24 November 2005 review

Sudan: prospects for peace

For free Forced Migration Review, published by the Refugee Studies distribution Centre of the University of Oxford, is the world’s most widely only read magazine on refugee and internal displacement issues Forced Migration Review from the editors provides a forum for the regular exchange of udan’s civil war was like no other. practical experience, information and ideas between researchers, refugees and internally displaced people, It began even before the British and those who work with them. It is published in English, Scolonialists – blamed by many Spanish, Arabic and French by the Refugee Studies historians for making it inevitable – had Centre/University of Oxford. left. One in five people in Sudan, Africa’s Editors largest country, has been displaced by 50 Marion Couldrey & Dr Tim Morris years of conflict. Recent efforts by Sudan’s Subscriptions Assistant leaders, neighbours and the international Sharon Ellis community to end the fighting and prepare Corinne Owen Corinne Forced Migration Review for post-conflict development have been Refugee Studies Centre, Department of International Development, unprecedented in terms of time and energy expended. Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, UK. Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)1865 280700 • Skype: fmreview Many issues dividing Sudan – particularly Darfur – are not addressed by the Compre- Fax: +44 (0)1865 270721 hensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in Nairobi by the two main parties to the conflict. Website Sudan’s new Government of National Unity is not without its critics. There have been www.fmreview.org significant delays in the agreed timetable for merging the northern and southern armies, establishing the Government of South Sudan and delivering funding pledged by the international community in Oslo in April. Nevertheless, as the articles which follow make The Editors would like to clear, many Sudanese are cautiously optimistic. If Sudanese can return home with dignity, thank all our donors for their if gross inequalities in distribution of wealth and provision of services can be redressed, if generous support of FMR in Sudanese women are given space to contribute to its recovery and if Sudan can leap up the 2005. human development ladder to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the Sudanese will have much to teach other countries emerging from the shadow of war. To receive FMR regularly Such is the scale of interest in rebuilding Sudan that this issue of Forced Migration Review is our longest ever. It would not have been possible without input from Dr Francis Deng If your organisation would like to receive – a prominent Sudanese scholar and former representative of the UN Secretary-General FMR on a regular basis (free of charge), on Internal Displacement – and Jon Bennett, UN Team Leader for the Joint Assessment [email protected] please email us at or Mission (JAM), Sudan. Together, we have gathered 38 articles from key actors in the write to us at the address above. We will peace process, from politicians, scholars, UN and World Bank staff, civil society and the need to know your name, organisation’s diaspora. Although there is a wide diversity of opinion expressed, the authors share a name, full postal address and which lan- common commitment to a peaceful, democratic and pluralistic Sudan. guage edition you wish to receive. For more information about FMR, visit our website The Editors are very grateful for financial assistance from at www.fmreview.org. the US Institute of Peace, UNDP and UNICEF. This FMR has been printed both in Oxfordshire and in Nairobi. Press launches were held on 30 November in the UK House of Commons, in Khartoum and in Juba. Disclaimer Readers should be aware that some articles were written 2-3 months prior to publication Those of you, particularly in Sudan, reading our magazine for the first time may be and may therefore not reflect recent devel- opments in Sudan’s fast moving political interested to know that FMR is published in English, Arabic, Spanish and French by the landscape. Refugee Studies Centre of the University of Oxford. It is distributed without charge to 174 The opinions, findings and conclusions or countries and is online at www.fmreview.org. If you would like to continue receiving hard recommendations expressed in this FMR are copies of FMR please contact us (see box opposite). those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Institute of Peace or the RSC. Material may be freely FMR 25, to be published in March 2006, will focus on human trafficking. FMR 26, to be reproduced provided source is acknowledged. published in July 2006, will look at Palestine.

Front cover photo: The late Dr John Garang, founder of the Sudan People’s Liberation Please note that our postal address has changed. Our new address is given on the left. Movement (SPLM) and First Vice-President of Sudan, and Sudanese President Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir. Khartoum, 8 July 2005. We find it increasingly time-consuming to administer FMR’s current subscriptions policy EMPICS - A Press Association Group Company whereby FMR is free for almost everybody but not for others. From 2006 there will be no subscription charges at all although we will of course be glad to accept donations to help Designed by Colophon Media. Printed by LDI Ltd., disseminate FMR around the world. on environmentally friendly paper ISSN 1460-9819 We dedicate this special issue to the people of Sudan and hope it will help to meet the need identified by the JAM for wide diffusion of the implications of peace agreements and the challenges facing Sudan during the six-year transitional period.

Marion Couldrey & Tim Morris Editors, Forced Migration Review contents

IDPs and urban planning in Khartoum Sudan: prospects for peace by Agnès de Geoffroy ...... 38

African renaissance: towards a New Sudan Information, counselling and legal assistance for by Francis M Deng ...... 6 returning IDPs by Sonia Di Mezza ...... 40 Joint Assessment Mission provides road-map for peace by Jon Bennett ...... 9 Time to strengthen protection of IDPs by Walter Kälin ...... 41 Reflections on making peace: interview Dr Taj es-Sir Mahjoub and Christoph T Jaeger ...... 12 Challenges facing returnees in Sudan by Judy McCallum & Gizenga Willow ...... 42 The role of the international community by Gunnar M Sørbø ...... 13 Towards a culture of human rights in Darfur by Joseph Aguettant ...... 43 The Comprehensive Peace Agreement: will it also be dishonoured? Sudanese women waging peace by Luka Biong Deng ...... 15 by Rogaia Abusharaf ...... 44

Developmental transformation and peace From Afghanistan to Sudan: how peace risks consolidation in southern Sudan marginalising women by Jeni Klugman and Emily Gosse Kallaur ...... 17 by Lina Abirafeh ...... 46

Reflections on the Joint Assessment Mission Sudanese women’s role in peacemaking by Michael Kevane ...... 19 by Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda and Grace Okonji ...... 48

Standing up for JAM partnerships Diaspora women and peace by Jeni Klugman and Maude Svensson ...... 20 by Nada Mustafa M Ali ...... 50

Land and the Sudanese transition to peace Tackling HIV/AIDS by Domenico Polloni ...... 21 by Shannon Egan ...... 51

Pledges versus commitments Separated children in south Sudan by Toby Lanzer ...... 23 by Una McCauley ...... 52

Perspectives on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement Gender, education and peace in southern Sudan by Endre Stiansen ...... 24 by Jackie Kirk ...... 55

Could peace unravel? Education crisis in south Sudan by Suliman Baldo ...... 25 by Tim Brown ...... 57

NGO coordination in south Sudan A local approach to peace in Torit, south Sudan by Adele Sowinska & Wendy Fenton ...... 27 by Jeannie Annan and Christine Pagen ...... 58

Promoting the rule of law in post-conflict Sudan The Sudanese peace process and the media by Yasmine Sherif ...... 29 by David Campbell and Kate Lloyd Morgan ...... 59

Sustainable IDP/refugee return depends on Peace, democracy and the environment collaborative approach by Peter Bosshard and Nick Hildyard ...... 60 by Sajjad Malik ...... 31 Sudan: world’s greatest humanitarian The reality of return: IDPs in Darfur transport challenge by Mathijs Le Rutte ...... 34 by Rob McConnell ...... 61

Assisting the return of displaced Dinka Bor Beja sidelined by peace process by Paul Murphy ...... 36 by Suliman Salih Dirar ...... 62

