC APRIL Own Crops 20% 1% 25.7% Wild Foods 4.3% 6.4% 2.4% Petty Trade and Exchange 0.5% 1.5% 1.2% Fish - - 2% Livestock Products - 0.2% - Food from Labour activities - 3.5% 2.4% Kinship support 0.5% 1.5% - TOTALS 25.3% 14.1% 33.7% Annual Surplus - - 0.7 Annual Deficit 7.7 18.9% -

Table 6. Percent food contribution for the better off wealth groups in a normal year

DESCRIPTION JANUARY- MAY – AUGUST SEPT-DEC APRIL Own Crops 39.4% 9% 45% Wild Foods 1.65% 1.7 1.4 Petty Trade and Exchange 2.3% 9.2% 4.5% Fish - - 2.2 Livestock Products 2.8% 3.6% 1% TOTALS 46.15% 23.5% 54.5% Annual Surplus 13.15% - 21.5 Annual Deficit - 9.5% -

Table 7 below shows the current situation with a projection made for October to December 1999 Table 7. Percent annual food contribution for the better off wealth groups in 1999

DESCRIPTION JANUARY- MAY – AUGUST SEPT-DEC APRIL Own Crops 30% 9% 45% Wild Foods 1.65% 1.7 1.4 Petty Trade and Exchange 2.3% 9.2% 4.5% Fish - - 2.2 Livestock Products 2.8% 3.6% 1% TOTALS 36.75% 23.5% 49.1% Annual Surplus 3.75% - 16.1% Annual Deficit - 13.2% -

3.1.7 Household size

The community reported that over 60 percent of the households are female headed due to husbands being away from home or having died in the war. The estimated percentages and spread between small and large households is shown in Table 8 below.

Table 8. Description of Household Sizes in Nogorban County, 1999

Description Small Households Medium Large Households Households Number of 2 – 4 5 – 7 8 – 12 members % of the population 10 – 18 % 30 – 40 % 45 – 57%

3.2 Recommendations for the SPLM-controlled areas

Assuming the war will continue as before, the following recommendations are made for the improvement of food security for the people of the SPLM Nuba faction controlled areas:

3.2.1 Purchase of a buffer stock of grain. This food would be provided to the poorest families at or before land cultivation time in April 2000, to enable them to cultivate the maximum amount of land for their own subsistence.

3.2.2 Provision of seed of short-term crops.

Short season sorghum and maize varieties would be provided to 25,000 households at the rate of 5 kg of maize and 3 kg of sorghum. Introductions of Katumani Maize and Serena Sorghum by NRRDS in 1999 were popular with farmers, who appreciated these very short season varieties. Other maize and sorghum varieties, including Wadahmed, Gedam am Hammam sorghum and the very short season sorghum varieties, Arwasha and Gesheish from the North should be introduced on a trial basis. Other possible crops to be introduced on a trial basis would include soya beans, haricot beans, mung beans (green and black gram) and alternative short season varieties of groundnuts. For suitable areas of Nagorban and other counties, suitable varieties of rice should also be introduced and tested in the local environment.

3.2.3 Provision of tools and training of local blacksmiths.

The following tools should be provided for 30,000 households: q Mallodas q Sickles q Pangas Other tools, such as axes and shovels would be provided in smaller quantities.

To the extent possible, local blacksmiths would be encouraged, trained and empowered to produce mallodas and other tools to suit local preferences, with a view to providing employment and improving the local economy.

3.2.4 Provision of training for farmers and extension staff

Courses in basic agriculture should be provided for farmers and for extension staff in the Nuba Mountains areas. Other topics to be taught would include elements of agro- forestry, the use of the A-frame for terracing, processing and cooking of sweet potato, cassava, soya beans, haricot beans, mung beans, vegetables and other quick growing crops which are suitable to the Nuba Mountains environment. Training programmes for community animal health workers (CAHWs) need to be further extended. 3.2.6 Introduction of improved sweet potato and cassava varieties.

The universal presence of striga, a parasitic weed for which no effective cure exists apart from crop diversification, reduces sorghum and maize yields considerably. There is therefore a need to diversify cropping away from sorghum and maize. Sweet potato and cassava can be grown in certain areas of the plateau and short term varieties of the former, especially should be introduced as soon as possible, together with the appropriate multiplication facilities, extension advice and farmer training, both in growing the crops and in preparing and cooking them.

3.2.7 Introduction of fruit trees.

Fruit tree seedlings such as mango, papaya, guava, citrus should be provided in order to improve the local diet and to provide extra food and shade.

3.2.8 Provision of utensils

The following utensils are badly needed in the Nuba area: q cooking pots q plastic jerry cans of 15 - 20 litres capacity for water transport. q clothing

3.2.9 Food for work

Food for work to be provided to support the construction of water wells, community hospitals, roads, schools and grain stores.

3.2.10 Provision of grinding mills and oil presses.

To reduce the heavy workload of women who have to spend many hours pounding sorghum, consideration should be given to finding a sustainable means of providing grinding mills for sorghum and also small-scale oil-presses.

3.3 GOS-controlled Areas

The Mission was divided into two groups, one of which visited Dilling Province, while land close to villages and larger towns. This results directly in much lower food production than before the conflict began.

3.3.1 The 1999 agricultural season

Crops in the government held areas of the Nuba Mountains suffered from the effects of erratic rains in 1999. The rains started as usual in May but this was followed by a prolonged dry spell during June and July. Effective rains began again in August and were still continuing in mid-October. This erratic rainfall pattern resulted in reduced crop performance in parts of Talodi and Dilling Provinces, especially of the maize crop. Waterlogging of black cotton soils was common in both Talodi and Dilling Provinces.

While crops were very good in Rashad Province, in the area south of Abu Gibeiha town, the quality of crops declined markedly, due to erratic rainfall, more striga and stalk-borer and widespread insecurity. In Dilling Province, crops were generally good, but production and area planted was also affected by insecurity. It is this insecurity which prevents people from farming in the more fertile plains areas. Much productive land has been taken out of production in both Dilling and Talodi Provinces with highly adverse effects on food security.

3.3.2 Agricultural production in GOS areas of the Nuba Mountains

Agriculture in the GOS held areas of the Nuba Mountains was formerly carried out on the plains, where the main sorghum and sesame crops were grown. The male members of the family normally managed these fields. A smaller field near the house was used for growing short-term varieties of maize and sorghum, groundnuts, okra and cucumber and women usually managed this. Now, many farmers have limited access to their traditional lands and are forced to plant on land closer to home, which is, in most cases, less fertile.

In Talodi, cultivation is carried out almost exclusively by hand labour, with no ox or camel draught is currently being used. Some old and worn tractors are available in Talodi Province, but they are too few to cater for the demand. Mechanised farming is a major industry in Habeela and Dalami Local Council areas of Dilling Province, with an estimated 250,000 feddans being cultivated, of which 150,000 feddans are planted with sesame with the balance being planted with sorghum. These crops are generally good in 1999. Crops in the traditional farming areas in Dilling Province were also good, with an estimated 230,000 feddans under cultivation. The crop calendar for Dilling Province is Table 1. Baseline Information on Wealth Ranking, Land and Livestock Holdings in Dilling Province Prior to the Conflict

Description Rich Average Poor % Population 40 – 52 % 30 - 38 % 15 – 25 % Cows 200 –300 50 –100 10 – 20 Sheep and 50 – 100 30 -50 10 – 25 Goats Cultivated land 7 –9 feddans* 3.5 – 5 feddans 1.75 – 3.5 feddans area Sorghum prod 80 –100 30 - 60 10 – 20 in 90 kg sacks 1 Feddan = 0.42 Hectares.

The current situation with regard to wealth ranking of farmers in various villages visited by the Mission in Southern, Western and Eastern Dilling is shown in Table 2. Between 5 and 10 percent of the population, which includes all the rich group, cultivate 60 - 80 feddans using tractors.

Table 2. Current Population Ranking of Farmers in Dilling

Description Rich Average Poor Percentage of 13 –20 30 – 35 45 –55 Population Feddans of Land 3.5 - 5 1 – 3.5 0.9 – 1 75 Cultivated Cows owned 3 –7 4 – 8 None Sheep and Goats 10 – 20 2 –7 None

The average farm size and estimated production per farm of the villages visited in Dilling is shown in Table 3 below.

Table 3. Average Farm Size and Estimated Crop Yields in Villages Visited in Southern Dilling

Crop Average Area Cultivated Estimated Yield per It is estimated that 62 percent of annual food requirements in southern Dilling Province is home produced, with 24 percent coming from trading and labour, 2.6 percent from wild foods, leaving an overall deficit of 11.5 percent, as shown in Table 4 below.

Table 4. Estimated Annual Contributions of Various Food Sources to the Diet of Average to Poor Families in Dilling Province

Source of Food January to May June to October to September December Own production 36% 5.4% 20.5% Trade and 10% 8% 6% Exchange Wild Foods 0.3% 2.3% Nil Livestock Products Nil Nil Nil (milk and meat) Totals 46.3% 15.7% 26.5%

3.3.3 Food production

Own crops: Long season and short season indigenous varieties of sorghum provide the staple food. Maize is only eaten green from late August to early October. Sesame, groundnuts, cowpea and various vegetables, including pumpkin, tomato, cucumber, okra are also important. Millet is grown on a limited scale.

Sweet potato is grown in small areas around some houses. It is quite expensive in the market at 1,000 - 1,500 per kg. This pattern was repeated in SPLM areas. No cassava was seen, but it could easily be grown on areas not subject to waterlogging.

Millet is grown more widely on the plains in the Kologi area than in SPLM held areas and it has a higher market value than sorghum. Maize is eaten green, as in Nuba areas controlled by SPLM.

Wild foods: Wild foods are important to people living in GOS areas, especially those that lack sufficient land to cultivate. Due to the conflict, access to wild foods is now reduced, thereby increasing food insecurity. It is estimated that wild foods provide 2.6 percent of the diet of people in southern Dilling Province. Various leafy wild vegetables are eaten during the wet season. Leaves of various tree species are eaten during the late firewood, thatching grass and poles, making charcoal and making and selling palm leaf products including mats and ropes are important activities.

There is relatively easy access to markets in GOS areas, but banditry was reported to be common in Dilling Province. As a result of insecurity, transport services are scarce. Use of bicycles is more widespread in GOS areas but their use is still limited. Markets were much better supplied than in the SPLM areas, with salt, soap and other necessities in greater supply, though the effective demand is not much higher here.

The poor road system, which, as the Mission to Talodi Province learned, is impassable in the wet season from June to late November. This has resulted in the effective closure of the major trade routes and has been a contributing factor in reducing market prices for sorghum to levels well below the cost of production.

Fish: No fish was available in Dilling. The Mission observed some mudfish in Kalogi and very small-scale fishing was being done along seasonal riverbanks. Mudfish are caught when rivers recede in October and November.

Livestock Products: Meat is consumed mainly during ceremonial occasions such as burials or weddings. Livestock is traded especially in the dry season in order to purchase grain. However, livestock numbers have declined substantially due to expropriation and milk is in short supply.

Kinship: There are well organized kinship support systems in the GOS areas of the Nuba Mountains, but people are progressively .becoming poorer as a result of the continuing conflict. This support mechanism is therefore becoming less important than it used to be.

Food Aid: Food aid is sometimes provided through the Agricultural Bank of Sudan to needy families. In 1999, WFP provided, through SCF-US, food aid to 24,000 people in Dilling Province, with a further 35,000 people in Rashad and Talodi Provinces receiving half the standard WFP ration from April to July. Further allocations of WFP food were distributed by the Sudanese Red Crescent in Kadugli area.

3.3.4 Coping Strategies.

Coping strategies in the rainy season include consumption of wild leafy vegetables and impoverished all wealth groups, there is little surplus for people to share. Hunting is not practised in Dilling Province due to insecurity.

3.3.5 Major agricultural and food security problems in the GOS-controlled areas

Insecurity and displacement caused by the conflict: The Mission found that the problems confronting agricultural production and food security are uncannily similar in both GOS and SPLM controlled areas. But for the conflict, these areas could easily be self- sufficient, given the large areas of highly fertile black cotton and other soils and the large areas of good grazing land available.

Shortage of land for cultivation: As a result of insecurity, farmers have been forced off the more fertile plains land onto less fertile soils around the villages and towns, where land is scarce and without fertilizers, effectively unable to produce high-yielding crops. In Dilling, there is no land available for the thousands of displaced people living in the Town Council area. Similar problems of access to land are also seen in the other major towns.

The land tenure systems in GOS areas do not allow for people who have lost their farms to move to better and more secure areas. Land is not owned by the farmer but by the village and though there is ample land in secure areas around Rashad and north of Abu Gibeiha, farmers who were displaced there from Talodi in recent years reported that they could not get access to it.

Soil erosion: Although soil erosion is less serious on the plains areas than in the mountains, unchecked tree felling for firewood and charcoal is having a serious effect on the stability of soils. Seasonal rivers were seen to be cutting away at the deep soils along their banks, with roads being undermined to a depth of up to six metres in some areas seen by the Mission. The dangerous and harmful flash floods in these rivers are themselves an indicator of the serious denudation that has already occurred on the mountains.

Shortages of labour: As in the SPLM areas, there were a disproportionate number of female-headed households in the GOS areas. Given that women have to collect water, grind sorghum and carry out all the other duties of running a household, time to cultivate and weed crops is in short supply. In addition, many men and women go to Khartoum and to other cities such as Kosti in search of employment, returning home to cultivate at the last minute. Cultivation is cursory under these circumstances and the areas under Extreme poverty: The need of poor people to work for others on larger farms and in other employment reduces the area that an individual family can cultivate themselves and so perpetuates poverty and food insecurity.

Shortage of improved seeds: Shortages of improved seed were reported in Talodi and Dilling. The Mission was requested to provide seed of quick maturing varieties of maize and sorghum so that farmers can take better advantage of irregular rainfall. Seed of other crops such as quick maturing beans, cowpeas and other crops suited to the Nuba Mountains environment and which are unaffected by striga are also needed.

Need for increased production of sweet potato and cassava: Sweet potato is produced in small quantities around houses and some good samples were seen in the markets in Kologi and Abu Gibeiha. No cassava was seen in Talodi Province but it too could be grown on land that is not subject to periodic flooding.

Crop pests and diseases: Monoculture of sorghum has increased the incidence of crop pests such as stalk-borer and the parasitic weed, Striga hermonthica, both of which combine to reduce potential yields of both sorghum and maize. Millet, which has greater resistance to the effect of striga, is grown in Talodi, but to a much lesser extent than sorghum.

Various beetles, grasshoppers and termites are also serious pests of crops.

Further north, in Abu Gibeiha and Rashad Provinces, where there is more land available and where crops can be rotated, striga, though present, is not a major problem. No pesticides are available in either area.