Epic trek of Mabia IDPs Encounter with a fighter by William Lorenz ...... 37 by Ellen Lammers ...... 63

continued… 4 FMR 24

IRIN marks its first decade General articles by Joanne Clark ...... 70

Mexico Plan of Action: protecting refugees through international solidarity Regular features by William Spindler ...... 64 Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement: IDPs in the Balkans ...... 72 Statelessness: a forgottem human rights crisis by Bill Frelick and Maureen Lynch ...... 65 Global IDP Project: Training on the Guiding Principles in Aceh ...... 73 Addressing sexual and gender-based violence by Bill van Esveld & Kirsten Young ...... 67

SUDAN Refugee Studies Centre: Another talkshop or the seeds of an effective southern African IDP policy? ...... 74 North-east India’s forgotten IDPs by Monirul Hussain ...... 68 Publications and Sudan websites ...... 75 The Zambia Initiative Back cover: by Masaki Watabe ...... 69 Gurtong Peace Project and House of Nationalities ...... 76 Sudan timeline

1881 Muhammad ibn Abdalla proclaims himself the Mahdi, the ‘expected one’. 1885 Mahdi captures Khartoum. British General Charles George Gordon killed. 1889 British-Egyptian condominium declared after military invasion led by Lord Kitchener. North and South administered as separate colonies. 1943 British colonial administration begins preparing the North for self-rule, establishes North Sudan Advisory Council. 1947 British policy reversal with commitment to unitary state. 1955 Southern battalion in Torit rebels against Northern commanders. 1956 Sudan declared independent. Arab-led government reneges on pledges to Southerners to create federal system. First civil war begins. 1958-1964 Military government after coup d’état. 1969 Colonel Gaafar Nimeiri seizes power. Political parties outlawed. 1971 Addis Ababa Agreement leads to 10-year hiatus in civil war. 1979 Oil discovered by Chevron Corporation. 1981 Nimeiri switches from pan-Arabism to support of Islamism. 1983 Introduction of shari’a law reignites civil war. John Garang founds Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 1989 General Omar Al-Bashir’s National Islamic Front (NIC) takes power in military coup. 1993 Intergovernmental Agency on Development (IGAD) initiates Sudan Peace Process, presents the parties with the declaration of principles (DOP). 1999 Sudan becomes significant oil exporter. Jan 2002 IGAD brokers North-South ceasefire. Feb 2003 Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement begin insurgency in Darfur. Jan 2004 North-South agreement on wealth sharing. July 2004 Collapse of first round of Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria. Oct 2004 African Union troops deployed in Darfur. Jan 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in Nairobi. April 2005 Oslo Donors’ Conference. Joint National Transition Team presents reconstruction plan developed by the Joint Assessment Mission (JAM), Sudan. July 2005 Garang sworn in as Sudan’s First Vice-President and President of Government of South Sudan. Garang’s death in helicopter crash three weeks later sparks rioting. Sept 2005 Government of National Unity established. Oct 2005 Government of South Sudan established. July 2009 CPA deadline for holding local, state, national and presidential elections. July 2011 End of six-year Interim Period. Referendum on autonomy/secession for South. FMR 24 5 UN Cartographic Section UN Cartographic 6 FMR 24 African renaissance: towards a

New Sudan by Francis M Deng the mammoth Jonglei Canal to divert What was the war about? Have its causes been addressed the waters of the Sudd (the White by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)? What Nile’s vast floodplain) and channel are the future prospects for the South after the tragic its waters northwards for irrigation.

SUDAN death of John Garang? Garang’s vision udan is a nation whose identity cultural development. Until colonial In 1983 Dr John Garang de Mabior has been divisively distorted policy dramatically shifted in 1947, it founded the Southern-based Sudan but which is now striving to appeared that the British intended to S People’s Liberation Movement and rediscover itself, albeit in a tragically prepare the South for independence Army. The SPLM/A’s stated objective violent way. The silver lining is that as a separate state. was not secession but the creation of a more constructive search for an a restructured New Sudan, in which identity framework around which The independence movement was there would be no discrimination on Sudanese could unite may be within pioneered and championed by the the bases of race, ethnicity, culture, reach. North, supported by Egypt. The religion or gender. cause was reluctantly supported by As with most, if not all, African coun- the South, which stipulated federal- Garang’s vision of the New Sudan tries, the colonial power brought ism and guarantees for the region as was initially not understood, far together into a state framework na- conditions for endorsing indepen- less supported, in the North and the tional groups that had been distinc- dence. The South opted for inde- South and even within his move- tive, separate and in some cases mu- pendence on the basis of Northern ment. For southerners, who over- tually hostile. The identities that are reassurances that their concerns whelmingly preferred separation, it currently in conflict are the result of would be given ‘serious consider- was incongruent with their aspira- a historical legacy characterised by a ation’. However, the North quickly tions, and in any case was utopian, form of slavery that classified groups reneged on promises to Southerners since the North could never allow into a superior race of masters and and stepped into the British colonial it. For the North, it was arrogant inferior enslaveable peoples. The shoes. As internal colonisers, North- and, at best, naïve. The fighting men North, two-thirds of the country’s ern governments sought to impose and women in the South took it as a land and population, is inhabited by Arabisation and Islamisation as the clever ploy to allay the fears of those ethnic groups, the more dominant bases of a unified homogeneous opposed to separation within Sudan, of which intermarried with incoming Sudan. the international community and the Arab male migrants and traders and, Organisation of African Unity (later over centuries, produced a mixed Southern opposition to impending the African Union). Their attitude African-Arab racial group that resem- Arab domination began in August was reflected in the Dinka saying bles the African peoples south of the 1955, six months before indepen- popular among fighters: “Ke tharku, Sahara. Indeed, the Arabic phrase, dence, when a battalion of southern angicku,” “What we are fighting for, Bilad al-Sudan (‘land of the blacks’) soldiers in the town of Torit muti- we know.” While Garang was talking refers to all of those sub-Saharan ter- nied and fled with their weapons. the language of a united Sudan, they ritories. Arab immigration and settle- Their protest escalated into a rebel- were fighting for secession. ment in the South were blocked by lion which resulted in a civil war that distance, environmental barriers, the was to rage intermittently for over Central to Garang’s philosophy was harsh tropical climate and resistance half a century. the conviction that the dichotomy of the warrior Nilotic tribes. Those between the Arab-Islamic North and Arabs who ventured southwards The initial conflict, secessionist in the African South is largely fictional. were primarily slave raiders, driven its objective, lasted until 1972 and While the North has been labelled by commerce, not interest in Arabis- ended in a compromise – the Addis Arab, even those who can trace ing and Islamising the South. Ababa Agreement – that granted the their genealogy to Arab origins are South regional autonomy and ush- a hybrid of Arab and African races As the dominant partner in the ered in a precarious decade of peace. and even their culture is an Afro- Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, the Its subsequent unilateral abrogation Arab mix. Significant portions of the British ended slavery and effectively by the government led by Gaafer country in the Nuba and Ingassana governed the country as two sepa- Nimeiri – the military strongman who or Funj areas bordering the South rate colonies. They developed the ironically had made it possible in the are as African as any further south in North as an Arab-Muslim society and first place – led to the resumption of the continent. The Beja in the Eastern forged in the South an identity that hostilities in 1983. Southerners were part of the country are also indige- was indigenously African, exposed to incensed by Nimeiri’s embracing of nously Sudanese. The Fur and several Western influences through Christian Islamism, his redrawing of North- other ethnic groups in Darfur to the missionaries, but otherwise denied South borders to incorporate south- far west are black African. And, in any political, economic, social or ern oilfields and plans to construct FMR 24 African renaissance: towards a New Sudan 7

most cases, these non-Arab pockets with the international community. Is- work in progress. Its main shortcom- SUDAN of the North, though predominantly lam, rather than Arab race or culture, ing was the asymmetrical relation- adherents of Africanised Islam, have was their only weapon for mobilising ship between the North and the been almost as marginalised as the the Northern majority. South which would have facilitated people of the South. The vision of gradual assimilation of the South by the New Sudan therefore promised CPA and Addis Ababa the North rather than equitable inte- to liberate all these people and to gration that would make diversity a create a country of genuine plural- The Addis Ababa Agreement gave source of enrichment. ism and equality, with a greater southerners a corner of the country influence for the previously margin- within which to exercise a limited On 9 January 2005, the Govern- alised African groups. degree of autonomy while major ment of the Sudan (GoS) and the national and international issues SPLM/A signed the Comprehensive Over time Garang’s constructive were left to be determined by the Peace Agreement (CPA). The CPA has approach neutralised those opposed centre. The agreement did not pro- brought peace between the North to secession in the North, Africa and vide the South with a financial base and the South and the neighbouring the world, and rallied support for and southern ministers remained regions of the Nuba Mountains and justice in a reconstructed Sudan. dependent on the goodwill of central Southern Blue Nile. The CPA gives Garang incrementally challenged the government and President Nimeiri the South the right to secede through whole country with the prospects of for revenues. a referendum to be exercised after a a nation enriched, rather than rav- six-year interim period and stipu- ished, by its racial, ethnic, religious However, the agreement was lates that unity be made an attractive and cultural diversity. His dream significant in that it gave interim option during the interim period. began to appeal to those non-Arab recognition to Sudan’s ethnic, cul- It also offers the Nuba Mountains groups that had been subsumed tural and religious diversity while and Southern Blue Nile significant under the Arab-Islamic umbrella opening channels of interaction regional autonomy. To a significant and, eventually, even to northern and mutual influence that would, extent, the CPA ensures a more liberals as many began to question over time, allow for the evolution of symmetrical or equitable relation be- their assumed ‘Arab’ identity. This an integrative national unity. That tween the North and the South than national identity ‘renaissance’ began identity would no longer emphasise was available under the Addis Ababa to challenge the dominant Arab- the divisive elements but would Agreement. SPLM/A Leader Islamic establishment. The reaction instead highlight that which, though John Garang of the establishment throughout The South now has its own govern- unrecognised, is in common, as the and Sudanese the 1990s was to adopt a radical of- basis for mutual self-identification ment. The Government of South Sudan Vice-President fensive posture that fuelled Islamic as Sudanese. In many ways, the (GoSS) is fully independent of north- Ali Osman Taha fundamentalism and led to a sharp Addis Ababa Agreement was a major ern interference, has its own army, during peace talks deterioration in Sudan’s relations achievement but also a phase of a its own resource base, access to oil in Kenya. IRIN 8 African renaissance: towards a New Sudan FMR 24

international community, hope that unity will be made attractive to the South during the interim period. As the non-Arab peripheries challenge the status quo, the country is called upon to transform itself and start constructing an inclusive framework of national identity in which all Suda- nese would find a sense of belonging as equal citizens. The choice for the Arab centre is to play a positive role in the equitable reconstruction of the

SUDAN country. Given the genocidal nature of identity conflicts, the interna- tional community will continue to be needed not only to fill the vacuum of national responsibility and to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to the civilian population but also to promote the cause of a

Sudan Mirror just and comprehensive peace, the only credible and viable means of revenues and control of its own Al-Bashir endorsed Salva Kiir as the preventing genocide. branch of the National Bank, which, First Vice-President of the Republic. unlike its northern counterpart, will While leaders in the North and South The millions of people who ac- adhere to conventional – rather than committed themselves to pursu- claimed Garang on his triumphant Islamic – banking principles. Sudan ing Garang’s vision of a New Sudan, return to Khartoum to be sworn is to have a national foreign policy many fear that Garang’s death has in as First Vice-President were not which will allow the South to develop left a vacuum. Sudan has been only southerners but people from bilateral relations with international deprived of a man poised to address around the country. Garang’s vision trade and development partners. In the country’s myriad crises, to bring had captured the imagination of the the Government of National Unity to the East and Darfur the skills to nation and had become a spectacular announced in September 2005, the facilitate peace and reconciliation he success. Even opponents grudgingly SPLM and other southern representa- had displayed in his native South. went along with the waves of change. tives have ministerial power within an arrangement set out in the CPA Given the fact that this is a peace Garang raised the South and the Su- which gives the ruling National accord between opposite poles of an dan as a whole to heights previously Congress Party 52% of the places, acutely divided country, it remains never conceived. Will those to whom the SPLM 28%, other northern parties to be seen whether this much-needed he has passed the baton – north- 14% and other southern parties 6%. peace will be sustainable. Several erners and southerners – allow the In order to maintain agreed quotas other regions of the country – fore- nation to fall from those heights? and reflect Sudan’s ethnic and politi- most among them Darfur in the West Or will they come together and join cal balance, several ministries will be and the Beja region in the East – are with those who opposed Garang to represented by a minister and a state still up in arms against the Arab cen- pursue this vision that will give all minister. tre. Though Muslim and Arabised in stakeholders their rights, whether varying degrees, they now see them- their preference be partition or the This complex framework has been selves as non-Arab, marginalised unity of the nation? In six years time threatened by Garang’s sudden death and discriminated against on racial southerners have the right to decide in a helicopter crash on 30 July 2005. grounds. While marginalised groups to secede or remain in a united Su- He had led the SPLM/A for 22 years in Kordofan, including those who dan. The North and Sudan’s interna- and, together with First Vice-Presi- have been generally labelled as ‘Arab’ tional friends have been presented dent, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, had though reflecting strong African with an historic opportunity to make been pivotal in the negotiations that features and cultural characteristics, unity attractive to the South. led to the CPA. He had been sworn in still identify with the Arab centre, as First Vice-President and President dissident voices are complaining Francis Mading Deng is Research of Southern Sudan only three weeks about their marginalisation. Even Professor of International Politics, previously. His death sent shock the Nubians of the North, in recent Law and Society, Johns Hopkins waves throughout the Sudan and generations close to Egypt and the University, Washington DC. A devastated the millions of southern- Arab world, are reviving their pride former Sudanese Minister of State ers who saw him as a redeemer. in their ancient Nubian civilisation for Foreign Affairs and Sudanese and disavowing the Arab label. Ambassador to the USA, Scandi- The SPLM/A acted promptly by navia and Canada, he was the electing Garang’s deputy, Salva Kiir Sudan poised at critical Representative of the UN Secretary- Mayardit, to succeed him as Chair- juncture General on Internally Displaced man of the SPLM, Commander-in- Persons from 1992 to 2004. Email: Chief of the SPLA and President The forces favouring unity within [email protected] of Southern Sudan. In the spirit of the Sudan, and in the region and the the CPA, President Omar Hassan FMR 24 9 Joint Assessment Mission SUDAN provides road-map for peace by Jon Bennett The Joint Assessment Mission (JAM) for Sudan has poorest, most disadvantaged parts of the country – in particular southern broken new ground in post-conflict planning by work- Sudan and the contested states of Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile and ing with key local and international actors to develop a Abyei (known as the Transitional strategic vision for reconstruction and recovery. or Three Areas). Two thirds of the initial recovery costs presented in udan is at a critical junc- but rather an inclusive exercise the JAM are to be met from domestic ture.” This is the opening in strategic ‘vision’ planning for a (mostly oil) resources, with only one “ sentence of the Framework country with huge potential, yet S third from international donors. for Sustained Peace, Development torn apart by political, social and and Poverty Eradication, the docu- economic inequality. Consolidating a Key immediate necessities include ment presented to donors earlier this still-tenuous peace requires a rapid security, reconciliation and peace year as an outcome of the Joint As- and visible redress of the underly- building, meeting food security sessment Mission. The January 2005 ing structural causes of conflict and requirements and enabling the sus- Comprehensive Peace Agreement underdevelopment. Redistribution tainable return of displaced persons. (CPA)1 formally ended war between of wealth must be accompanied by This requires the establishment of the Khartoum government and the an overhaul of the governance ap- basic structures and institutions of insurgent Sudan People’s Liberation paratus. Without these issues very participatory governance and respect Movement (SPLM). firmly on the table, neither the donor for human rights. Access to land community nor the domestic audi- is an immediate issue and, in the The CPA was the culmination of a ence was going to take seriously the medium term, marketing reforms are process primarily fostered by the blueprint presented in the JAM. needed, alongside a reorientation of Intergovernmental Authority on resources from the military towards Development (IGAD), a seven-country The peculiarity of Sudan is that it investment in productive sectors regional development organisation.2 is now poised – thanks to its newly (traditional agriculture, livestock and IGAD brokered the talks which in acquired oil wealth – to become one the private sector), social services July 2002 led to the signing by the of Africa’s richest countries while and infrastructure in long-disadvan- Government of Sudan (GoS) and the simultaneously having some of the taged parts of the country. Key to SPLM of the Machakos Protocol.3 continent’s worst human develop- this will be shifting national wealth 4 ment indicators. Thus, the whole towards state and local governments In July 2005, six months after the thrust of the JAM was not to raise signing of the CPA, a new Govern- while building their capacity to de- external aid (though this is impor- liver basic services. ment of National Unity was sworn in, tant in the early post-war years) but though it took another two months rather to redress the imbalances Southern Sudan is starting from for ministers to be named. The shock of wealth through a fundamental a much lower level in terms of of the death some three weeks later restructuring of the economy and institutional capacity and socio- of John Garang, Sudan’s first Vice- political landscape of the country. economic development. Key educa- President and founder and leader The measure of success would be in tion and health indicators, such as of the SPLM, might have created a placing Sudan firmly on the road to child and maternal mortality and major setback but this was not the achieving the Millennium Develop- primary enrolment, are among the case. The government includes 30% ment Goals (MDGs). worst in the world. Infrastructure representation from the SPLM. For is virtually non-existent, with no the first time southern Sudan has its As global uncertainties continue to paved roads outside the main urban own government the (Government of push up oil prices the GoS’s revenues centres. A civil service and struc- Southern Sudan – GoSS) and there is will continue to increase. However, tures for service delivery must be agreement on how to share the coun- unless the absorptive capacity of the created essentially from scratch. The try’s growing oil wealth. Sudan now GoSS to handle revenues is quickly strategy in the South is to promote not only has to overcome the huge increased, and unless accountable rural development through emphasis social and economic challenges of and transparent governance is de- on basic infrastructure to support a ‘failed state’ but also the political veloped, oil revenues could – as has intraregional, North-South and inter- challenge of proving the viability of a happened in Angola and other post- national trade linkages, agricultural unified nation. The alternative, after conflict states – result in corruption productivity and expanded access a six-year Interim Period culminating and the entrenchment of unaccount- to basic social services, especially in a referendum to decide the future able elites. education. Through the CPA the of southern Sudan, could be Sudan’s GoSS will have access to substantial dissolution into two separate states. Immediate needs domestically generated revenue but With stakes this high, the JAM was additional resources will be needed, always going to be more than simply The JAM covers the six-year Interim particularly for technical assistance a technical exercise. It was certainly Period, with a focus on the critical and humanitarian needs. not a traditional needs assessment ‘first phase’ (2005-07), and on the 10 Joint Assessment Mission provides road-map for peace FMR 24