Livestock diseases and expropriation of livestock: Farmers consulted in Kologi said there was a lack of trained paravets to treat animals. Livestock are being stolen in both GOS areas and in SPLM areas, depriving farmers of supplies of milk, meat and wealth. Most livestock are reported to be taken in the dry season, especially from around watering points. This loss of livestock is clearly seen in Tables 1, 2 and 3 above. Armed nomadic groups and bandits are taking advantage of the anarchic situation created by the conflict to steal livestock.

As in the SPLM-controlled areas, farmers in the GOS areas also complained of expropriation of their livestock over the past few years. It is estimated that up to 80 per Lack of tractors: Shortage of hand-tools is not as acute in the GOS areas as in the SPLM areas and no requests for hand-tools were made to the Mission. Non-availability of tractors to cultivate land is a major problem in Dilling Province and reduces the area of land cultivated each year. Tractors are in short supply in Talodi and those seen by the Mission, including those used to pull its vehicles from flooded roadsides, were old and almost worn out.

Lack of extension advice: Extension services are virtually non-existent and many farmers complained of the lack of extension advice.

Lack of ox draught: As in the SPLM areas, ox-ploughing used to be very important up to the beginning of the conflict, but has now declined, due to expropriation of cattle and the unavailability of ox-ploughs.

Lack of Credit: Farmers in Dilling Province lack credit to finance tractor ploughing and the other investments needed for adequate crop production. Lack of credit is a major problem for farmers in GOS areas and this is exacerbated by the lowest prices in the country for sorghum, which was on sale in Dilling market for Ls. 15,000 per 90 kg sack, in Abu Gebeiha market for Ls 12,000 per 90 kg sack (approximately US$ 55 per ton) and as low as Ls 8,000 per sack in Kologi (US$ 36.50 per ton). This is well below the cost of production, conservatively estimated at about Ls 20,000 per sack and is the result of poor road infrastructure. Poverty prevents people from buying sufficient sorghum for their needs, despite these low prices.

3.4 Recommendations for GOS-controlled areas

Assuming the war will continue as before, the following recommendations are made for the improvement of food security for the people of the GOS controlled areas:

3.4.1 Purchase of a buffer stock of grain for provision of food aid and food-for-work.

The purchase of a buffer stock of grain is recommended in order not only to provide food for people in deficit areas, but also to provide an economic incentive to farmers in the surplus areas to produce more food. Prices are very low at present and the proposed purchase would remove some 1998 grain from the market. This food would be provided to the poorest families at or before land cultivation time in May 2000, to enable them to cultivate the maximum amount of land for their own subsistence. Inputs of food aid need to be monitored carefully to ensure proper distribution and to take account of changing circumstances. Wherever feasible, food should be provided as food-for-work, in order to support the rehabilitation and construction of water wells, reservoirs (hafirs), health centres, feeder roads, schools and grain stores, as appropriate, to benefit the community, to reduce the food gap, and avoid the creation of a dependency culture.

3.4.2 Provision of seed of short-term crop.

Short season sorghum and maize varieties would be provided to 25,000 households at the rate of 5 kg of maize and 3 kg of sorghum. Short season sorghum varieties such as Arwasha, Wadahmed and Gesheish and medium-term varieties such as Gedam and Hammam should be purchased and provided to farmers if possible on a sustainable, revolving loan basis. Other possible crops to be introduced on a trial basis would include soya beans, haricot beans, mung beans (green and black gram) and alternative, short season improved varieties of sesame and groundnuts.

3.4.3 Improvement of agricultural credit facilities

Lack of credit is a major constraint on agricultural production, especially for financing of tractor ploughing services, which are provided efficiently and economically by commercial contractors. Sustainable credit systems need to be devised to address this problem.

3.4.4 Provision of training for farmers, extension and livestock staff

Courses in basic agriculture should be provided for farmers and for extension staff in GOS areas of the Nuba Mountains. Other topics to be taught would include elements of agro-forestry, crop rotations, agronomy, processing and cooking of sweet potato, cassava, soya beans, haricot beans, mung beans, vegetables and other quick growing crops which are suitable to the Nuba Mountains environment. Training of paravets needs to be accelerated.

3.4.5 Introduction of improved sweet potato and cassava varieties 3.4.6 Promotion of fruit production

Fruit tree seedlings such as mango, papaya, guava, citrus should be provided, together with practical advice on fruit tree management, in order to improve the local diet and to provide extra food and income earning opportunities.

3.4.7 Training of local blacksmiths

Local blacksmiths should be encouraged, trained and empowered to produce hand tools to suit local preferences, with a view to providing employment and improving the local economy.

3.4.8 Provision of seed dressings and improvement of plant protection facilities

Farmers reported that soil pests and insects devour their seed before it can germinate. In addition, common seed borne diseases such as Loose or Covered Smut can be prevented by the use of recommended seed dressing. It is therefore recommended that a sustainable system of providing seed dressings to farmers be devised and implemented. Plant protection facilities, at first based on cultural methods of control, need to be established and this will require a much improved and well-trained extension service.

3.4.9 Animal herd restocking

To strengthen agro-pastoral livelihoods in the area, support to livestock restocking is strongly recommended. Future projects can build on the experience of SCF-US which is currently carrying out goat restocking activities in the area. 4 Water and Environmental Sanitation

Background: The United Nations Humanitarian Assessment Mission that visited the SPLM areas of the Nuba Mountains in June 19-24, 1999, (the end of the dry season) found water to be the top priority expressed by the population and the authorities. Poor hygiene and sanitation compounded the acute water problem.

The terms of reference for the UN and INGO technical staff participating in the follow-up missions to the SPLM held areas (September 15–29, 1999) and the GOS held areas (October 7–12, 1999) of the Nuba Mountains include the following requirements: q Inventory of water sources and related infrastructure q Identification of livestock watering sources q Determining the number of functioning and non-functioning sources q Identification of populations served by functioning sources, average walking distances to sources and conditions, etc. q Determining the perenniality or periodicity of sources q Investigating water quality q Investigating alternative water sources q Determining problems of non-functioning water sources q Identification of responsible body for operation and maintenance q Identification of source of operation and maintenance funds and spare parts q Sanitation status. Identification of existence of and number of households with latrines, alternative excreta and solid waste disposal methods q Home and personal hygiene – water storage for drinking, cooking and washing q Identification of common illnesses with a view to determining whether they are waterborne/related or filth related or both q Assessment of staff capacity/manpower and equipment needed to improve the water and environmental sanitation (WES) situation q Community involvement and participation / inputs

Methodology: The mission split into two teams with a water and environmental sanitation (WES) specialist in each team. In the SPLM-controlled areas, one team visited Heiban County and the other Nogorban County. In the GOS-controlled areas, one team visited Dilling Province and the other Talodi Province. A full list of villages visited is given in the annex on WES data at the end of the report. There are currently no roads in use, hygiene practices and health. This was followed by visits to water sources and a limited number of households to verify and expand on the information obtained in the focus group discussion. Finally, a second focus group discussion was held; this time with senior men in the community. In some cases, conversations with individuals or small groups of two or three were substituted for focus group discussions where it proved impossible to arrange a focus group. All the villages listed were visited except Shawaya and Sarafnila in Heiban County. Lack of time prevented the team from visiting these two villages but men and women leaders from both villages met with the team in Kujur.

Summary data: summary data on the WES assessment are tabulated in ANNEX V.

4.1 SPLM-controlled areas

Valleys and lowland areas that are readily accessible from the plains during the dry season are relatively insecure. Villages in these locations are not inhabited although community infrastructure such as market places, water points, churches, mosques, and schools continue to function, and people continue to farm their land in the valleys and lowland. Houses have been relocated on the hillsides which are less prone to ground attack. In Heiban, nearly all the villages visited were of this type. In Nogorban, a mix of villages was visited with upland villages having the traditional arrangement of community structures interspersed with households.

4.1.1 Water sources

Most of the available aquifers in the Nuba Mountains are shallow, unconfined and underlain by rock. This limits the quantity of groundwater in many places. The larger/wider valleys have greater depths of sand and sediments and therefore wells in these valleys are more likely to be perennial and have greater yields. Availability of groundwater is less acute in lowland areas and the plains.

There is an extensive network of streams and rivers in the Nuba Mountains but the watersheds feeding them are relatively small and largely denuded of trees. Typically, rainfall and runoff during the wet season is intense and of short duration. The streams and rivers flow for several hours and then dry up but the beds of streams and rivers and the underlying strata are the most important sources of water for the population. Water is abstracted from holes dug in the bed or shallow wells dug alongside the river or stream. 4.1.2 Water collection

Women and girls are responsible for the collection of water for domestic use, men and boys for watering livestock. Men are responsible for well construction. Focus group discussions with men suggest that their priority is to maintain rather than improve current water supplies, which require women to devote very high levels of time and effort to collecting water. It is common for women to take five hours for one trip to collect water in the dry season. Girls may have to drop out of school to fulfil their water collection duties. The clay pots traditionally used to carry water weigh about 3 kg and when full, contain about 12 litres of water, making a total weight of 15 kg. The trip to collect water very often includes a steep climb and one of the main health concerns expressed by women was back and chest pain when carrying heavy loads. Watering livestock in the dry season requires herders to use water sources prone to ground attack, risking loss of livestock and their own lives.

4.1.3 Wells and boreholes

NRRDS has obtained three Vonder rigs and assembled and trained a drilling team under the supervision of a hydrogeologist. Two dry holes (7m and 16m deep) had been aborted at the time of the visit because they hit hard rock or a boulder; a third had found water at 12m and a total depth of 20m was planned. All three holes had encountered rock or boulders, and five out of the six augers supplied with the three rigs for hard material had been damaged. Previous experience of hand drilling in similar upland areas suggests that the success rate for hand drilling may be modest. Siting near existing productive groundwater sources may improve the success rate. Hand-drilled boreholes require handpumps and NRRDS have obtained three India Mk II handpumps. These will need to be maintained and a source of spare parts is required.

4.1.4 Hygiene

The level of hygiene education and understanding of the faecal-oral route is low. The land adjacent to streams appears to be a favourite place for defecation despite the fact that streambeds are an important water source. This was confirmed by observation and in focus groups with women. When women were asked about when they wash their hands, few mentioned “after defecation” or “after cleaning an infant’s bottom”. The incidence of diarrhoea is significant and may well play a role in the high levels of child mortality reported. The characteristic swollen bellies of children with high worm loads were 4.1.5 Latrines

Household latrines were constructed in some villages before the war but no household latrines were seen during the assessment mission. People have a variety of reasons for the lack of household latrines: q the hillsides contain too many stones to construct pits q the level of insecurity acts as a disincentive to invest time in constructing latrines q latrines are perceived as something needed by institutions such as schools or used by officials q there is plenty of space for open defecation. Even if women are aware of the benefits of latrines, men are responsible for construction and need to be convinced of their utility. One women’s leader agreed that they needed latrines but said that construction was man’s work and she would not raise the issue with men.

4.1.6 Reservoirs

There are some good potential locations to construct small dams and storage reservoirs.

4.2 Recommendations for SPLM-controlled areas

Emphasis should be placed on the construction of improved hand-dug wells rather than boreholes in the short-term. There is more potential for dealing with boulders and weathered rock in a hand-dug well than a hand-drilled borehole although the Vonder rig trials should continue and be expanded with careful siting. Motorized drilling has been ruled out in the short-term for reasons of access and logistics including the problems of maintaining adequate supplies of consumables, spare parts and materials. Improved wells should have adequate storage in the dry season, brick lining, protective headworks and drainage. Wells should be located adjacent to rivers and streams to make use of known aquifers and bank infiltration. Fired bricks have and can be produced locally but cement for mortar would need to be imported. De-watering pumps may also be needed to achieve sufficient storage by facilitating excavation below the water table. It must be noted that it is impossible to provide satisfactory access to safe water supplies when people are forced by insecurity to live on mountains and hillsides, far above the perennial water sources. The potential for rainwater harvesting for domestic water supply and small gravity dams with storage reservoirs for watering livestock should be investigated.

4.3 GOS-controlled areas

Findings on the GOS-controlled areas are based exclusively on the assessment of the Dilling area.

Since the late 1970’s, there has been a significant intervention in the area of water supply in the GOS-controlled areas of South Kordofan State through the provision of over one thousand boreholes equipped with India Mk2 hand-pumps. The major organizations currently involved are the WES Units set up by GOS with assistance from UNICEF, CARE International, Save the Children Fund-US, African Muslim Aid (AMA), and Fellowship African Relief (FAR).

4.3.1 Water sources

The State can be divided into two main hydrogeological areas, namely, a) the deep and rich aquifer in the central and eastern part of the State with an average depth of 70m and yields of about 600 l/min, and b) the shallow and poor aquifer in the western part of the state with an average depth of 40m and yields of 60 l/min.

4.3.2 Hand-pumps

Most of the water sources are hand-pump-equipped boreholes that provide water throughout the year and are within 500m of most households. There are water committees in most villages composed of both men and women as well as trained hand- pump mechanics.

4.3.3 Water costs

There are no water tariffs for hand-pumps but there are tariffs for water yards (boreholes with diesel driven pumps and overhead tanks). The water yards are reserved for watering livestock and the tariff varies from Ls 50-500 (US$ 0.02 – 0.20) per animal per day. In some villages that charged a tariff at the high end of the range, livestock keepers resorted to other sources and the water yards have been closed. In the limited time available, the Some communities do not consider water to be a problem at the moment because they still have a few hand-pumps operating. With the current level of disrepair and poor maintenance, however, it is just a matter of time before water availability becomes critical.

4.3.5 Hygiene

The level of personal hygiene seems high with reported soap consumption of up to 45 pieces per month per family.

4.3.6 Latrines

There are few latrines in the area. The level of understanding of the faecal-oral route of disease transmission is low. Streams, the banks of streams, and behind bushes are the preferred places for defecation.

Despite the poor knowledge of disease transmission and the indiscriminate defecation, diarrhoea was not reported in some villages. This may be due to the fact that the primary source of drinking water for all the communities surveyed was pollution-free groundwater.

4.4 Recommendations for GOS-controlled areas

A participatory programme of hygiene promotion is essential to help people figure out the dangers of poor hygiene, prioritize behaviour changes including construction and use of latrines, and understand the value of hand-pumps that provide safe and convenient water supplies.

Community water committees need training so that they are able to: q plan and implement operation and maintenance of the hand-pumps within the community; q set and collect user fees to cover the costs of operation, maintenance and repair; q identify sources of spare parts, preferably in the private sector, and know the appropriate price to pay; q obtain assistance from a local mechanic or the WES Unit for major repairs and rehabilitation; and Identify the need and seek resources for additional sources for domestic water supply livestock. 5 GENDER AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS

5.1 SPLM-controlled areas

5.1.1 Civil Administration

Traditional forms of leadership based on ethnic affiliation have been disrupted as a result of the war. In Heiban County, the five main ethnic groups (Atoro, Tira, Lira, Abul, and Shwaia) used to be represented in a Council that last met in 1985. Today the seven counties have a new form of Civil Administration organised at three levels: boma, payam and county. Each boma (village) has a committee composed of 12 members (in Heiban, 5 women and 7 men), with a chairwoman and a chairman (in Nagorban the village Council consists of 11 members). The villagers elect the members of the committee and their chairpersons every three years. In Heiban County, for example, there are 65 bomas.

At the payam level, 20 members (in Heiban, 15 men and 5 women) constitute the committee. The committee has a male and female head elected every three years. The County Committee has 42 members (in Heiban, only 9 are women) which is headed by the County Chief and the County District Officer (DO). Both the County Committee and the County Chief are elected every three years, while Commander Kuwa appoints the DO. Representatives from all the County Committees take part in the Congress, an advisory council that meets every five years.

5.1.2 The Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Society (NRRDS)

The civil administration interacts very closely with the civil society which in Heiban and Nagorban Counties has many significant actors. The most prominent of all is the Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Society, a local NGO based in Gidel (Heiban County), which has a representation office in Nairobi where the Executive Director is based, and one in London, where the Chairman of the Board of Trustees sits.

NRRDS was set up in 1995 with the aim of collecting financial support from donors and NGOs abroad in order to fund local initiatives and undertake service-oriented projects in the area. Some of the activities carried out so far include basic health care provision; Most of them derive their livelihoods from their own farming land or livestock. Training for NRRDS workers is organised locally, particularly in community development methodology and development management. Because of the precarious security situation in the area, NRRDS leaders are not continuously based in one location but have to move between different counties. Collaboration with NRRDS is imperative for any future form of intervention in the area, in order not to undermine their development efforts to date and ensure to long-term sustainability of any initiative.

5.1.3 Religious organisations

Both Muslim and Christian religious organisations play an important role in the civil society. They assist destitute households (both Muslim and Christian) with relief items and special consideration is given to families affected by the conflict. Food and non-food relief is provided by Muslim organisations, e.g., the New Sudan Muslim Council. Different Christian confessions are represented, ranging from Catholic to Protestant and Evangelical. Both non-Nuba and Nuba missionary priests live in the area and support community development projects, particularly in the area of education and small income generating activities. It is important to underline that Christian and Muslim communities, as well as animist, live together in harmony.

Women and men of different confessions work together on the nafir (community farms), in the civil administration structures, and in organisations like NRRDS. Religious tolerance appears to be absolute. It is not uncommon to see Muslim believers praying by the entrance of a Christian Church while a choir of young people is rehearsing Sunday hymns inside. This respect for different confessions is reflected in the choice of public holidays for schools and health centres - where Christians are the majority, Sunday is a full day holiday while Friday is half day and vice-versa in those community where there is a prevalence of Muslims. Both sides have reported on several occasions that their places of worship, mosques and churches, have been looted and burned during GOS ground offensives, particularly in 1995 and 1996.

5.1.4 The Women’s Association

The Women’s Association is an important element in the Nuba society. The Association is represented at boma, payam and county level. The women in all the seven counties elect their leaders every three years. The Association works very closely with the Civil Administration and meets with them when the need arises. The leaders of six of the and the installation of a grinding mill. The Association also assists female headed households in dire straits and is very active in advocating for women’s rights and gender equality before the local authorities.

All members of the community in both the counties visited provide their services for free, whether this is within the structure of NRRDS, religious organisations, INGOs, women’s groups or civil administration. Teachers, doctors, nurses, and TBAs all work without remuneration, although incentives in kind (particularly dhurra) are occasionally offered by the community members who benefit from their services. It is important that this spirit of community co-operation is not disrupted in case of a humanitarian or development intervention, as it constitutes the backbone of the Nuba self-help.

5.1.5 Progress towards gender equality: the bridewealth payment reform

As mentioned above, the Women’s Association is an important actor in the Nuba society and it has had a pivotal role in advocating for gender equality. In both counties the women met spoke vociferously about progress made in this respect under the SPLM administration, particularly since 1996. Important changes promoted by the new administration concern regulation of bridewealth payment, appointment of women leaders working in parallel with men, and strict prohibition of any form of FGM.

Until the new reform was introduced in 1996, men had to pay very expensive bridewealth, which ranged from 6 cows and 2 goats for the Shwaia to 6 cows and 40 goats for the Atoro and 12 cows and 5 goats or rams for the Tira. Men were entitled to have the entire bridewealth returned if they decided to divorce their wives. Even if part of it had been spent on household items, women were obliged to return all the livestock heads. If the couple had children, they would also follow the father. With the inception of the war, it became more and more difficult to pay such a big brideprice, reportedly because the number of cattle in the area had decreased enormously because of continuous looting by combatants and other armed persons.

Women increasingly complained to the community leaders because of the very high divorce rate and the difficulty to find men that could afford to pay the traditional bridewealth. In 1996 the SPLM judiciary legislated that the bridewealth could not exceed 2 cows and 2 goats for any of the different ethnic groups in the area they controlled. In case of divorce, the husband is now only entitled to half of the bridewealth (i.e., 1 cow, 1 goat) or, if he wants the children to follow him, nothing at all. and control over resources drawn with women and men in Gidel showed that decision making is shared by the two parties in almost every instance. Both sides underlined that this is a recent change resulting from the new SPLM gender policy and the fact that women are increasingly called to look after the household by themselves when their husbands are engaged in the fighting or have to abandon the area for security reasons.

5.1.6 Women’s community role

The role of women has not only improved at the household level compared to the past. Significant changes at the community level can also be observed. Women are now represented in all levels of the Civil Administration and all bumas and payams (at least in Heiban county) have a female as well as a male head. However, a Venn diagram drawn with the women in Kaoda showed that the role of women community leaders still needs to be strengthened vis-à-vis men in the society, as their decision-making power is still subordinate to that of men. According to the women met, though, SPLM leaders are very proactive in raising community awareness about gender equality and women’s rights.

5.1.7 The outlawing of FGM

A positive step taken by SPLM leaders towards the promotion of women’s rights has undoubtedly been the prohibition of FGM practices in the area they control since 1996. FGM, particularly pharaonic infibulation, used to be quite widespread among the Muslim community of Tira (Heiban County). Christian and animist women in the same community were also submitted to the operation when severely sick, since infibulation was perceived to be a powerful treatment in case of disease. The operation was usually performed in very poor hygienic conditions, using Acacia thorns to sew excised women’s labia together. Interviews with women and local TBAs (both trained and untrained) in Tira West have confirmed that the practice has come to an end since it has been outlawed by SPLM. Severe punishments are meted out for those who infringe the prohibition. In the remaining communities of Heiban County and everywhere in Nagorban, FGM practices were evoked with repulsion and the impression was that even in the past they were rare.

5.1.8 The negative impact of conflict on women’s lives

Rape: During the two weeks spent in the SPLM-controlled areas, the Mission repeatedly heard reports of rape. The Mission was struck by the openness with which women spoke cultivating their farms near the 'frontline' on the plains. The Mission has been provided with names, locations and dates of documented rape which has happened since the beginning of the year in two villages near the 'frontline'. In both counties, Mission members met many women who talked of their own rape, or the rape of their friends and daughters. The information was triangulated with community leaders, community development workers and religious leaders in the locations near the 'frontline' where rape seems to occur with worrying regularity. Many women now refuse to go to the farms or to the water points (although necessity demands that they continue the latter practice), and this has obvious negative impact on the livelihood security of the household. Asked whether it was possible for the husband to take over women’s tasks like water fetching or cultivation, their reply in different community was unanimous: “Men get killed if caught, we only get raped”.

Rape seems to have been perpetrated against women ever since the beginning of the conflict. The women reported less cases of rape by SPLA military since these were alleged to be sporadic. It was reported that the SPLM leadership has taken a very strong stand against rape after community leaders denounced this in 1996 and those responsible were severely punished.

Abductions: In several locations, women and community leaders also mentioned that abduction of women and children are a major problem in the villages near the 'frontline'. In a couple of occasions in Heiban County, the Mission was provided with names, locations and dates of alleged abductions. Abductions of women and children were also reported in Nagorban County especially in the villages at the foot of the mountains that are sometimes raided by combatants and other armed groups. They also seem to occur when women and children are ambushed while fetching water or collecting wild fruit.

These abductions were alleged to happen in the following ways: q Shanabla and armed Arab militias are said to regularly raid the lowland plains and abduct women and children as well as take cattle and goats. The families of the abducted people subsequently have no information on the whereabouts of the victims q Soldiers allegedly often ambush women at water points and very frequently rape them and leave them for dead. Relatives or community members have found the women in many cases. In other cases, the soldiers are said to take the women with them to their garrisons. Unless they escape, the whereabouts of these women are usually not known abuse, support to grassroots peace-building initiatives and special protection of at risk groups.

A historical summary of the region visited is provided at the end of this section using the example of one of the villages assessed by the Mission.

5.2 GOS-controlled Areas

5.2.1 Civil administration

Three levels of administration exist in the GOS areas: village (qaria), local council (mahallia) and province (muhafaza). At the village level, the main body is the Salvation Committee, which is elected by local villagers. This co-exists with traditional forms of leadership based on ethnic affiliation. At the local council level, the governing body is an elected assembly, which meets on a regular basis for planning and policy formulation. Plans are then implemented by an executive body of civil servants accountable to the council. At the provincial level, the Commissioner co-ordinates between the different local councils and facilitates relations with the State Government.

5.2.2 Humanitarian aid and development organisations

Humanitarian assistance is provided to the local population by different UN agencies and local and international NGOs. UNICEF and UNDP have sub-offices in the area, while WFP operates through counterparts that distribute food aid on their behalf. Amongst the INGOs, Save the Children-US, CARE International, Médecins Sans Frontières, FAR (Fellowship for African Relief) and DED (German Development Service) are operational in the area. Some local NGOs are also present: Islamic Dawa, Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), El Bir International and the Sudanese Red Crescent. UN and NGO interventions range from emergency relief and food distribution to rehabilitation activities such as water, health, environmental sanitation, income generation, etc., as well as community development and promotion of gender equality.

5.2.3 Religion

In the areas visited during the assessment, Islam is the most widespread religion. However, Christian and animist communities also live in the area under the jurisdiction levels of society, particularly within Arab groups. During focus meetings, Arab women complained openly about the very limited decision making-power they hold within the household and at the community level. Women feel frustrated because in most cases they are not allowed to administer household resources and cannot decide about their children’s upbringing. Particularly with regard to education, many women feel that boys are given priority in the family, especially if the children want to go beyond primary school. The picture is somewhat different within communities of Nuba origin, where women seem to be more assertive and speak their mind with relative freedom. At the household level, many women are able to exercise influence since families are very often female headed.

At the community level, some women emphasised that, although they are represented in both the Village Salvation Committees and the Local Councils, they find it difficult to speak up in front of the men, who retain the power to make the ultimate decisions. As a result, their concerns are very rarely given priority when it comes to allocation of resources or formulation of policies. Women’s concerns include the need for grinding mills or water pumps that could alleviate women’s excessive workload in some locations. Such needs are not perceived as a priority by the men in the Salvation Committees, who, according to the women, tend to invest community resources in agricultural implements or vetinerary drugs.

The improvement of women’s condition and position in society should be a primary concern of any future intervention in the area. Projects and programmes should be designed with the aim of alleviating women’s workload and involving women in decision-making structures as much as possible. Some of the organisations working with women in the area still limit their support to the traditional package that has been in use in the Sudan for many decades now, i.e., training of women and support to the production of spaghetti and biscuits, handicrafts, soap, tailoring, etc. The items produced usually have little marketing potential and consequently have the ultimate undesirable result of only further burdening women. In addition, such activities send out the wrong signal about women’s potential to engage in any sector of the economic and social life of the community, as they are mainly restricted to a few traditional home-based productive or reproductive activities. It is imperative that future programmes look out for alternatives to help raise women’s profile in society. Calling upon women’s traditional expertise in the agriculture and livestock sectors could be an appropriate entry point for more profitable income generating projects. of clitoridectomy (tahara sunna) are now reported amongst the Niyang, particularly in town. Other tribes like the Ghofan that have always been performed clitoridectomy on their women continue the practice up until today.

Although pharaonic infibulation is officially outlawed, there is confusion over whether the prohibition extends to the sunna form. The general feeling is that both forms are tolerated by the local authorities and no strong effort is made to enforce the law. There is an urgent need to raise women’s awareness about the issue, since they do not seem to understand the health hazards (both physiological and mental) associated with the practice. In one Arab community in particular, when women were asked about some of the most common symptoms related to infibulation (in particular, difficulty and burning while passing water and extreme pain and fainting during the menstrual cycle), they attributed the problems to the poor quality of the food they eat!

5.2.6 The negative impact of the conflict on women’s lives

Several women spoke about the trauma caused by the military confrontations in 1991-92. During that time houses were looted and burnt down and many women lost their husbands in the killings. Although such episodes have not repeated since then, women still experience problems when going to collect water or firewood or going to the farm or to the market. Because of the continuing insecurity in the area, they have to be accompanied by armed men, who risk being killed if caught in an ambush. Many men seem to have died in such incidents over the years and as a result the number of women headed household is reported to have substantially increased.

When ambushed, women are usually deprived of their clothes and robbed of any other belongings. Such deeds are allegedly committed by armed elements of the SPLM. In all locations women were asked by the Mission about the incidence of rape, whether directly experienced or witnessed or reported by others. However, women indicated that rape was not a problem in the area and could only recall two cases that allegedly took place at the beginning of the 1990s, for which they hold SPLA soldiers responsible. It can be concluded that rape as a consequence of the conflict does not seem to be a major problem in the GOS area. However, women forcefully resent robberies by armed and uniformed persons and feel extremely vulnerable when they move outside the villages.

5.3 Recommendations q A participatory programme should be developed aimed at building the capacity of the local administration, NRRDS and the Women’s Association staff. q The humanitarian aid community should take an advocacy role in favour of the protection of women and children rights, including dissemination of documentation of human rights abuse, support to grassroots peace-building initiatives and special protection of at risk groups.

5.3.2 Recommendations for GOS-controlled areas

q The improvement of women’s condition and position in society should be a primary concern of any future intervention in the area. Projects and programmes should be designed with the aim of alleviating women’s workload and involving women in decision-making structures as much as possible. q Income generating projects should have vulnerable female-headed households amongst their primary targets. It is important that projects analyze in detail the marketing potential of the outputs they aim to produce and the relevance and long-term sustainability of the services they want to support. Calling upon women’s traditional expertise in the agriculture and livestock sectors could be an appropriate entry strategy. q Urgent action should be taken to raise women’s awareness about the issue of FGM, since they do not seem to understand the health hazards (both physiological and mental) associated with the practice. KAODA VILLAGE HISTORY

1900-1930 People live in the mountains, allegedly to protect themselves from Arab slave traders.