Any lasting peace depends on a dura- – played a central role in the war JAM as a process ble solution for the millions of IDPs between North and South. Situated and refugees who have languished, on the frontline of the civil war, they Sudan’s JAM exercise was unprec- in some cases for a whole genera- are at the heart of national and local edented in duration, scope and com- tion, in camps and urban areas. Of contests over resources, particularly plexity. Initially planned as an 11- the country’s estimated six million water, land and oil. The Three Areas week intensive process, it ended up IDPs, at least four million have been have a population of around 3.9 running for 15 months and turned displaced by the war in the South. It million, of whom 30% live in areas into a unique post-conflict needs is expected that, although most will controlled by the SPLM. Due to their assessment. At the outset national return, as many as a third of those geographical position 30% of the teams were inadequately prepared, based in or around Khartoum will re- population of the region have been particularly in the South where it main. So far, some 200,000 IDPs and displaced – around 75% of the inhab- took six months to develop a viable

SUDAN refugees have returned to southern itants of Abyei have fled the area or SPLM team. Time was needed to Sudan and the Three Areas, add- are displaced within the state. The build consensus among a huge diver- ing to the more than 500,000 who Three Areas will see a large inflow of sity of stakeholders – IGAD, the UN, returned in 2004. returnees and serve as major transit the World Bank, proto-governmental, routes for returning civil society, NGOs, bilateral donors Any lasting peace depends on a durable populations and aid agencies. Building trust be- tween and within the national parties solution for the millions of IDPs and refugees Protocols agreed be- involved months of dialogue. tween the Government The UN programme, supported by of Sudan and the SPLM The delay in augmenting the Macha- NGOs and a joint GoS/SPLM Sus- recognise the special status of the kos Protocol with a formal peace tainable Returns Team, is based on Three Areas but leave many ques- agreement was unexpected. However, several key priorities: tions unresolved. In Abyei there once it became clear that talks in are provisions for a referendum on the Kenyan town of Naivasha had ■ prevent and ameliorate the effects whether to remain part of the North reached an impasse, and the CPA of demolitions and other actions or join the South. Southern Kordofan would not be signed in early 2004 which could lead to coerced move- and Blue Nile have special autonomy as intended, the Core Coordination ment and will make submissions to the Group (CCG) of JAM recognised the ■ address gaps in coverage ac- Presidency of the Government of need for a preparatory phase to build cording to general vulnerability National Unity on how to implement capacity and broaden understanding criteria in order to ensure that the CPA in the region. of the JAM’s aims and objectives. IDPs at least have the same living The risk of fatigue was outweighed standards as host populations Food security in the Three Areas by the opportunity to reflect and ■ ensure that IDPs have access to remains fragile and land ownership possibly influence the peace process existing services highly inequitable. Existing tensions by concentrating on a strategic plan- ■ ensure that the displaced can between pastoralist and farmers ning process that looked beyond the make informed decisions through over the use of natural resources negotiation difficulties. The level of the provision of information, legal have been exacerbated by the spread participation from the parties and advice and counselling. of large-scale mechanised farming from the wider international com- and oil exploration. The return of munity was unprecedented in recent The revised 2005 UN Work Plan5 in- IDPs and refugees is likely to result post-conflict needs assessments. cludes provisions to: (a) ensure that in increased conflict over access to returnees have minimum humani- ancestral land. The presence or fear Personnel and capacity constraints in tarian assistance through dispersal of mines continues to be an obstacle the SPLM became evident as individ- centres for the first phase of return to productive use of land in some uals assigned to the JAM were also to avoid additional burden on receiv- areas, while other areas suffer from involved in Naivasha. In Khartoum ing communities; and (b) strengthen over-usage due to the returning the GoS team struggled to raise en- basic services in the communities of population. thusiasm for the process. Although return, ensuring that current levels much of the technical work of the of per capita services for residents Levels of access to safe drinking wa- JAM could be done, protracted secu- are maintained. Aid workers are to ter, improved sanitation and health rity and implementation discussions be properly trained on general pro- services are low. Maternal mortal- in Naivasha inevitably led to further tection matters to adequately report ity ratio (MMR) is estimated at 582 delays. Fortunately the signing of and seek redress for protection deaths per 100,000 live births, one of protocols in June 2004 lifted the concerns encountered while imple- the highest in Sudan. Although over- JAM beyond rhetorical promise and menting assistance. To the extent all there is more poverty and fewer provided a political and institutional practicable, host populations will services in the SPLM areas, there are framework that paved the way for also be included in needs assessment marginalised groups in all parts of intensive and productive dialogue. and programme design. the transitional belt whose needs It allowed the convening of a joint must be understood. The physical GoS/SPLM workshop in Nairobi at The Three Areas isolation of the SPLM-controlled part which for the first time both sides of Abyei and of Southern Blue Nile agreed on the conceptual framework Abyei, Blue Nile State and Southern leads to shortages, or extremely high of the JAM. The outline of the final Kordofan/Nuba Mountains – known prices, for many goods. report was agreed, along with an as the Transitional or Three Areas understanding that: FMR 24 Joint Assessment Mission provides road-map for peace 11