1931 British Christian mission established, including a school and a hospital. Only élite children attend school. Beginning of conversion to Christianity in Kaoda area.

1945 (approx.) Postal service established (Umm Ruaba through Kalogi). It stopped in 1965.

1956 Severe drought. People have to resort to distress coping strategies, e.g. eating roots, groundnut shells or wild fruits.

1957 Attempts to cultivate cotton in Kaoda and El Kuk areas. Cultivation stopped at the end of the 1970s following changes in government policies.

1963 First mosque built in the village. First conversions to Islam in Kaoda area.

1967 Severe drought. People are forced to sell cattle to buy dhurra from outside markets.

1970 Private investor dug wells for own and community consumption. Villagers start to cultivate land further afield from Kaoda because they feel it is more fertile (e.g. Deira, El Kuk and Khor ad-Dileb). Today this land is under GOS control. mid-1970s Land used by Kaoda villagers is seized by the government and redistributed to Arab merchants because the Nuba are unable to pay taxes to secure tenure.

1981 The Heiban Ethnic Council meets under the auspices of Bishop Mubarak Khams. All the five Heiban ethnic groups are represented (Atoro, Tira, Lira, Abul, Shwaia). Following one of the Council’s initiatives, Kaoda villagers contribute together with other communities to the building of the hospital in Heiban (2 ½ hours walk from Kaoda). The hospital is today in GOS controlled areas.

1982-85 Severe drought. Many people and livestock die. The community has to resort to coping strategies and receives food relief in 1984. The drought is remembered with the name “Reagan” by the villagers in Kaoda, after the U.S. President who authorized the delivery of white sorghum from his own country.

1989 The conflict breaks out in Kaoda when SPLA soldiers reach the village. Arab dwellers leave the area, abandoning their possessions.

1994 GOS forces re-occupy Kaoda for four days. According to the local community, several villages 6 REHABILITATION AND RECOVERY OF LIVELIHOODS

6.1 The SPLM-controlled areas

6.1.1 Livelihood system under stress and recommended rehabilitation strategy

In formulating the livelihood rehabilitation strategy to follow in the SPLM-controlled areas of the Nuba Mountain, it would be appropriate to build on the existing asset base of the Nuba people’s livelihood system. From participatory ranking exercises with women’s and mixed groups in Heiban and Nagorban counties it emerged that the main livelihood sources for people in the SPLM-controlled areas are derived from agriculture (particularly cultivation of sorghum, cowpeas, groundnuts and sesame) and to a lesser extent livestock-keeping. Manufacturing of mats (birish) and beds (angareb) was also mentioned as a source of income/barter.

The availability and ranking of livelihood sources seem to have changed since the inception of the conflict. Most cattle were said to have been looted over the years and access to other natural assets such as land, water and fisheries has been significantly reduced by the conflict. Changes have also been forced upon people’s land use patterns. They now have to cultivate on the slopes of the mountains without any terracing system because of shortage of labour and absence of recognized land tenure. Consequently, the process of soil degradation and erosion has been dramatically accelerated. As a result of these factors, the security of the livelihood system of the people living in the Nuba Mountains is constantly being eroded and people’s capacity to cope with and recover from shocks and stresses is noticeably diminishing.

In order to make Nuba livelihoods less vulnerable to external pressures and strengthen people’s self-reliance in the long term, it is important to provide support to promote more economically efficient and ecologically sound ways of using existing assets, particularly crops and livestock. Specific recommendations for action can be found in the agricultural chapter of this report.

It must be emphasized that the foundation for any rehabilitative intervention in the SPLM-controlled area should be based on the considerable stock of human and social capital that exists amongst the Nuba people in the area. It was striking to observe how adhere to a comprehensive participatory framework that takes into account and respects existing structures and dynamics.

Although technical skills exist, it has to be recognized that they are very basic. Teachers often have a very low level of education (some headmasters have only completed grade 2 of primary school!) and so do paramedics and paravets. Rarely do community leaders have knowledge of administrational or management practices. There is a strong need to contribute to the skills development of local cadres through a comprehensive capacity building programme. Some international organizations are already active in the area sponsoring training courses for teachers, providing on-the-job training for paramedics and supporting training of female and male leaders in community development through NRRDS. In addition, training abroad is provided by some international organization to women leaders from the area in the field of gender equality and advancement of women.

It is to be recommended that support be given to strengthen these existing efforts by increasing the number and improving the quality of the training courses offered to teachers, paramedics and paravets. Leadership training (including basic management and administration skills, community development methodologies, etc.) should also be provided as a priority to key members of the Civil Administration and leaders of the Women’s Association at different levels as well as to NRRDS community development workers.

The rehabilitation process at this stage must include provision of materials resources aimed at renovating infrastructure and allowing them to function properly (e.g. building material, schoolbooks, human and vetinerary drugs, etc.). Specific recommendations for each of the sectors targeted during the assessments can be found in the relevant chapters.

6.1.2 The IDPs in SPLM areas

Like the rest of Sudan, the Nuba Mountains have been the scene of much internal displacement because of the conflict, hunger, and conflict-induced hunger. The SPLA concentrated troops in the Nuba Mountains in 1987 and began organising raids against a number of Government garrisons in 1988. The following year saw an escalation of the fighting and the area under the control of SPLM became isolated from the rest of the country. The arrival of Government forces caused a major disruption in Nuba people’s lives and a large of number of those who lived in the plains abandoned their farms and their homes to seek shelter in the mountainous areas. Since a majority of Nuba before the counties are. Numbers of displaced people from both within and outside the county are not accurate but the County administration has been able to supply estimates. Only four payams out the county’s six are affected by displacement. They are the payams of: q Nagorban estimated 300 persons q Tura estimated 100 persons - Masakin tribe from Buram County q Seraf Jamus estimated 25 households q Limon estimated 27-28 households - Tira in Heiban County

The administration in Buram payam still considers the displaced living in Nagorban as inhabitants of Buram payam.

The estimates of the displaced from the plains to the mountains are: q Nagorban payam 600 households q Um Dullu payam 800 q Limon 150 q Seraf Jamus 200 q Tangal 300 q Tura 250

These numbers could not be verified. Most of the people concerned left the plains for the mountain during a Government offensive during 1996-97. From Heiban there have been several arrivals including an important one in 1995 due to a food gap and the occurrence of hunger. In 1994, a Government offensive drove people out of their homes in Buram and they sought refuge in Nagorban. Several famines or incidents of hunger have made many people to leave the mountains again to join the areas under the control of Government garrisons where food was available. Some went to large cities such as Khartoum, Kadugli, Al Obeid and Port Sudan. In 1998, residents of Nagorban County experiencing hunger left for Buram. The people affected are mostly the former inhabitants of the plain. Some left their families in Buram and came back to cultivate their farms in Nagorban.

Framework of integration of the displaced: The displaced were welcomed and given a place in the villages where they arrived. Some joined their relatives, others took possession of ancestral homes and land long since abandoned for the more fertile lowland. The County and payam administrations set up committees to deal with the emergency. They organized food and lodging and allocated or helped allocate land. The Nuba system of land tenure combined with solidarity with the victims allowed a smooth This pattern has permitted Nuba society to deal with the emergency in an orderly manner and to make efficient use of the available resources. The displaced that had left the plain during the major military offensive launched against the Nuba Mountains in 1997 went through a difficult period in the first few weeks. In Um Dullu payam the fleeing populations sought refuge at the foot of the mountain for a period of three months. Shortages of food and water, inability to find land to cultivate, are said to have made some to leave and join the Government garrisons and others to climb into the mountain where they lived in caves for nearly a year. They eventually built houses and villages named after those they had abandoned in the plain.

Strain on resources: Before the war the majority of the people of the region lived in the plain. The plain dwellers who in large numbers who flocked into the hills running away from the fighting had an immediate impact on land, food and water resources. Of the 68 households who lived in Um Dullu before the military operations, 60 went to live in Um Jabralla. The land, which, in the mountains, is barely sufficient to sustain the livelihoods of the few who were living there, suddenly had to be shared. Farmers found themselves having to live with only a portion of their normal production. The likelihood of a food gap that often occurred between March-April and October, increased. Water resources were used by a larger number of people became insufficient. In Um Jabralla the thirteen existing wells, filled during the rain season, had hitherto enough water to last until March. With the arrival of the displaced, they were dry by January. Water had to be fetched from Gigeba or Kurchu, several hours walk from there. The strain also manifested itself in 1998 by a significant food shortage but famine was avoided.

Ranking of the displaced: Those who have left the plain did not all settle on the hilltops. Some joined villages at the foot of the mountain or in valleys that link the plain to the mountains like coves. This is the case in Dabker, Gegeba. The valleys are as fertile as the plain but protected by the mountain. The villages are usually built on the slopes that are rocky and less fertile and offer more protection. In an informal ranking of the condition of the displaced informants put those of Limon as the poorest and most destitute, followed closely by those of Seraf Jamus and Tira. The reasons given were the poor quality of the soil and the scarcity of the land with an abundance of rocky expanses. The displaced that settled in Dabker are said to enjoy the best conditions. The people from the Sabori tribe in the Kadugli area, settled mainly in Kurchu, are not considered displaced because they have been living there for over a decade and thought to be integrated. They, however, expressed forcefully their desire to return to their original area and complained about the treatment they had received in Kurchu. Hunger has also led many people, especially women, to return to their former farmland in the plain in search of mangoes or wild fruit. In a number of cases these women were reportedly ambushed, beaten up and raped by what they identified as elements of the Government armed forces both regular and auxiliary. It is said that hunger has on occasion made people risk their life, freedom, and physical integrity in the hope of finding food in their former property. These reports, combine with the stories of brutal beatings, killings and rape, which allegedly occurred in the wake of the 1997 military confrontation in the region, suggest a life of high insecurity for the displaced people who remain near the plains.

Displaced children: The arrival of the displaced people from other counties and the plain has also added to the strain on the educational system. Schools, which were started in 1996, had to cope with the sudden arrival of new children. New classes were established, often in shelters or under large trees but new teachers had to be found and equipment improvised. Apart from inflated numbers, the newcomers on the whole, did not constitute a serious threat to the provision of education since the existing conditions were very basic.

6.1.3 Recommendations for IDPs

The displaced people settled in other counties and in the mountainous areas of the same county will benefit from all interventions targeted at the areas where they are now settled and all sectoral recommendations will therefore apply to them;

The blockade of the areas under SPLM control have entailed unnecessary hardship and violations of physical and moral integrity of the civilian populations and is in breach of international humanitarian principles. As a matter of urgency, all displaced people should be allowed free access to their land in the plain and should be permitted to move in their land without interference, hindrance and, above all, attacks on their persons.

Income generating activities should be developed for the displaced populations, taking into account the lowland farms and the sizeable source of income that they constitute.

There is a need to establish a package for re-integration assistance for people wishing to spontaneously return to their former places of residence.

6.2 The GOS Areas 6.2.1 Prevailing conditions

The Province of Dilling is estimated as having a population of around 150,000 people. It has experienced much migration as a consequence of the war and has been a destination for IDPs displaced from neighbouring regions. These are located in some 66 Peace Villages, as well as in four settlements on the periphery of Dilling town. Two of the Peace Villages (Kujuria and Hajar Gewad) and one IDP quarter in Dilling (Hilla Gedida) were included in the assessment.

The province is largely under the control of the GOS, albeit part of the western and south-western mountains are under SPLM control and there exists a de-facto no-mans land between the western mountains and the Kadugli-Dilling road where insecurity prevents local populations from reclaiming and cultivating their land. The balance of the province appears calm and peaceful. The oil pipeline has increased the military presence in the province, which may have added to the overall improved security. There is a relatively high degree of ethnic harmony throughout the province.

Many of the IDPs that previously sought refuge outside the province in such places as Khartoum, the Gezira, or elsewhere, are gradually returning. Some 4,000 have allegedly returned to Dilling town in recent months and another 6,000 are expected to return. Others have returned to the Peace Villages where some basic resettlement assistance may be provided or are returning to their original villages if these are secure.

As with the rest of the Nuba Mountains, and indeed, much of rural Sudan, the province has witnessed the quality of its social services diminish markedly in recent years, aggravated in some places by the added demand placed upon these by IDPs. Likewise, communications are poor, with an almost total lack of all-season feeder roads. The province’s lifeline is the Kadugli to El Obeid road, but even this has deteriorated and the once-tarred surface is now reduced to a severely pot-holed unusable surface that results in most vehicles using the adjacent clay or sandy areas. Adequate water is also a problem throughout most of the province. On the other hand, the province is potentially capable of providing sustainable agricultural livelihoods, including agricultural surpluses for shipment to other parts of the country.

Given the limited capacities and resources of local authorities, the reliance on NGOs remains high, especially for providing inputs and services to the rural communities. The Clearly there is much scope for heightened NGO involvement and especially for building capacities of local NGOs since these have yet to feature significantly in region. Indeed, one of the real needs in the province is for the development and capacitation of community based organizations that can begin to address the longer-term rehabilitation and recovery needs of the region at grass-roots levels.

6.2.2 Sources of income before 1990

Dilling province was essentially self-sustaining in terms of its agricultural economy before the war interrupted the livelihoods of much of the population. The region has fertile clay soils and in most years rainfall was adequate for cultivating both subsistence and some cash crops. All households had livestock, which apart from meeting normal subsistence needs and supplementing incomes, provided farmers with an important livelihood safety-net for those years when rains were inadequate.

As was detailed in Section 3 of these sectoral reports, the agricultural economy of the region was based upon basic crop mix of sorghum, simsim, groundnuts and lubia, supplemented by cotton, millet, maize, okra, kerkade, tomatoes and other vegetables depending on location and soil characteristics. However, there does not appear to have been any irrigation, even at small-scales, i.e., all farming was rainfed. Farm sizes ranged from five feddans upwards, plus kitchen-gardens around the homestead. Respondents interviewed during the assessment almost unanimously agreed that their basic needs, including school fees and health care costs were met from the produce of their farms.

The relatively extensive farm areas could be cultivated because farmers had access to tractors. In most cases, farm income permitted farmers to hire commercial tractors for field preparation.

In addition to farm income, in many areas gum-arabic (hashab) was an important supplement to their incomes. However, there appeared to have been limited other means of diversification in income generation, such as handicrafts or trading, albeit some such activities did take place on a small scale (i.e., there was relatively limited experience among the population in other income generating activities).

6.2.3 Disruptions to local economies by the conflict

The conflict in the region saw a large-scale abandonment of villages, lands and mountains to the west. In contrast, the lands to the east of the Kadugli-Dilling Road are of poorer quality, being mainly sandy or less fertile due to degradation from recent extensive use without recourse to fertilizers.

The regions food security is discussed in Section 3 of this report, and it is clear that almost all households produce less food than is required, with many households producing less than 20 percent of their annual needs. Food relief comes nowhere close to filling this gap. Consequently, income must be generated to meet the food needs, both from non-food agricultural produce and from other non-agricultural activities. It is, therefore, essential that the capacities of communities to increase their incomes in order to meet both their food needs and other non-food needs, including school fees and health care costs, be vigorously pursued as part of the international community’s rehabilitation and recovery strategy for the Nuba Mountains.

It should be noted that the mission was unable to assess the Habeela and Delami areas in eastern Dilling Province because of impassable ‘roads’. This is an area of extensive mechanized farming with much additional agricultural potential. A number of the Peace villages have been located in this region. Consequently it would be useful for a short- term assessment livelihood mission to visit this area after the rains, possibly mounted out of UNDP’s field office in Kadugli.

In addition, the war has dismantled the population’s traditional safety net – its livestock herds. Almost all of the livestock in the villages assessed by the Mission had been lost, both through alleged raids by the SPLA, as well as, ostensibly, through rustling by Arab militias that have ventured into the region and taken advantage of the insecure situation. Estimates provided to the Mission of current remaining herd sizes ranged from zero (very common) to 20 percent of previous herd size (very occasional).

Hashab collection has all but ceased in the region since the gum-arabic trees are all located in the insecure areas. Hence, populations have been deprived of a once-important source of income supplementation.

6.2.4 Returnees and IDPs

Dilling continues to host a large IDP population, some of which have been displaced within the province and others have come for elsewhere in the Nuba Mountains or beyond. In addition, there has been a considerable return migration11 of IDPs that had The Mission was unable to obtain any verifiable numbers for IDPs and hence none are cited here. In rural areas, it may not be too relevant to attempt to discern IDPs from local villagers since their respective needs are virtually identical and to distinguish between them and local villagers for the purpose of providing assistance is to be discouraged since it would create unnecessary tensions. On the other hand, IDPs in Dilling town do require special attention due to the appalling conditions under which they live and the very limited access to any form of assistance that they have had to date.

One of the four IDP quarters (Hilla Gedida) on the periphery of Dilling town was assessed by the mission12 and, judging by the documents received the following day from representatives of two of the other quarters, it would appear that this settlement was representative of the local IDPs. Hilla Gedida is alleged to have 11,000 IDPs from all over the Nuba Mountains and including some Arab tribesmen and Southerners. The settlement is situated on the western periphery of the town, some three to four kilometres from the town centre. All live in tukuls, which, at the time of the assessment, had been damaged by the heavy rains of the previous days.

Apart from their small homestead-land (normally about a quarter to half a feddan), they have no access to land, albeit a few cultivate land leased from local landowners. Poverty is acute and very visible. Access to basic services is also limited, if not non-existent. The primary message gained during the assessment is that the community has received no assistance to date and desperately needs some basic relief inputs, such as food, blankets, clothe, plastic sheeting and mosquito nets. Their other concerns included: q that they survive on whatever meagre income they can derive in town q that they have inadequate shelters, especially in the rainy season (very evident to the Mission) q that they are fearful that if assistance is provided through the authorities it is unlikely that it will reach the needy q that their children have not had access to any education since 1991 q that they have no access to local health services since they have no money to pay q that they need to be assisted to obtain access to income generating activities

On the positive side, despite being a very ethnically mixed community, there appeared to be a relatively high level of harmony within the community. Moreover, there was a strong expression from the youth that they want access to work, including any food-for- work programmes. between the two groups. Consequently, any programming form these areas should avoid any targeting of IDP for inputs into these communities.

6.2.5 Current sources of income from agricultural pursuits

In all the rural communities assessed by the mission, it is clear that the extent to which livelihoods depend upon agricultural outputs is well below that prevailing before the war. While the same mix of crops is generally cultivated, the areas under production are very much reduced from what was previously cultivated. This is not so much due to lack of land, albeit for the IDPs there does exist some restrictions on land tenure, rather it is a result of a combination of lack of inputs and perceived insecurity on much of their former lands.

Whereas before the war many cultivated in excess of five feddans, now few are able to cultivate more than one, or at most two feddans. The principal concern is lack of access to tractors for ploughing. Many of the respondents indicated that they cannot cultivate more land since they are limited to hand cultivation. The traditional practice of hiring tractors for field preparation has all but come to a stop. The merchants have moved their tractors out of the region and there remain only a few and largely antiquated tractors that are unable to provide any extensive services. Moreover, few farmers have the resources to pay for such services even if they were available.

Ox-ploughing was not widely practised in this part of the Nuba Mountains (as distinct from some of the areas assessed in the SPLM areas). One reason is that the clay soils are too heavy. However, given that many farmers are now farming on lighter soils since the clay areas are insecure, there would be scope for promoting some ox-ploughing until such time when it again becomes economic for merchants to bring tractors to the region. The utilization of bullocks could increase the area cultivated by five to six times that cultivated by hand. The predominant request made to the Mission when discussing expansion of agricultural income was for assistance in providing tractors. This, however, remains an unrealistic and unsustainable option for the time being.

The primary cash crops currently produced are simsim, groundnuts, pulses and various vegetables. The latter three are also used for household consumption.

A major problem in expanding the income opportunities from agricultural pursuits is that of access to market on the one hand, and lack of credit to increase inputs on the other However, expanding vegetable cultivation as an income-generating activity has four constrains that need to be addressed, namely: q improved ability to readily access the main markets. The villages that were assessed were generally within two to four hours walk from Dilling and half that time if bicycles were used. Some villages are up to seven hours walk from Dilling and would thus require enhanced transport facilities if they were to access the market q improved knowledge of vegetable growing is required as is a heightened understanding of basic business/trading concepts q expanded access to water if vegetable marketing is to be more than a seasonal economic activity. As mentioned earlier, there is no irrigation in the region yet small-scale garden irrigation is a possibility, especially if many of the dysfunctional hand-pumps were to be repaired. A medium-term option may be to strategically place some boreholes for irrigating vegetables q improved access to seeds needs to be improved.

Fruit is noticeably limited in the region. Yet the scope for increasing fruit production is considerable. Virtually no fruit was seen in Dilling market during the assessment. Earlier attempts by an NGO to introduce tree seedlings (mainly mango) were well received and the concept should be further explored. Fruit will provide both a source of income and enhance household nutrition.

Respondents in all the assessed villages pointed to the urgent need to rehabilitate their livestock economy. In the first instance such rehabilitation should focus on goats rather than cattle. Livestock rehabilitation must be seen as both a source of income as well as increasing the coping capacity and security of households for lean agricultural seasons. Reference was made in several villages to an earlier scheme introduced by SCF in the region that rotated breeding animals among households. This should be re-introduced. Also, this is an area where micro-credit can play an invaluable role.

Poultry production for both meat and eggs is a possibility if it were accompanied by appropriate vetinerary services. However, because of high disease incidence, few women appear to be ready to adopt this as an income generating strategy.

6.2.6 Non agricultural pursuits

There is much scope for increasing income from non-agricultural pursuits. Handicrafts improved transport to Dilling town is realized. Wood-cutting/gathering was especially important for the IDPs living at the periphery of Dilling town. While an important source of income, this activity must be evaluated in terms of its detrimental environmental impacts vis-à-vis the economic benefits to household. Environmental degradation is widely evident in the immediate vicinity of Dilling town.

In some areas, notably Kujuria, a raw material from grasses used for mat and basket making (suf) is an important source of income. Households can derive up to Ls 8,000 per month from suf, enough to purchase half a sack of dhurra. Traditionally an activity exclusively carried out by women, suf has now become a family enterprise.

Wild fruit from the dompalm and from the boabab tree (tabaldi) are also collected and sold in areas where these trees are common. However, these are highly seasonal activities. Up to Ls 20,000 can be generated per household in Dilling market from dom fruit in a season.

Labour migration to mechanized agricultural schemes, such as Habeela, has become a widespread practice throughout the region and constitutes a major coping capacity for many households. In many cases the whole household migrates for the four month agricultural season. Many farmers indicated to the Mission that they would not migrate to work if they had access to tractors to plough more land on their own farms. Since both the mechanized and local agricultural season is dependent on the rains, farmers are forced to make the choice between income generation from selling their labour of from cultivating their land. A medium-term objective of the development community must, therefore, be to support the intensification of production from local village lands.

The introduction of cottage industry can also be explored since much scope exists throughout the region. Women frequently referred to tailoring as an activity they wish to receive support for starting-up small enterprises, either individually or collectively. Blacksmithing (for local agricultural implements) and carpentry (school furniture and beds) are also much needed artisan skills that should be supported.

There is also much scope for building upon traditional community-based self-help mechanisms for such activities as improving feeder roads or rehabilitating community structures such as classrooms or heath centres. Incentive programmes should be carefully examined by such agencies as WFP. Rather than simply having food-for-work activities, a mix of food, cash and inputs (tools, nails, and supplies) for rehabilitating community Agricultural extension services are, therefore, needed throughout the Nuba Mountains. GOS authorities are unable at this stage to deliver the both the quality and quantity of such services and there is, thus, an important niche that the NGO community could fill. At the same time, the UN system should work closely with GOS authorities to explore ways in which it can assist in the strengthening of local government authorities in the delivery of extension services.

Community development programming would also assist in the development and capacitation of local community based organizations ranging from women’s associations to small collective groups engaged in joint enterprise and jointly accessing micro-credit facilities. Training programmes would facilitate this process.

Trading is an activity in which many women would like to engage in but lack the necessary experience or start-up capital. Extension programming in basic concepts of trading would be a welcome initiative providing that it was followed by opportunity to access micro-credit facilities. Few women have previously had any experience with micro-credit and consequently some basic extension work would be required. If this could simultaneously be tied to basic adult education (i.e., basic literacy) it would have even greater impact.

6.2.8 Access to markets

The paucity of all-season feeder roads constitutes a major constraint to rehabilitation of the economy and the eventual progression to full-scale recovery and development. Aside from the Kadugli to El Obeid road,14 which is passable all year, albeit needs substantial rehabilitation, there is no other all-season road in the region. The road from Dilling to the Habeela region is particularly one that must be given high priority. Major road construction works are not likely to find much financial support from either GOS authorities or donors in the immediate future, however, interim upgrading of existing ‘roads’ is a possibility, especially if tied into community programming.

Most of the access to market is currently by foot (head-portage) or by bicycle. Consequently, the amount of produce - and hence income accrued - that can be delivered to marked is limited. A few people have donkeys that increase the amount transported. There is virtually no commercial truck traffic in the region during the rainy season. In the dry season the situation improves, but much of the agricultural production needs to be marketed in the rainy season. Security continues to be a problem for those living west of the Kadugli – El Obeid road. All the villages assessed in this area reported frequent incidents of ‘banditry’ in the region as they took produce to markets in Dilling or returned from Dilling. Perpetrators were allegedly the SPLA, albeit other armed personnel in military fatigues should not entirely be discounted. Clearly, until these instances are eliminated, they present a considerable disincentive to the rehabilitation of trade and commerce in the area.

6.2.9 Resources and inputs

While there continues to be a need for basic relief inputs into the region, especially food during the next ‘hungry season’, there is an urgent need for support to potential income generating activities. The majority of the affected populations have no access to normal credit facilities provided by the commercial sector. Nor do most have experience with such institutions. Consequently the introduction of micro-credit facilities in the region is necessary to underpin the rehabilitation and recovery of livelihoods in the region.

Micro-credit facilities, introduced through NGO modalities, could facilitate the regeneration of the livestock economy, expansion of vegetable marketing, establishing small trading enterprises, support the establishment of small artisan enterprises such as tailoring, blacksmithing and carpentry, provide start-up funds for cartage operations, as well as other activities that subsequent micro-credit assessments will identify. Training in the basic concepts of micro-credit, together with some capacitation in establishing and maintaining a business will also be needed given the lack of experience most people have had with such institutions. Women and women’s associations should receive priority in targeting such assistance.

6.3 Recommendations

The restoration of sustainable livelihoods will require, in the medium-term, support for the introduction or expansion of a number of income generating activities. Particular attention should be given to the expansion of vegetable production, especially in areas within four hours walk from Dilling market, the establishment of artisan activities such as tailoring, blacksmithing and carpentry, and the selective expansion of donkey-cartage operations, especially in areas within a day’s return range of Dilling market. There is a need and receptiveness for micro-credit facilities throughout the region. Such interventions will need to be complemented with training in the use of micro-credit and basic business concepts for small enterprise development. Micro-credit facilities should, in the first instance be steered through the NGO community to ensure effectiveness, accountability and impact.

The region is in need for a variety of agricultural and non-agricultural extension services. Currently, no such services exist except perhaps in close proximity to Dilling town. Also, the local authorities and community leaders require capacitation in addressing the special needs and problems facing areas in process of post-conflict recovery. Such assistance could be delivered through south-south cooperation with specialists regions where such skills have been developed.(e.g., community development specialists recruited through UNV from such countries as Bangladesh or Philippines where extensive CBO experience has been gained).

NGO support in he region is largely through a limited number of international NGOs, as well as a few Islamic or emergent local NGOs. More needs to be undertaken to build and capacitate national NGOs and CBOs. In the first instance, the local chapters of the Sudanese Red Crescent should be strengthened. Thereafter local NGOs should be nurtured. 7 LOGISTICS

The Nuba Mountains Assessment Mission carried out an extensive examination into the logistical requirements for assistance delivery in both areas of control of SPLM and GOS.

7.1 SPLM-controlled areas

The topography and terrain of the seven Counties in SPLM areas are such that the only means of mobility is by foot. There are a few airstrips that can be conveniently used for airlift/drop but these are located very far away from potential beneficiaries and would require several hours, if not days, of walking. Nevertheless, the only reasonable means of assistance delivery to SPLM areas would be by air. It must be noted that not even donkeys are available for transport.

7.1.1 Roads

Very old and abandoned roads exist in SPLM counties. They are mostly circuitous and move around the mountains on rocks and in the valleys. These roads can be conveniently accessed with 4x4 vehicles in dry season, i.e., after November, but not without community participation in road rehabilitation and improvement. Access to all other places outside this overgrown and abandoned road network is through mountainous footpaths.

7.1.2 Railways

There are no railways in SPLM areas.

7.1.3 Airstrips

Airstrips are usually about 3 to 7 hours walk to nearest villages or population concentrations.

7.1.4 Drop zones buildings. Also, there are several places where storage cocoons or rubbhalls can be located within all the counties.

Additionally, local materials (stones, wood, and grass) are abundantly available for construction of storage houses of any capacity as necessary.

7.1.6 Capacity and staff/NGOs

No international NGO is operating continuously in the two Counties visited. The only indigenous organization operating in the whole of the SPLM area is the Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Society (NRRDS). It is a small organization. The NRRDS, therefore, needs support and capacity building to continue with its operations. Generally, County Officers have teams of young men and women who move around the Counties but without fixed offices or accommodation in any particular villages or locations. The demerit of this sort of roving local administration is the lack of organization as experienced by the mission in certain places. It is felt that there is a need for capacity building in all areas, including NRRDS, local administrations, and the women associations. All these are keys in decision-making processes and facilitate implementation of projects/programs. Considering the above, it is deemed expedient to involve WFP staff in the initial handling and distribution of any intended relief foods and supplies, while the situation is constantly monitored, evaluated and modified when necessary.