■ needs would be disaggregated political, and sometimes ambigu- to argue for strong conditionality SUDAN into four categories covering the ous, elements of the Naivasha within the JAM appeal. It was neces- Government of National Unity, Protocols into concrete proposals sary to make some compromises South, northern states and the ■ develop a set of common objec- over language, removing the more Three Areas. tives as a basis for a Poverty accusatory phrases from cluster ■ JAM interventions would start Eradication Strategy reports drafted by internationals. concurrently with the six-year ■ develop ‘urgent needs’ pro- This was particularly so for Cluster Interim Period, while other instru- grammes, particularly relating to 2 (Governance). The GoS argued ments would meet existing and the return of IDPs and refugees that it would be difficult to sell emergency needs. ■ lay the groundwork for two multi- the JAM to its own constituency if ■ missions would be undertaken donor trust funds (one for the such language remained. The major in the Three Areas with efforts North, one for the South) for the sticking point was over the histori- made to instruct local authorities receipt of external development cal analysis of ‘marginalisation’ of of cross-line movements by JAM funding. certain ethnic, religious or geo- teams. graphical populations. The SPLM felt The JAM’s CCG has now been re- that this lay at the very heart of the The work of the JAM was organised placed by the Joint National Transi- peace agreement; the GoS wished to into nine cluster groups6 which pro- tion Team (JNTT), a Sudanese-led confine such an analysis to historical vided reference and consultation for body with international observers interpretation. visiting missions and were directly (donors, UN, World Bank) invited to consulted over the final reports. attend. At the Oslo Donors Confer- No process is ever perfect, and there They were open to any donor/NGO/ ence on Sudan in April 2005 the are still rumblings of discontent UN agency with relevant skills. The JNTT’s presentation of the country’s from those allegedly ‘excluded’ from arrangement was more effective in development priorities marked the the JAM dialogue. Certainly, the the South, perhaps due to a greater first time that the parties to the CPA omission of Darfur and the politi- cohesion among operational agen- presented a unified proposal to the cal expediency of having only the cies, the personal commitment of international community. The JNTT SPLM and GoS as main interlocutors the deputy RC/HC and the presence is now using the cluster reports as a limited the scope of the document. of a greater number of development basis for reshaping the programmat- But the JAM was, first and foremost, (as opposed to purely humanitarian) ic outline provided by the JAM into a declaration of intent and com- agencies. firm project proposals for submis- mitment by those forming the new sion to national authorities and the government(s). It contains measur- The JAM has helped to: Multi-Donor Trust Funds [see p23]. able benchmarks – a check list of indicators for each six months until ■ build capacity in southern Sudan The realpolitik of needs the end of 2007. This, more than and aid the birth of the new state assessment anything, has convinced the inter- apparatus national community of its ultimate ■ prepare key stakeholders in the In the closing stages of the JAM, worth. A great deal of work is need- North for relinquishing some some concern was expressed by ed to put more flesh on the skeleton responsibilities under the agreed international observers that human of Sudan’s recovery but the JAM has ‘one country, two systems’ rights were not given sufficient started the process. ■ re-shape governance structures prominence. Concern at atrocities in by emphasising the need for Darfur and the legacy of the many Jon Bennett, UN Team Leader, decentralised government and human rights violations perpe- JAM, is an independent consultant fiscal reallocations within a fed- trated by all protagonists during the and director of Oxford Develop- eral state – thus translating the North/South war led some advocates ment Consultants. Email: jon. [email protected]. UN Secretary- JAM final report and cluster team General Kofi reports are online at: www.unsu- Annan listens to danig.org/JAM tribal leaders in Sudan. 1. www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EVIU- 6AZBDB?OpenDocument 2. www.igad.org 3. www.usip.org/library/pa/sudan/sudan_macha- kos07202002_toc.html 4. Sudan is ranked 139th in UNDP’s 2004 Human Development Report. At $1,820 pa, Sudan’s per capita GDP is more than double that of most other conflict-affected states in Africa. http:// hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/country_fact_ sheets/cty_fs_SDN.html 5. http://ochaonline.un.org/cap2005/webpage. asp?MenuID=6282&Page=1217 6. Institutional Development and Capacity Build- ing; Governance/Rule of Law; Economic Policy and Management; Productive Sectors; Basic Social Services; Infrastructure; Livelihoods and Social Protection; and Information. IRIN 12 FMR 24 Reflections on making peace In an interview in Khartoum, Dr Taj es-Sir Mahjoub, Taj es-Sir: Civil society was involved. We conducted a number of sessions co-leader of the Government of Sudan’s Core Team dur- for civil society organisations and political parties, which did cre- ing the peace negotiations and former State Minister at ate ownership of the JAM exercise. the Ministry of Labour and Administrative Reform, spoke We even went further by including several civil society representatives about the JAM with Dr Christoph T Jaeger, recruited by in the national teams and in some of SUDAN UNDP to lead JAM’s Cluster 2 (Governance and the the joint workshops. We launched a number of programmes in the form Rule of Law). of open fora to disseminate the Christoph Jaeger: Compared to high, which sometimes adversely af- results of the Oslo conference and previous JAM exercises in Liberia or fected rational thinking, whereas the to inform the public about it via the Iraq, the Sudan JAM lasted a long JAM engagements were very objec- media. In addition the conference time. Could the process have been tive in jointly dealing with common itself was attended by civil society shortened? issues. I personally enjoyed the JAM members and the press people who exercise because it provided me with did publicise the outcome of the Taj es-Sir: We insisted JAM should an opportunity to create rapport Oslo conference. I think one unique start before the finalisation of the with the SPLM participants and our aspect of the Sudan JAM, which peace negotiations, because we were international partners. It also provid- makes it different from all the other sure that we would successfully ed us with an opportunity to analyse JAMs, is the inclusion of the civil conclude the peace negotiations and our common denominators, to air society organisations in all the activi- needed time to produce a thorough our points of difference and manage ties from the preparatory phase up piece of work to which the interna- them effectively and professionally. to the conference itself. Two days tional community would respond JAM provided us with opportunities prior to the Oslo conference two positively. to identify the needs of the whole of workshops were convened in Oslo, Sudan by working together and this one for civil society organisations Christoph Jaeger: Cluster 2 was the is one very important step towards and one for women. We definitely only one without a World Bank Co- eventually achieving national unity. need to publicise JAM and Oslo more Leader. Much of what would nor- and are in the process of doing so mally be considered as governance Christoph Jaeger: How has JAM af- – including via the pages of FMR. subjects – especially decentralisation fected the prospects of future collabo- issues – was instead dealt with by ration and cohabitation of the two Christoph Jaeger: The topics related the World Bank-oriented Cluster 1. parties within the national govern- to Cluster 2 were politically sensitive. Was this separation of issues into two ment to be formed in mid-July 2005? Human rights, the functioning of the quite different Clusters a good idea? judiciary and the legal administra- Taj es-Sir: I think the JAM process tion, the role of law enforcement Taj es-Sir: We considered Cluster 2 will have a positive influence on the agencies and the independence of the as the supporting pillar for all Clus- future collaboration and cohabita- press are issues on which the inter- ters and a critical cross-cutting issue. tion of the two parties because it national community has disagreed That is why we gave it more atten- provides a thorough strategic plan with the government. The language tion. I was happy with the separa- for the six years of the Interim Pe- used by many of the original drafters tion of the two clusters but I hoped riod. This will make it easier for the was often considered unacceptable to for more coordination because you two parties to work together in the the government but a watered down can hardly have good governance prospective national government. It presentation may have failed to pro- without dealing also with issues such started out with the joint presenta- vide the impact needed for the Oslo as legal and constitutional affairs or tion of the outcome in Oslo and also Donors Conference. Are you satisfied decentralised government. in the joint visits to some countries with the result and the edited version as an indication that we see eye-to- of the cluster report? Christoph Jaeger: For three years eye on our requirements for recovery you were part of the government and reconstruction. Taj es-Sir: We do not agree with negotiation team during the Macha- those observers who thought that kos/Naivasha peace process. Was Christoph Jaeger: According to Cluster 2 issues were sensitive. The working with the SPLM in the JAM the Machakos Protocol, the peace themes in Cluster 2 – the role of process different from the previous process after the conclusion of the the judiciary and law enforcement negotiations? CPA should be inclusive of all politi- agencies etc – are topics that we cal forces and civil society. Do you ourselves are concerned with. The Taj es-Sir: The engagement of both feel that civil society was sufficiently language was watered down not parties in the JAM process greatly involved, that all Sudanese have a because the government considered contributed to the successful conclu- sense of ownership of the JAM report it unacceptable but in order to make sion of the peace agreement. In the and that they know the results of the it culturally acceptable – something peace negotiations, emotions were Oslo Conference? which people often find difficult to FMR 24 Reflections on making peace 13

understand. I think the final report given due consideration. In the infra- in order to ensure timely building of SUDAN submitted did describe correctly and structure cluster we emphasised the capacity. sufficiently the issues mentioned urgent needs for priority attention to above. If you look at the monitoring improving rail and river transport to Christoph Jaeger: The Sudanese matrix you will see that all these is- ensure the smooth return of IDPs. people and the international commu- sues are very sufficiently addressed. nity are expecting reforms, especially The peace agreement talks about Christoph Jaeger: In Oslo donors in the areas dealt with under Cluster these same issues and people are pledged some $4.5bn. Did this 2, in order to give Sudan a chance to now in the process of putting them amount surprise you? Do you expect stay united during the forthcoming into the proper Sudanese context. pledges to be honoured? Does Sudan, Interim Period. Will these reforms be particularly the South, have the implemented? Christoph Jaeger: A key issue which absorptive capacity to utilise these must be addressed to make peace funds in an effective and efficient Taj es-Sir: I assure you that there sustainable is reintegration and manner? is sufficient political will to face return of IDPs and refugees. Clus- the monumental tasks ahead of us. ters 2 and 7 (Livelihood and Social Taj es-Sir: I was not surprised with Necessary reforms needed, which are Protection) primarily addressed this the result of the pledges because we included in the monitoring matrix of issue. Do you think that the fact that had done our homework and pre- the Oslo document, will be imple- the international teams of the two sented a convincing report. We feel mented because we are interested Clusters had practically no contacts that the international community is in achieving sustainable peace and and relations with each other have genuinely committed to ending the creating the necessary groundwork had a negative impact? Have IDP longest running war in Africa. I think for the future development of the and refugee issues received sufficient we have a reasonably good absorp- country. We will convince our inter- attention? tive capacity. Capacity building was national partners that we are up to the task of one of the JAM Clusters. the challenge. Taj es-Sir: The issue of IDPs and ref- We were encouraged by the fact that ugees has been extensively covered the World Bank approved support Dr Taj es-Sir Mahjoub: email particularly in Cluster 7 and most of from the LICUS (Low Income Country [email protected]; the issues concerning the IDPs and Under Stress) fund even before the Dr Christoph T Jaeger: email the return of the refugees have been conclusion of the peace agreement [email protected] The role of the international community by Gunnar M Sørbø The Comprehensive Peace Agreement represents a ma- far-reaching political challenges to be faced and the high expectations jor opportunity for positive change and sustainable peace that the government and the SPLM in Sudan. History shows, however, that the potential for have built up since the CPA was signed. peace breaking down is great. Continued engagement of Secondly, international assistance the international community could prove crucial. must be sufficiently coordinated. Coordination is often complicated, utbreaks of war and violence conference in April 2005 generated however, by the fact that several have followed the failure of substantial commitments of $4.5bn large agencies tend to be involved peace agreements in several but such gatherings have a track O in various aspects as well as by the African countries, leading to high record of disbursing smaller sums presence of different actors in the death tolls, enormous human suf- than promised over a far longer time UN system and numerous NGOs fering and great destruction. The period than initially expected. Do- financed bilaterally through donors. lack of sustained and coordinated nors have made clear their discom- In Afghanistan, donors and aid agen- international engagement has been fort at releasing funds while violence cies acknowledged the importance a significant contributory factor in persists in Darfur and already there of having a distinct coordination these cases. The importance of the have been problems in securing structure that initially was located international community’s role must funds for humanitarian needs in in the office of the deputy Special not be ignored in Sudan’s transition southern Sudan. The rudimentary Representative of the Secretary- to peace. capabilities of the government in General (SRSG). Without budgetary the South will also make it difficult and staffing power over the agencies, Steps towards peace to meet donor requirements for however, the SRSG had little capacity transparency and efficiency in use of to facilitate coordination – and the Firstly, donors must honour the funds. This seems likely to lead to a international financial institutions pledges made to support the Sudan slow take-off for the new post-war were furthermore outside his formal peace process. The Oslo donor era – a dangerous situation given the 14 The role of the international community FMR 24

It is generally agreed that the international commu- nity has made progress in recent years in its capac- ity to plan and implement the emergency phase of a peace mission. However, there has been a focus on crisis rather than long-term development and insuffi- cient attention to building capacity. Such weaknesses SUDAN will need to be minimised or eliminated if peace is to be successfully implement- ed in Sudan.

In order to develop effec- tive strategies for ending Sudan’s various conflicts, one must first understand their complex dynamics and the various interests involved in perpetuating them. IRIN