7.1.7 Constraints/stresses

Five basic constraints to logistics can be identified as: q there are no motorable roads and no means of transport, neither animals, bicycles, etc. q the area has difficult terrain/rocky mountains. Several hours and sometimes days are required to move from one place to another on foot q there is a difficulty in obtaining porters from remote villages q security and accessibility cannot be guaranteed q language is a barrier as there are not many local English speakers available for translation.

7.1.8 Administrative structures 7.1.9 Proposed logistics/delivery plans

This plan is based on 50 percent of an estimated total population of 300,000 who would be considered as very vulnerable in the critical period of May to August 2000.

A) 2,500 mt of food items would be transported for distribution in the critical period from May to August. Food will be prepositioned during February/March in the FPD (Final Delivery Points) or in the nearest EDP (Extended Delivery Points) for distribution during the hunger gap period. B) Around 1,069 mt of non food items, educational materials, health, water and environmental sanitation supplies should also be transported.

7.1. 10 Delivery schedules

The following delivery schedule is proposed: q Immediate delivery by air of urgently required items: salt, soap, clothing and medicines q Establishment of bases and erection/construction of rubhall and cocoons – required by February 2000 q Airlifts/drops should start by February through March to be able to preposition all the commodities required and transport them to FDPs before the onset of the rainy season. q Followed by 3,100 mt. in May 2000

7.2 Recommendations for SPLM-controlled areas

Establish field bases in strategic and secure areas with 2 cocoon stores or one rubhall in each location. In the case of Nagorban and Heiban counties, Karkar, Chawre and Kororak would be ideal. These bases should have a full range of communication equipment powered by solar cells. Provision should be made for the construction of bomb shelters.

Accommodation tents for staff should be insect-proof and be provided with solar power lighting. Provide 4x4 pick-up vehicles to assist field bases in the transportation of materials on motorable roads that could possibly be reactivated.

Capacity building for the local counterparts (e.g., NRRDS) in the management of supplies for eventual taking over of responsibilities in the handling of relief supplies.

7.3 GOS-controlled areas

In GOS areas, obstacles like rivers, large waterlogged portions of land, silk-cotton soil and clay block access. However, vehicles can be used as means of mobility in some areas at specific periods (early November to May) of each year. This, therefore, calls for pre-positioning of stocks well in advance before the rainy season.

7.3.1 Roads

While there are some feeder roads, they have never been improved or remain undeveloped. Most are in an appalling state of repair that they cannot be used for any type of trading activity and, therefore, contribute to poverty during wet seasons. Thus, although there are possibilities for road transportation of relief supplies, this will require heavy involvement of recovery tractors in most areas during rainy seasons. However, tractors and trailers often apply off the roads where they cut deep gorges and cause more damage than good during rainy seasons. Dry season relief operation would therefore be ideal.

7.3.2 Railways

Although the railway lines do not go directly to areas where prospective beneficiaries are located, the railway can be used to transport supplies to nearby provinces (Debibat locality) from where trucking can be arranged.

7.3.3 Airstrips

There is an extendable airstrip of 800 meters in Kalogi. Another one was identified near Dilling but was not yet in use. Several helicopter aprons/landing spots are also located within Dilling province. 7.3.5 Storage

GOS areas have considerably large storage facilities, some of which belong to individual farmers and traders while the remainder belong to the GOS. Several storage facilities are in Dilling, Tondia and Hajar Gawad.

7.3.6 Capacity and staff of NGOs

There are several international and local NGOs operating with WFP and other UN agencies in most of GOS-controlled areas. All the organizations have the capacities required to handle relief supplies.

7.3.7 Constraints/stresses

There are a number of constraints in the GOS-controlled areas, namely: q roads are largely inaccessible during wet seasons q language is a barrier as few people speak good English q in some areas, security and accessibility cannot be guaranteed

7.3.8 Administrative structures

The areas assessed are under the administration of Local Councils and Provincial Commissioners, with structures that rise up to national level.

7.3.9 Logistics/delivery plans

This is based on 38 percent of the total population of 800,000, that would be considered as very vulnerable in the critical period of May, June, July and August, 2000.

A) 2,600 mt. of food would be provided to the peace villages in Rashad, Dilling and Kadugli areas.

B) An additional tonnage of 20 % should be allowed for non-food items (educational materials, health and water, environmental and sanitation supplies).

Plans of on-going projects should be implemented in close relations to weather. 7.4 Recommendations for GOS-controlled Areas

UN agencies and international and national NGOs are already operating in GOS areas and therefore only the following can be recommended:

q Establish bases in areas like Talodi where there is a possibility for intervention.

q Rehabilitate roads and build bridges/Irish crossings.

q Preposition food and non-food items in dry season for all on going projects. ANNEXES ANNEX I

MISSION COMPOSITION

Mission composition to the SPLM-controlled areas

A. Team Alfa (Heiban)

Benjamin Martinson Logistics WFP Mission/Team Leader James Breen Crop Assessment FAO Member

Angela Kearney Health and Nutrition UNICEF Member

Peter Lochery Water/Environmental Sanitation CARE Int. Member

James Maynard Security WFP Member

Sara Pantuliano Education and Rehabilitation UNDP Member

Dr. Rumishael Shoo Health and Nutrition WHO Member

B. Team Bravo (Nogorban)

Salem Mezhoud Education & Rehabilitation OCHA Team Leader

Harry J.E. Jeene Health and Nutrition SCF-UK Member

Penisoni Jikono Security WFP Member

Josepha Mambo Logistics WFP Member

Yustinian Mulaki Water/Environmental Sanitation UNICEF Member Mission composition to the GOS-controlled areas

A. Team Alfa (Dilling)

John Rogge Humanitarian and Rehabilitation UNDP Mission/Team Leader Nada Aprim Logistics WFP Member

Musa Atroun Food Security SCF-US Member

Abdalla Ismail Health and Nutrition UNICEF Member

Penisoni Jikono Security WFP Member

Salem Mezhoud Education & Rehabilitation OCHA Member

Yustinian Mulaki Water/Environmental Sanitation UNICEF Member

Lilian Mutiso Food Economy Assessment WFP Member

B. Team – Bravo (Talodi)

Benjamin Martinson Logistics WFP Team Leader

James Breen Crop Assessment FAO Member

Peter Lochery Water/Environmental Sanitation CARE Int. Member

Josepha Mambo Food Economy Assessment WFP Member

James Maynard Security WFP Member

Sara Pantuliano Education and Rehabilitation UNDP Member ANNEX II

MISSION ITINERARIES

Itinerary SPLM-controlled areas

Team Alpha: Heiban County q Landing in Karkar and briefing in Lumun 1 ½ hour walk + meeting day 1 q Lumun to Karkar church abortive attempt to drive to Chawre day 2 q Karkar to Chawre second abortive attempt to drive to Chawre (3 members stranded in the bush) day 3 q Karkar to Chawre 5 ½ hour walk (only 5 members) day 4 q Chawre assessment (5 members)/ rest of the team reaches Chawre 1 day day 5 q Chawre to Kaoda 4 hour walk + assessment day 6 q Kaoda assessment 1 day day 7 q Kaoda to Gidel 4 hour walk day 8 q Gidel assessment 1 day day 9 q Gidel to Kaoda 4 hour walk + assessment in Kumu day 10 q Kaoda to Kujur 4 ½ hours + assessment in Kujur day 11 q Kodoro/Saraf an-Nila assessment in Kujur 1 day day 12 q Kujur to Chawre 3 hour walk day 13 q Chawre to Karkar/ 5 ½ hour walk Karkar to Lumun for debriefing 1 ½ hour walk day 14 q Karkar exit flight day 15

Team Beta: Nagorban County q Landing in Karkar and briefing in Limun 1 ½ walk + meeting day 1 q Assessment in Limun 1 day day 2 q Limon to Achirun 4 ½ hour walk day 3 q Achiron assessment 1 day day 4 q Achiron to Um Jabralla 3 ½ hour walk day 5 Itinerary to the GOS-controlled Areas

Team Alpha: Dilling Province q Travel to Dilling, briefing from Commissioner and local authorities day 1 q Assessments of Tindeeya and Nitil day 2 q Assessments of Kurgol and Angarko day 3 q Assessment of Habeela and Flyio abandoned due to road conditions, replaced by assessment of Hadjar Jawad and Hilla Gedida IDP quarter in Dilling day 4 q Assessment of Kujuria and Afunda, evening debriefing of Commissioner day 5 q Return to Khartoum day 6

Team Beta: Talodi Province

Team B flew to El Obeid from Khartoum on October 7 and drove from El Obeid to Rashad, arriving at 21.30 after spending about two hours crossing a seasonal river near El Abbasiya. The following morning the Team set out from Rashad at 06.30, had breakfast with the Commissioner for Rashad, Abu Gibaiha and Talodi Provinces in Abu Gibaiha, and proceeded with the Commissioner to Um Deheleib arriving at 14.00. The Team was able to start an assessment in Um Deheleib but this was terminated at 16.00 due to a heavy storm. The Team then took 3 hours to complete the 23 km to Kalogi through thick mud and seasonal river crossings.

On October 9, the Team departed Kalogi for Mundi and Talodi. After 3 hours the Team had progressed about 10 km to a point where the road was completely submerged by a seasonal “lake”. The Team turned around and returned to Kalogi. A t this point it was decided to abandon the assessment.

Intense overnight rain turned the 75 km return journey from Kalogi to Abu Gihaiba on October 10 into a 15 hour marathon. The four UN vehicles plus three Government vehicles had to be winched, towed by tractor, and man-handled by Team members and ANNEX III

Terms of Reference

Both Missions used the same terms of reference, albeit adjusted as needed in adaptation to local variations and limitations placed on mission by problems of access under restrictions by authorities.

UNITED NATIONS HUMANITARIAN ASSESSMENT MISSION IN THE NUBA MOUNTAINS (SOUTH KORDOFAN)

1. PURPOSE

To undertake an assessment mission in the Nuba Mountains, both in Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A)-held areas, and in areas under the control of the Government of the Sudan (GOS); to determine the needs of populations affected by the war in those areas; to determine the volume and nature of humanitarian assistance necessary to respond to these needs; to assess the infrastructure and terrain and determine modalities for the provision of the assistance.

The mission will analyse potentials for intervention and will make recommendations for short term, and medium to long term development and rehabilitation actions and programmes.

2. BACKGROUND

The Nuba Mountains cover an area of roughly 30,000 square miles located in South Kordofan State. The area has been a zone of conflict between the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/A since 1985. The SPLM/A control some 20% of the total surface of South Kordofan State with an estimated population of 200,000 (out of approximately 1.1 Million total population for the State). The SPLM/A area consists mainly of rural, mountainous zones with low agricultural productivity, where basic services are rare or Following various UN initiatives with the Government of Sudan, including a personal appeal from the UN Secretary General to the Minister of External Relations on 9 May 1999, the principle of a humanitarian assessment mission in the SPLM/A areas was accepted by GOS and approved by SPLM. The United Nations Humanitarian Assessment Mission to SPLM/A Areas of the Nuba Mountains (HAMNM) took place between 19 and 24 June 1999 with the participation of OCHA, WFP and UNICEF.

The Report from the HAMNM identified the following issues of concern and significant humanitarian needs: food security and agriculture, health and nutrition, water and sanitation, and basic education. The report also made recommendations on follow up actions. It stressed the requirement for a comprehensive approach on policy issues for humanitarian interventions in all areas of South Kordofan State (both GOS-controlled and SPLM/A-controlled areas of the Nuba Mountains). The Report also indicated that specific proposals for future mission assessments at the technical/sectoral levels and agreement on modalities for channelling aid relief to the area would be addressed subsequently between the Parties and UN agencies concerned.

In a letter to the Minister of External Relations of the Republic of the Sudan, dated 9 July 1999, Mr Ross Mountain, Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Director, OCHA Geneva, pointed to the urgency of undertaking further needs assessment missions, the modalities for the implementation of which were to be worked out between the relevant GOS authorities and the Office of the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System and Humanitarian Coordinator (UNCERO) in Khartoum, Mr Philippe Borel.

After consultations with heads of agencies in Khartoum, and OLS Southern Sector, the Working Group on the Humanitarian Needs Assessment Mission to the Nuba Mountains, under the chairmanship of UNCERO, agreed on the fielding of two missions composed of UN and INGO experts. The two missions will address several sectors of humanitarian assistance identified in the Report of the HAMNM, and will take place in succession, the first in the SPLM/A-controlled areas, and the second in the Government- controlled areas of the Nuba Mountains.

3. SCOPE OF THE MISSION

The mission is expected to undertake extensive examinations of the needs in the following sectors: food and food economy, crop analysis, education, nutrition, health, 3.1 Food Needs Assessment:

Food Needs Assessment is to be carried out to identify and quantify the needs of the population in both the GOS and the SPLM/A areas of the Nuba Mountains. This will include the following:

- Collection of reliable information on population, locations and sources of food - Location and estimated numbers of IDPs - Reason and length of displacement - Perceptions of food security in the areas (using key informants) - Identification of priority needs by looking into the different livelihood sources - Collection of information on population survival during the past few years - Identification of food gaps and periods of food assistance - Traditional coping mechanisms in operation

4 Food related logistics issues

- Identification of the most cost effective modalities of food assistance delivery - Identification of routes for internal (i.e. inside SPLM-controlled Nuba Mountains) and external (i.e. outside SPLM-controlled Nuba Mountains including GOS- controlled areas) accessibility including locally available means of transport, airstrips, drop zones and reliable roads - Identification of storage facilities in the areas

3.2 Health and Nutrition

3.2.1 Provision of Health Services

- Establishing population base (county) with specific breakdowns (infants, children below 5 years, 1-3 groups) - Available PHCU/PHCC and population estimates served from each - Hospital and Population coverage - Distances to nearest health units - Establishing main causes of morbidity and mortality - Prevalence of specific diseases - Level of coverage of existing health facilities 3.2.2 Health Personnel

- Collection of detailed information on, and comparison with, population - Number of doctors per County - Number of CHWs per available health unit - Number of TBAs / Midwives - Other health related personnel

3.2.3 Supplies for Health Unit

- Identifying level of requirements for essential drugs - Determining needs for basic health care kits including ORS - Quantifying on basis of population coverage - Quantifying needs for soap and other sanitation requirements

3.2.4 EPI

- Determining coverage requirement (Measles by campaigns and other antigens on special coverage) - Determining availability and functionality of cold chain equipment

3.2.5 Nutrition

The Report of the HAMNM identified the following problems affecting health and nutrition in the area: 1. severe shortage of salt in the entire region 2. iodine deficiency diseases 3. neglected child care (in particular during the planting season) 4. poor capacity of health personnel and poor physical structure of health units 5. unavailability of basic information for monitoring

The Mission will review the nutrition situation and propose appropriate intervention. It will carry out the following: - Collection and analysis of health centre-based data to determine disease patterns and identification of major nutrition or diarrhoea or infection-related cases, among adults and children - Assessment of the capacity of the health facilities and identification of needs - Review of present administrative structure and operating programmes - Estimation of quantities of inputs required and identification of strategies and modalities of implementation for nutrition - Assessment of the main livelihoods, coping strategies used through focus group discussions; and identification of the types of inputs and support required - Determining percentage of requirements of Vitamin A (via EPI coverage) - Determining percentage of requirement of iodised salt - Determining modes of implementation in the supplementation of vitamin A, iron, and iodised salt - Determining TBA and MCH activities and linkage with health/nutrition activities

3.3 Logistics

3.3.1 Air Operations

- Identification of existing airstrips - Length, dry and wet weather conditions, possibilities of extension / improvements - Regularity of use of the airstrip(s) - Identification of potential areas for new airstrips

3.3.2 Road

- Identification of roads and/or tracks - Identification of their condition and suitability for different types of vehicles (truck, 4x4, motorcycle etc)

3.3.3 Other

Proximity to any other forms of transport, i.e. rail or river.

3.3.4 Support base

- Identification of suitable locations to establish small operational support bases - Availability of local building materials - Assessment of immediate requirements to support humanitarian workers (water supplies, availability, quality) 3.3.6 Identification of central nodal points for establishing bases giving full consideration to access by air, road and foot to target population

3.4 Water and Environmental Sanitation

The Report of the HAMNM indicated the existence of an acute water problem in the Nuba Mountains the result of which is a low level of hygiene and sanitation. This has not been the subject of enquiry with the exception of a rudimentary study carried out by the Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Society (NRRDSS).

The main objective of the mission is to assess the current water and sanitation situation and propose necessary interventions. In order to achieve this, the following will be carried out: - Inventory of water sources and related infrastructure - Identification of livestock watering sources - Determining the number of functioning and non-functioning sources - Identification of populations served by functioning sources, average walking distances to sources and conditions etc - Determining the perenniality or periodicity of sources - Investigating water quality - Investigating alternative water sources - Determining problems of non functioning water sources - Identification of responsible body for O & M - Identification of source of O & M funds and spare parts - Sanitation status. Identification of existence of, and the number of households with, latrines, alternative excreta and solid waste disposal methods - Home and personal hygiene-water storage for drinking, cooking and washing - Identification of common illnesses with a view to determining whether they are waterborne/related or filth-related or both - Assessment of staff capacity / manpower and equipment needed to improve WES situation - Community involvement and participation / inputs

3.5 Medium term issues assessment (UNDP)

3.5.1 Education - Number of schools available (functioning and non functioning) - Availability and accessibility and type of credit sources

3.5.3 Social structures - Presence, size and level of organisation and gender desegregation of civil structures, - Interaction with local authorities - Number of female headed households - Role of women in civil society

4. DURATION

· The Assessment Mission into the SPLM-controlled areas will have a duration of two weeks.

· The Assessment Mission in the GOS-controlled areas, because of the presence of operating UN and INGO projects, will be fielded for seven days.

5. MISSION OUTPUTS

The most senior of the two team-leaders will be the overall team-leader of each of the two mission. He/she shall be responsible for producing a comprehensive Mission Report covering the entire SPLM/A- and GOS-controlled areas visited. The report shall address all sectors covered in the assessment and contain clear recommendations for action.

The report shall contain a detailed logistical analysis and shall formulate practical, workable modalities for effective delivery of assistance to beneficiaries. An assessment of the security situation will also provide functional alternatives for future missions and make recommendations on fielding national/international staff (UN or NGO for joint action) on an ad hoc, temporary or permanent basis.

The importance of the war-induced population displacement requires a careful examination of the relations between the populations in the two areas. Seasonal changes also alter the pattern of movement as well as the demographic configuration of the region (e.g. the dry season increases the numbers of people within reach of GOS authorities). The report shall determine the potential for concerted action to be taken in both areas. It will examine any existing relations between the populations and formulate practical ANNEX IV

PROTOCOL FOR HEALTH AND NUTRITION ASSESSMENT NUBA MOUNTAINS 15 - 29 September and 7 - 12 October 1999

Areas of study as per terms of reference , method and source of data

SpecificAreas Source & Method

1. Level of provision of health service Records/Interviews

2. Morbidity and mortality Records/Interview/Focus groups

3. Health service coverage and referral Interviews

4. Health personnel, supervision & training Interviews

5. Medical Supply System Interviews

6. EPI functionality and coverage Records, Survey, Observations, Interviews

7. Nutritional status and MUAC, Examination – Sample, Records, Interviews, Focus groups

8. Micro – nutrients Diet, Examination, food availability

Proposed general methodology

- Study of records, report and direct observations - Collect copies of morbidity reports if possible - Interview key informants - Health Staff for facility and personnel - Community leaders meetings in every village ask for: - Priority problems - Community organization and actions - Population distribution. COMMUNITY LEADERS’ FOCUS GROUP ISSUES

Information to be collected

· Population by areas · Community Organization · Priorities

WOMEN FOCUS GROUP ISSUES (15 - 20 women)

· Priority women problems and family issues

· Child health – care for Key problems [diarrhoea/ARI/Fever] Immunization · Weaning practices · Care during pregnancy ( Use TBAs to provide this info where available include TBAs.) · Neonatal Tetanus · Delivery [TBA if available any] vs institutional delivery · Death – of husband? For peace camps differentiate mortality before arrival in the camp and After arrival. · Cause of death of husbands ( War vs disease) · Death of a sister – maternal mortality by sisterhood method. For peace camps also differentiate before arrival and after arrival. · Deaths of children - For peace camps same as above (Make a list of number of live births vs deaths)) · RAPE, STD and Secondary infertility · Other problems ( Goitre, etc)

EXAMINE as many children as possible for at least 100 per location

Anaemia, skin infections, MUAC.

School children for goitre at least 50.

Health facilities observations State of Building ANNEX V

WES DATA COLLECTED IN FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS

Table 1

County Heiban Heiban Heiban Payam Atoro West Atoro South, Atoro East Tira North Village Chawre Kauda Um Drafi, Al Farish, Gidel, Karkar, Tira Population 6,894 WATER USE Sources used spring, river bed Wells with brick lining (three river bed, unlined wells public, one private), river bed Who uses & for what? women - domestic Wells - women – domestic; river women – domestic; men - bed – men & boys - livestock livestock Perennial? spring One well, river bed wells in river bed Quality according to users dirty Good from wells dirty - mud, faeces from cows Quantity according to users restricted by distance, steep climb, Limited in dry season during dry season, up to two weight, up to 3 hr wait in dry s. Who collects? Women and girls Women-domestic, men-cattle women-domestic, men-cattle What is water collected in? Pot Pots and plastic containers pot Average quantity collected 7 lcd Close - 16 lcd; distant (3 hr 6 lcd roundtrip) – 7 lcd Where are clothes washed? at source Wet season at river, dry s. at well at river How often? Weekly Every 2-3 days when dirty Where do people bathe? at home at home at river How often? every 3-4 days Every day every day if water available Soap used for washing / bathing? No No if available, soap for clothes Other material used? lalop for clothes Improvements suggested by users reduce distance, and weight of Maintain wells, construct new plastic jerrycans & buckets, containers, install handpumps wells deepen wells, install pumps Would community contribute? No LATRINE USE Where do people defecate? in bush, family latrines existed In and adjacent to stream bed, defecate randomly but preferred before war on plains but pits never had household latrines place is stream difficult to dig on hillsides Where do children defecate? Indiscriminately Indiscriminately indiscriminately around house How are their faeces disposed of? scoop up and throw away Some bury but majority throw clean up and throw away What is the purpose of latrines? prevent breeding of flies and prevent spread of "dirtyness" by transfer of germs from faeces to flies food by flies Annex V (continued)

Table 2

County Heiban Heiban Heiban Payam Tira West Atoro East Atoro North Village Kumu Kujur Shabi Karindi Population WATER USE Sources used river bed and wells in river bank river bed; one point in river bed river bed in wet season; shallow (need to dig up to 4m in dry during dry season wells in dry season, only one well season) lasts through dry season Who uses & for what? women – domestic, men - cattle women Women Perennial? yes see above see above Quality according to users "not good, used by cattle as well as dirty Dirty humans” Quantity according to users restricted by time taken to collect, restricted by time taken to collect, Restricted by time taken to collect, up to 3 hours in dry season up to 6 hours in dry season up to 6 hours in dry season Who collects? women and girls - domestic women and girls - domestic Women and girls - domestic What is water collected in? pot pot Pot Average quantity collected 6 lcd 6 lcd 6 lcd Where are clothes washed? at river big wash at river, small wash at big wash at river, small wash at home home How often? 2-3 times per month once per week once per week Where do people bathe? at river at home or river at river or well How often? every day every day every day Soap used for washing / bathing? no sometimes Sometimes Other material used? lalop for washing clothes mud, lalop mud, lalop Improvements suggested by users install water pumps construct permanent wells, install Construct permanent wells, install water pumps water pumps LATRINE USE Where do people defecate? in forest far from homes, difficult by side of stream (in dry season near school (in dry season, pigs because of distance and time pigs follow people and clean up); follow people and clean up); never taken; most households had never dug latrines, even before war dug latrines, even before war latrines before war but pits difficult to dig on hillsides Where do children defecate? indiscriminately indiscriminately Indiscriminately How are their faeces disposed of? bury or throw far away collect, bury or give to pigs Collect, bury or give to pigs What is the purpose of latrines? some idea of germs and fecal-oral defecating randomly spreads Defecating randomly spreads route disease disease Who builds latrines? husbands (note 3/8 of women in focus group were widows) Does the school have latrines? three: girls, boys and teachers no two in each school Annex V (continued)

Table 3

County Heiban Heiban Nogorban Payam Shawaya Abul Lira West Limon Village Shawaya Saraphnila Limon East Population 1,121 WATER USE Sources used wet season: stream beds; dry wet season: stream beds; dry seasonal spring - people for season: shallow wells (8 wells up season: shallow wells (3-4m deep), drinking; semi-perennial streams – to 15m deep, one brick-lined well use well in Kodoro when these dry livestock, washing clothes, bathing constructed by government) Who uses & for what? women - domestic women - domestic see above Perennial? see above see above see above Ownership community Quality according to users clean from stream bed, quality clean from stream bed, dirty from wet season – good, dry season - from wells varies wells in dry season deteriorates Quantity according to users restricted by time taken to collect, restricted by time taken to collect, dry season - insufficient, takes up up to 5 hours in dry season up to 5 hours in dry season to 6 hours to collect Who collects? women and girls women and girls women and girls What is water collected in? pot pot pots and jerrycans Average quantity collected 8 lcd 14 lcd wet: 10-15 lcd; dry: 6-10 lcd Where are clothes washed? wet season: at stream; dry season: wet season: at stream; dry season: at streams at well at well How often? wet season: every 4 days; dry wet season: twice per week; dry wet season: twice per week; dry season: weekly season: weekly season: twice per month Where do people bathe? at home at home at streams How often? wet season: daily; dry season: wet season: daily; dry season: wet season: daily; dry season: 1-3 twice / week twice / week times / week Soap used for washing / bathing? if available, use soap for wash. if available, use soap for wash. rarely Other material used? leaves or mud leaves or mud mud, lalop tree bark Improvements suggested by users improve wells, install pumps improve wells, install pumps dig wells Would community contribute? LATRINE USE Where do people defecate? bush bush bush Where do children defecate? indiscriminately indiscriminately bush How are their faeces disposed of? collect & throw out collect & throw out What is the purpose of latrines? flies carry faecal material from no idea faeces of sick people to food Who builds latrines? men men Does the school have latrines? no yes but not finished yes Annex V (continued)

Table 4

County Nogorban Nogorban Nogorban Payam Seraf Gamus Um Dullu Um Nogorban Village Achuron East Um Gabrallah Kurchu Population 1,460 1,347 419 WATER USE Sources used semi-perennial dug wells - semi-perennial dug wells – semi-perennial dug wells - drinking; seasonal stream – drinking; seasonal stream – drinking; perennial stream – livestock, laundering, bathing livestock, laundering, bathing livestock, laundering, bathing Perennial? see above see above see above Ownership community stream-com., wells-individuals wells - livestock keepers Quality according to users wet season - good; dry season - wet season - good; dry season - wet season - good; dry season - deteriorates deteriorates deteriorates Quantity according to users insufficient in dry season, takes up insufficient in dry season, takes up Insufficient in dry season, takes up to 5.5 hours to collect to 14 hours to collect to 12 hours to collect Who collects? women and girls women and girls Women and girls What is water collected in? clay pots and jerrycans clay pots and jerrycans clay pots and jerrycans Average quantity collected wet s. 6-8 lcd, dry s. 5 lcd wet s. 7-8 lcd, dry s. 3-4 lcd wet s. 7-10 lcd, dry 4-5 lcd Where are clothes washed? wet season: at stream; dry season: wet season: at stream; dry season: wet season: at stream; near wells near wells near wells How often? wet season: 1-2 times per week; wet season: weekly; dry season: wet season: 1-2 times / week; dry dry season: monthly monthly season: 1-2 times / month Where do people bathe? wet season: at stream wet season: at stream wet season: at stream dry season: near wells/at home dry season: near wells/at home How often? wet season: daily; dry season: 1-2 wet season: daily; dry season: 1-2 wet season: daily; dry season: 1-2 times per week times / month times / month Soap used for washing / bathing? rarely rarely Rarely Other material used? mud, lalop tree bark mud, bark from lalop or thithiri mud, lalop tree bark, ashes tree, coconut leaves Improvements suggested by users no suggestion wait for assistance dig wells, construct dams Would community contribute? LATRINE USE Where do people defecate? bush bush Bush Where do children defecate? bush bush Bush How are their faeces disposed of? What is the purpose of latrines? no idea to keep away flies, prevent disease Privacy, prevent disease transmission, and provide privacy transmission Who builds latrines? Does the school have latrines? no no No Annex V (continued)