Jan Pronk, authority. As a result, coordination ing the possible limitations of a Most importantly, success UN Secretary- followed the usual voluntary format. unified mission approach under the will primarily depend on the Suda- General’s Special In an innovative move, the formal current UN structure. Still, a coordi- nese themselves assuming major represenative responsibility for coordination was nated approach will be crucial and, if responsibility for the implementa- for Sudan, with subsequently taken over by the Af- UNMIS proves insufficient, it may be tion of the CPA, coordination and aid African Union ghan authorities. bolstered by coordination mecha- management. The international com- troops in Nyala, munity must not be seen as interfer- Darfur. nisms whereby actors are required to Strategic coordination – as distinct work within a common operational ing too much in policy making and from tactical coordination of pro- framework. Experience grammes – entails the streamlining shows that this is easier of the policy interests of external to achieve if there is a inappropriate aid can fuel war and erode actors. Though emerging consen- continuity of key actors rather than enhance local capacity sus among the major actors on (from negotiating stage what constitutes principles of good through implementation day-to-day activities. Appropriate aid governance has improved prospects stage) and/or if there are groups can help build peace but inappropri- of coordination, divisions remain. In of ‘Friends’ to act as a significant ate aid can fuel war and erode rather Rwanda, donors were deeply divided source of strategic coordination than enhance local capacity. Coor- over how far they could morally put among bilateral actors and a means dination, therefore, is not just for pressure on the post-genocide gov- by which the SRSG or others may external actors to achieve but also ernment on any governance issue. bolster their authority and powers of for the host government to manage. In Afghanistan, donors are divided coordination. Sudan must truly ‘own’ the process. on how far to promote human rights There must be a progressive transfer and democracy lest they endanger Thirdly, it must be recognised that of technical and political manage- stability. And in the Balkans, Cambo- the reality of peacebuilding and re- ment of aid. This will take time, dia and Afghanistan, important ex- construction in Sudan, as elsewhere, particularly in the south, and will ternal actors have diverging interests lies in power and politics. Outsid- require great sensitivity and aware- and priorities. The ‘war on terror’ ers must be sensitive and not push ness on the part of all those involved has further divided US and European ahead of the local political dynam- in bringing peace to Sudan, Africa’s actors on matters of when and how ics. Even an effective disarmament, largest and still divided country. to introduce governance measures in demobilisation and reintegration the only two post-9/11 cases so far programme requires deep up-to-date Gunnar M Sørbø is Director of CMI – Afghanistan and Iraq. There have knowledge of the political context (Chr. Michelsen Institute: www.cmi. also been serious divisions among and its dynamics. Sudan’s devel- no). Email: [email protected]

members of the UN Security Coun- opmental prospects will depend in 1. www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unmis/ cil on how to deal with the crisis in large measure on what coalition of Darfur. interest groups succeeds in dominat- Sudan Research Guide ing the peace and whether this coali- See www.forcedmigration.org/ The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS)1, tion supports progressive economic guides/fmo040/ for new Forced led by SRSG Jan Pronk, is expected to and social development. Migration Online Research Guide play a key role in peace implementa- on Sudan. tion but there are questions regard- FMR 24 15 The Comprehensive Peace SUDAN Agreement: will it also be dishonoured? by Luka Biong Deng The CPA offers a unique opportunity to resolve one of the arrival of the SPLM advance team in Khartoum for the first time in mid Africa’s most complicated and protracted civil wars and 2005, a group calling themselves the provide a new basis for national unity based on the free Legal Association of Muslims Schol- ars issued a fatwa labelling the SPLM will of the Sudanese people. Will the CPA be sustained? and its supporters as infidels and called for jihad against their ideology Can it survive threats from Islamic extremists and the of secularism. impact of the untimely death of Dr John Garang? CPA strengths he state of Sudan was arbi- Popular perceptions about the CPA trarily created by colonialists are positive. A series of focus group It took almost ten years to conclude without regard to the views interviews conducted towards the T the CPA, making it one of the longest of the concerned communities, end of 2004 by the National Demo- and most meticulously negotiated particularly the people of southern cratic Institute and the New Sudan peace agreements. Unlike previous Sudan. The way the northern ruling Centre for Statistics and Evaluation peace agreements in the Sudan it was elite rushed Sudan to independence indicated overwhelming support signed only after war-weary protago- via a unilateral declaration not based for the CPA and confidence that the nists were convinced that military on national consensus explains the SPLM has negotiated a fair deal.1 victory was not achievable. As such, fragility of nation building in the However, those who took part are the parties to the conflict concluded Sudan. Since independence in 1956, concerned about the future of the the CPA on a basis of parity, each Sudan has been at war with itself. peace as the SPLM has not decisively recognising the political and military Major conflicts (1955-1972 and won the war. All southern Sudanese strength of the other side. Despite 1982-2005) have led to the deaths of are aware of how previous peace the unpopularity of the National over two million people and massive agreements (Addis Ababa, 1972 and Congress Party it was bold enough displacement. Lack of consensus Khartoum, 1992) were unilaterally – unlike other northern political about the root causes of the recur- abrogated by the central government parties – to take the courageous rent internal wars largely explains in Khartoum. The precarious state political decision to accept southern why many peace agreements have of peace was summarised by a war Sudan’s right to self-determination. been dishonoured or not sustained. widow who noted during a discus- The parity nature of the CPA is one While northern Sudanese, particu- sion that: “This peace of ours is like of the inherent mechanisms that will larly the ruling elite, perceive civil a sick man in the hospital. You don’t undoubtedly contribute to the CPA’s war as a southern problem caused want to say for sure that he is going full implementation. by sinister international interference, to be coming home because, as long most southerners see the causes as as he is in the hospital and sick, he The CPA is also different from previ- rooted in ethnicity and religion. still might die.” ous agreements as it:

Urban bias and highly centralised The sustainability of peace will ■ provides for devolution of govern- regimes favouring populations living significantly hinge on stability in ment functions and powers – and around the capital city and central the transitional areas of Abyei, Nuba fiscal revenue decentralisation Sudan are a legacy of colonial- Mountains, Blue Nile (the Three Ar- – to allow people at appropriate ism. While the British sought to eas), Eastern Sudan and Darfur, areas levels to manage and direct their modernise the economy and build inhabited by the most marginalised own affairs infrastructures in the North, they rural Sudanese. Implementation of ■ makes provision for a Bill of entrusted Christian missionaries to the protocols for Nuba Mountains Rights, now enshrined in the provide moral guidance in the South, and Blue Nile will be a litmus test for new Interim National Constitu- an attribute judged to be needed the overall implementation of the tion, which obliges all levels of more than economic development. CPA in the other war-affected areas government to respect, uphold The socio-economic disparity created of the Sudan such as Darfur and and promote human rights and by lack of rural development during Eastern Sudan. fundamental freedoms colonial rule widened after inde- ■ gives the people of southern pendence. Profound socio-economic The most likely spoilers of the CPA Sudan their first opportunity to disparity generated the sense of are extremists frustrated that the exercise the right of self-determi- frustration and injustice that eventu- CPA limits their agenda to expand nation – a framework for ensur- ally led people in the South to resort Islamic and Arab influence into ing that the unity of the Sudan to armed struggle. southern Sudan and beyond. After 16 The Comprehensive Peace Agreement FMR 24