Table 5

County Nogorban Nogorban Payam Seraf Gamus Seraf Gamus Village Gegeba Seraf Gamus Population 935 1,700 WATER USE Sources used perennial stream - livestock, perennial streams - livestock, laundering, bathing; dug wells - laundering, bathing; dug wells - drinking, livestock drinking, livestock Ownership Some wells - livestock keepers Some wells - livestock keepers Perennial? see above see above Quality according to users wet season – good; dry season - deteriorates Quantity according to users insufficient in dry season, up to 4.5 insufficient in dry season, up to 4.5 hours to collect hours to collect Who collects? women and girls women and girls What is water collected in? clay pots and jerrycans clay pots and jerrycans Average quantity collected wet s. 8-12 lcd, dry s. 6 lcd wet s. 7-13 lcd, dry s. 6-8 lcd Where are clothes washed? wet season: at stream; dry season: at stream near wells How often? wet season: 2-4 times / week; dry wet season: 2-3 times / week; dry season: 3 times / month season: 2 times / month Where do people bathe? at stream at stream How often? wet season: daily; dry season: 1-3 wet season: daily; dry season: 1-4 times / week times / week Soap used for washing / bathing? rarely rarely Other material used? mud, ashes, tree barks mud, ashes, tree barks Improvements suggested by users need assistance, pumps/wells no idea Would community contribute? LATRINE USE Where do people defecate? bush bush Where do children defecate? bush bush How are their faeces disposed of? What is the purpose of latrines? no idea no idea Who builds latrines? Does the school have latrines? no yes When do adults wash their hands? before and after meals before and after meals Diarrhoea in last 2 weeks 50% generally no Annex V (continued)

Table 6

Province Dilling Dilling Dilling Mahalia Salara Salara Salara Village Tindeeya El Nitil El Funda Population 2,221 726 2,469 WATER USE Sources used Handpumps, dug wells Handpumps Handpumps, seasonal springs, dug wells Perennial? Handpumps Yes Handpumps Ownership Community Community Community Quality according to users Good Good Good Who collects? Women and girls Women and girls Women and girls What is water collected in? Plastic jerrycans Plastic jerrycans Plastic jerrycans Average quantity collected 10-20 lcd 8-20 lcd 8-20 lcd Where are clothes washed? At home At home At source How often? 3-4 times / week 2-4 times / week 1-2 times / week Where do people bathe? At home At home At source How often? 2 times / day 1-2 times / day 1 time / day Soap used for washing / bathing? Yes Yes Yes Improvements suggested by users Increase number of handpumps Construct hafirs (rain-fed Increase number of handpumps reservoirs) for livestock Would community contribute? No idea No money Yes LATRINE USE Where do people defecate? Bush Bush Bush Where do children defecate? Indiscriminately Indiscriminately Indiscriminately How are their faeces disposed of? Thrown into the bush Thrown into the bush Thrown into the bush What is the purpose of latrines? No idea No idea No idea Who builds latrines? Men Men Men Does the school have latrines? No Yes No When do adults wash their hands? Before meals / prayers and after Before meals / prayers and after Before meals / prayers and after meals / defecation defecation meals / defecation Diarrhoea in last 2 weeks None None Yes Health problems of greatest Malaria Malaria Malaria, dysentery, skin diseases concern to community Annex V (continued)

Table 7

Province Dilling Dilling Dilling Mahalia Salara Kurgol Kurgol Village Kujouria Kurgol Angarko Population 3,449 4,775 3,039 WATER USE Sources used Handpumps Handpumps, seasonal streams used Handpumps, two dug wells, water in one part of village, water yard yard for livestock for livestock Perennial? Yes Handpumps, water yard Yes Ownership Community Community Community Quality according to users Good Good Good Who collects? Women and girls What is water collected in? Plastic jerrycans Average quantity collected 10-20 lcd 10-17 lcd 13-17 lcd Where are clothes washed? At home At home At home How often? 2-5 times / week 2-3 times / week 2 times / week Where do people bathe? At home At home At home How often? 2 times / day 2 times / day 1-2 times / day Soap used for washing / bathing? Yes Yes Yes Improvements suggested by users Increase number of handpumps Provide rain storage reservoir Increase number of handpumps (hafir) in area without groundwater acquifer Would community contribute? Maybe Yes No because they are poor LATRINE USE Where do people defecate? Bush / latrines Streams / few in latrines Bush Where do children defecate? Indiscriminately Indiscriminately Indiscriminately How are their faeces disposed of? Thrown into the bush / latrines Thrown into the bush Thrown into the bush What is the purpose of latrines? To prevent disease transmission To keep away flies and prevent No idea diseases Who builds latrines? Men Men Men Does the school have latrines? Yes No Yes When do adults wash their hands? Before meals / prayers and after Before meals / prayers and after Before meals / prayers and after meals / defecation meals / defecation meals / defecation Diarrhoea in last 2 weeks Yes Yes Yes Health problems of greatest Malaria, cough Malaria, cough, diarrhoea, measles Malaria, diarrhoea, cough, pains concern to community Annex V (continued)

Table 8

Province Dilling Mahalia Kurgol Village Hadjar Gaward Population 3,699 WATER USE Sources used Handpumps, dug wells for livestock Perennial? Yes Ownership Community Quality according to users Good Who collects? What is water collected in? Average quantity collected 15-20 lcd Where are clothes washed? At home How often? 2-4 times / week Where do people bathe? At home How often? Soap used for washing / bathing? Yes Improvements suggested by users Repair existing and increase number of handpumps Would community contribute? No because they are poor LATRINE USE Where do people defecate? Bush / latrines (about 60) Where do children defecate? Indiscriminately How are their faeces disposed of? Thrown into the bush / latrines What is the purpose of latrines? No idea Who builds latrines? Men Does the school have latrines? No When do adults wash their hands? Before meals / prayers and after meals / defecation Diarrhoea in last 2 weeks Yes Health problems of greatest concern to Malaria, goitre, skin diseases, community diarrhoea, cough , pains ANNEX VI

FOOD SECURITY AND AGRICULTURE

Nagorban And Heiban Seasonal Calendar

Description November to February to April to June July to October January March Name of seasons KUJUM DHOLOM VEDHE AWE in Tira language Rainfall ////////////////// /////////////////////////// Minimal Trading /////////// ///////////////////////// /////////////////////////// /////////////////////////// and Exchange /////////////////////////// Migration to look ///////////////// for food Wild food /////////////////////////// /////////////////////////// /////////////////////////// /////////////////////////// collection tabaldi,ardep and jemes, ardep and Aluk, wild grass uzu baladi fruits nabag (uzu and apak Fish access ////////////// /////////////// (mainly (Nagorban only) (Nagorban only) mudfish//cat fish) Crops: Sorghum Threshing Cleaning garden Harvest umuzera, and plant umuzera, bandura and bandura and balang balang Consumption /////////////////////////// /////////////////////////// //////////// ///////////////// Maize Planted Consumed green from September. /////////////////////////// Groundnuts Harvest Barang Plant Barubeta Plant Barang Cow Peas Harvest Plant cow peas Simsim Plant simsim Harvest in October/November Pumpkin Plant pumpkin Consume ////////////// /////////////////////////// Ceremonies Marriages //////////////// Other activities -House /////////////////////////// construction Price List Of Locally Available Items In The Market Nagorban County

DESCRITION PRICE One Bull 75,000 – 150,000 One Cow 70,000 – 100,000 Sorghum ¨ One Malua 1,000 ¨ One Tin 4000 – 5000 ¨ One Sack 30,000 – 40,000 Groundnuts (one malua) 1,000 One Goat 15,000 – 25,000 One Pig 15,000 – 25,000 A Chicken 2,000 – 4,000

All the prices depend on the season and availability.

Market Prices At Kujur Market 26 September 1999

Item Quantity Price in Sudanese Pounds/Exchange Value Fresh Cassava Kg 400 or 4 cups sorghum or 2 cups of sesame. Lemons 5 100 or 2 cups Sorghum or 1 cup Sesame. Chicken 1 2 000 or 7 cups Sorghum or 3.5 cups Sesame Tomatoes 3.5 kg 1 000 Sesame Oil 500 500 or 2 Kgs Sorghum or 1 kg Sesame. Maize 2 kgs 250 or 2 kgs Sorghum Salt ½ cup 200 or 4 cups Sorghum, 5 cups groundnuts or 2 cups sesame Shoes, plastic Pair 6 000-10 000 Crop Calendar For Dilling Province

Crop Planting Season Harvest Season Threshing Season Sorghum May-June November- January- February December Sesame June-July October Late October-Early November Millet May-June Late October- December November Groundnuts June-July November Stored Unshelled Maize May-June September- Consumed Green October Cultivated Okra May-June August – Consumed green November Wild Okra N/A October-November Dried and consumed Cowpeas May-June October-December Tomatoes Nursery planting in Late September to - June, transplant. in November July Pumpkin May-June October-December -

Cucumber May-June August- October - Estimated Conflict-affected Populations in Gos Areas (By Province)

Province Total Population Remarks (Refer to column 3.) Population in war worst affect. areas Dilling 252 685 100 400 These include all villages in Sallara and Dallami Local Councils, 80% of villages in Kurgul L.C, 50% in Habila LC and IDPs in four residential quarters in Dilling Town Council area. Includes IDPs and residents. Abu 186 558 18296 Includes IDPs in three quarters in Abu Gibeiha Gibeiha town, limited numbers of villages in northern and western parts of Abu Gibeiha Rural Council. Rashad 193 101 24 353 All villages in Um Brambita Local Council. Talodi 79660 60 543 All local councils with exception of 50% living in eastern parts of Kalogi Local Council. Kadugli 100 254 100 254 All Local Councils are included in this estimate. Total 808 266 303 846 Sources: State, Province and Local Council level population estimates. SCF(US) population estimates. OLS Assessment Figures. South Kordofan Population Data 1983 – 1999

Province 1983 Census Current Est. of Remarks concerning changes Population since 1983 Census. Dilling 224 204 252 685 Decrease in Sallara, Kurgol, Delami and Habeela Local Councils, increase in Dilling Town and the three Local Councils in Northern Dilling – Hamadi, Dibebat and Farshaya. Abu Gebaiha 61 432 186 558 Increase in Abu Gibeiha town and Abu Gibeiha Rural Council. Rashad 206 097 193 101(Includes Decrease in Um Brambita Local IDPs) Council. ANNEX VII Ranking of Schooling Needs According to Various Groups (SPLM-controlled areas)

Teachers Pupils 1. Training 1. Schools materials 2. School materials 2. Better qualified teachers 3. Clothing 3. Clothing 4. Medicines 4. Medicines 5. Water 5. Water 6. Security 6. Good / permanent buildings 7. Permanent Buildings 7. Security 8. Incentives 8. Sports equipment 9. Watches 9. Food 10. Transport 10. Grinding mill 11. Food 12. Scholarships for higher education abroad 13. Radios 14. Sports equipment

Headmasters Community Leaders 1. School materials 1. Security 2. Clothing 2. Schools materials 3. Training 3. Water 4. Infirmary / Medicines 4. Medicine / Infirmary 5. Water 5. Clothing 6. Incentives 6. Teacher training 7. Watches 7. More teachers 8. Building materials for schools 8. Food 9. Security 9. Permanent buildings 10. Food 10. Grinding mill 11. Bikes 12. Cooperative to support higher education 13. Support for orphans ANNEX VIII

MISSION’S FIELD ADMINISTRATION NOTES for the SPLM AREAS

The Nuba Mountains Assessment Mission in the SPLM-controlled areas suffered some administrative and logistical difficulties as the supplies and equipment taken on the mission were unsuited to the prevailing local conditions. Basically the mission was over burdened with non-essential and inappropriate supplies and equipment (generators, fire- extinguishers, excessive stocks of tinned goods and mineral water). These notes are written in order that any future mission into the area can be better prepared for its tasks.

1. Local Staff/Assistants

Attendance to daily administrative duties (cooking, preparing camp, organising porters etc.) interferes with the work of field staff. Local authorities cannot and should not always be expected to organise the day to day camp administration. The best solution would be to employ camp assistants directly answerable to the mission team leader. Each field team could employ two local staff: a) 1x Foreman to organise and supervise porters. b) 1x Camp assistant to do the washing, cooking etc.

2. Transport

The use of vehicles in the Nuba Mountains in the wet season is impractical. Even in the dry season vehicles will create more logistical problems than they solve. It is therefore strongly recommended that in future vehicles should not be used.

Porters are the only practical means of transporting equipment through the mountains and all future missions into the area should tailor their logistical preparations accordingly. The following points are recommended: a) Travel light: only essential and lightweight equipment and supplies should be taken. 3. Communications

Q-Mac radios are reliable when properly set up, and are easily transported. Sat-phones should also be carried, but only as an emergency back-up to the radio, not as a primary means of communications. Spare batteries should be taken for the sat-phone, and the possibility of recharging the batteries with the Q-Mac solar panel should be investigated.

4. Water

Complete reliance on mineral water is impractical and unnecessary. The water-filters provided by UNICEF were effective and reliable and should be taken on future operations.

5. Food

MREs are a practical option, but should be supplemented with dry and fresh rations. Ration scales need to be carefully calculated before deployment, as excess supplies are almost as much of an impediment as inadequate supplies.

6. Tents

Lightweight tents are recommended as shelter is not always available. ANNEX IX

Lessons Learned from the aborted Talodi mission

Team B decided to abort their mission to Talodi Province at 15.00 on Saturday, October 9 1999. The reason for this decision was the inability of the team to reach and assess the communities of Um Dihaiyleeb, Mundi, Mufloo’o and Tomtom in the time available. Substituting other communities was considered but the communities accessible to Team B, such as Kalogi, were relatively large and complex. Based on their experience up to the afternoon of October 9, the Team considered that there was insufficient time available to assess at the level of detail required in a sample of communities that would be representative of Talodi Province. As can be seen from the achieved mission itinerary shown in ANNEX II, the time available was barely adequate to complete the travel required.

Lessons learned: q Travel by road in many parts of South Kordofan is extremely difficult and potentially dangerous in the wet season. Skilled drivers, and 4WD vehicles equipped with winches and appropriate tires are essential. Despite the political expediency, attempting an assessment in Talodi Province during the wet season was at best a waste of resources and at worst foolhardy; there is no point in exposing personnel to significant risk of injury for no technical gains. In the wet season, both GOS and other agencies working in the area curtail or cease activities that require road travel. q The itinerary must allow sufficient time for the assessments. Experience from the first mission in the SPLM areas suggests that one day per community is required, particularly where communities have complex social systems. Even in the dry season, it would be impossible to carry out a thorough assessment in Talodi Province in six days. q The assessments must be given priority and lodging, meals, meetings with government officials, and travel arrangements must be organized with sufficient flexibility to facilitate the assessments. In keeping with Sudanese tradition, the provincial governments were extremely hospitable but on one occasion, team members had to choose between not offending their hosts and completing an assessment. representative initially prevented team members from visiting the market to obtain a better understanding of the local food economy. The HAC representative was also reluctant to facilitate any changes in the planned itinerary that became necessary due to conditions in the field. Freedom of movement can also be curtailed by a large entourage of non-essential government personnel accompanying the team

Recommendations. Field an assessment mission of at least two-week duration to Talodi Province in the dry season, based on a TOR that addresses the lessons learned above. Consider assessing a third province, in addition to Dilling and Talodi, to obtain a more representative sample of the GOS held areas of the Nuba Mountains.