is based on the free will of its ment and Evaluation Commission: could articulate and reconcile the people the Commission’s main function overwhelming desire for the South ■ has detailed implementation will be to carry out a mid-term to peacefully secede with his vision modalities (the ‘Global Matrix’) evaluation of how the CPA is be- of giving unity a chance during the with measurable and scheduled ing implemented. six-year Interim Period. If his tragic mechanisms for effective moni- death encourages anti-New Sudan toring International commitment to rebuild- elements within the SPLM to speak ■ allows for the development of ing Sudan was confirmed by donor out in favour of secession, the pro- solid constitutional institutions generosity during the Oslo confer- cess of self-determination could be ■ contains an agreement to create ence in April 2005. The $4.53bn they endangered. The new leaders of the a new National Armed Forces pledged actually exceeds the external SPLM may find it extremely difficult consisting of the Sudan Armed humanitarian, recovery and develop- to make the vision of the New Sudan SUDAN Forces (SAF) and the Sudan ment needs assessed by the Sudan appealing to the people of southern People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) Joint Assessment Mission – but is Sudan. as separate, regular and non-par- slightly less if non-JAM programmes tisan armed forces with a mission such as Demobilisa- to defend constitutional order tion, Disarmament and Dr John Garang was seen as their saviour ■ has detailed arrangements for Reintegration (DDR) revenue transfers, the lack of and UN peace-keep- and liberator which was a key reason behind ing operations are the collapse of the Addis Ababa taken into account. If realised, these The CPA should be acknowledged as Peace Agreement. The fact that pledges will undoubtedly contribute a major achievement both for Sudan the Government of Southern Su- to sustaining peace, development, and for Africa. It offers a mechanism dan has been allocated 50% of net eradication of extreme poverty and to resolve complex issues of diversi- oil revenues generated from oil- hunger and attainment of the Millen- ty and identity and to set a new basis fields in southern Sudan provides nium Development Goals. for consensual national unity based the key economic guarantee for on the free will of the people. Those effective implementation of the Likely repercussions of the who worked so hard to achieve the CPA. death of John Garang CPA have attempted to meet most ■ has a large body of institutional expectations and have given the and national witnesses and For many rural marginalised Su- people of rural Sudan a chance to be defenders: the Intergovernmen- danese, Dr John Garang, the SPLM active participants in public affairs tal Authority on Development founder and leader, was seen as and decision making. (IGAD), the African Union, the Eu- their saviour and liberator, a beacon ropean Union, the League of Arab of their struggle and aspirations. Because of its organic and external States, the UN, Kenya, Uganda, Descriptions recorded during focus mechanisms, the CPA stands a bet- Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and group interviews included: “He is like ter chance than any other previous the USA have formally committed Jesus Christ”; “We consider Garang peace agreement. Any dishonouring themselves to playing a part in to be like Moses, who took his people of its provisions would be tanta- making peace a reality. away from Egypt”; “If John Garang mount to constitutional disorder and ■ has provided the international could be cloned 100 times, things might force the people of southern community with a major role would be great.” Dr John Garang was Sudan to unilaterally declare their within the independent Assess- undoubtedly the only person who independence. It is to be hoped that the CPA will survive the untimely death of the SPLM Leader.

Dr Luka Biong Deng is Director of the New Sudan Centre for Statistics and Evaluation. He was a member of the SPLM Peace Negotiating Team, Secretary of the Southern Sudan Constitutional Drafting Technical Committee and Head of the SPLM Information and Statistics Cluster for the Sudan Joint Assessment Mission. Email: [email protected]

1. www.accessdemocracy.org/library/1781_su_fo- cus_122004.pdf

The Interim Legislative Council of southern Sudan, which brings together many former military and political adversaries, was officially inaugurated on 30 September in Juba, the southern Sudanese capital. IRIN/Derk Segaar FMR 24 17 Developmental transformation SUDAN and peace consolidation in southern Sudan by Jeni Klugman and Emily Gosse Kallaur Building the capacity of the Government of Southern cronyism or even return to conflict. In recognition of these risks, the Sudan (GoSS) is the latest challenge in the transfor- SPLM worked with the Joint Assess- mation of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement ment Mission to produce a timeline for step-by-step implementation of (SPLM) from rebel movement to governing partner. reforms and programmes. Develop- ment of monitoring and evaluation ecognising the need to The peace requires that the SPLM capacity and structures must be a establish an administrative evolve from a liberation movement priority. Rarm to govern the territory into a political organisation ca- over which it had gained control, pable of leadership in a competitive Challenges ahead the SPLM set up the Civil Authority and democratic context. It has to for the New Sudan (CANS) as early demonstrate that it can prepare for In the SPLM-controlled South, the as 1996. While CANS has performed national elections and form legisla- average citizen has had a mere year some typical government functions, tive structures. Thus far, reforms of schooling, in a context where only the staff have not been paid regular necessitated by the CPA are behind 7% of teachers have had formal train- salaries or given formal contracts schedule due to a range of factors, ing. The GoSS must rapidly staff its of employment. Some are funded some related to capacity, others due civil service yet many skilled workers to differences with the government out of specific donor projects, while are located in ‘garrison towns’ (those in the North, with the situation made others have been supported by NGOs which remained under northern significantly more challenging with and, in some cases, by communities. control during the civil war) and the the death of First Vice-President, Dr Their lack of resources and equip- return of skilled southerners from John Garang de Mabior. Already in ment has meant that provision of the North and the diaspora is far July 2005, the International Crisis public goods has been minimal. To from assured. Group report had challenged the date, much of southern Sudan’s lim- SPLM to make good its promises to ited basic services has been provided An effective administration requires empower nascent civil institutions by the UN-led Operation Lifeline not only such physical infrastructure and noted that its lack of inclusive- Sudan, by externally-funded NGOs as office buildings and IT systems ness and transparent decision mak- operating independently of the CANS but, even more importantly, systems ing had persisted.1 ICG called on the and by groups of local citizens. that put in place basic standards for GoSS to establish an anti-corruption recruitment of staff, procurement commission (as planned), develop During the conflict, southern of goods and services, and manage- a code of conduct for officials and Sudan’s economy languished under ment and auditing of public resourc- stop making deals with oil compa- incredibly difficult constraints. In es. Technical assistance to help meet nies in violation of the spirit of the addition to basic insecurity and these needs is planned and urgently CPA. food shortages, there are no paved required. roads outside the major towns. While the SPLM has the political will Decentralisation is a further chal- Laying of land mines along key to implement the CPA it is stymied lenge for a formerly top-down transit routes has left communities by chronic lack of institutional movement. The CPA envisions isolated and unable to market their capacity and structures, a grave dan- empowerment of regional and local goods. Bridges have collapsed and ger at a time when unprecedented administrations, many of which cur- traditional trade links with neigh- resources are poised to flow into its rently lack any capacity or resources. bouring countries disrupted. In a coffers. The SPLM has been operat- The GoSS is faced with difficult region where per capita income is ing on a budget of about $10,000 per choices with respect to the roles and less than $100, and access to basic month but is expected to soon have relative size of the centre and local social services amongst the lowest in a monthly budget in the tens of mil- governments and the nature of inter- the world, people’s expectations for lions. While resources of this entirely governmental financial transfers. a tangible peace dividend are high. different order of magnitude can be However, there is a need to move to used to jumpstart development, ef- Southern Sudan has vast forest and capitalise on the window of opportu- fective utilisation of these resources mineral resources, great potential in nity to maximise the achievement of means that development of a skilled livestock and forestry and almost 50 the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and accountable public administra- million hectares of prime agricul- (CPA) and put the region on track to tion is a foremost priority. Without tural land but economic activity achieve the Millennium Development a cadre of people equipped to man- remains at a subsistence level. It Goals. age resources there are dangers of 18 Development transformation and peace consolidation FMR 24

is estimated that less than 1% of demand for goods and services. Starting a new chapter land with agricultural potential is However, opportunities do exist, under cultivation, while at the same especially in view of the likelihood of The successful signing of the CPA time food insecurity is chronic and a surge in construction and service has brought Sudan to the cusp of a widespread. Not only must the GoSS activity. The GoSS needs to facili- new chapter of its history, and the stimulate the southern economy by tate the growth of an effective and critical task for the Government of providing transport and other infra- reliable commercial banking sector National Unity and the GoSS will be structure to develop market towns and to enable Sudanese businesses to lift the country into peace, secu- but it needs to develop policies and to access information about new op- rity and sustainable development. regulations to attract private invest- portunities. ment locally and from abroad, and to Accountability and transparency will sustainably manage environmental At the local level, economic and be key. Southern Sudan’s emerging SUDAN resources. service delivery challenges will be civil society, assisted by the devel- compounded by the huge expected opment of a vibrant independent Formal private sector capacity re- influx of IDPs and refugees. Many media, will have a role in holding mains weak, making it likely that in will return to communities where in- the GoSS to account and promot- the initial phases of the post-conflict formal mechanisms for coping with ing reconciliation. The international era the GoSS will not have a strong shocks have been exhausted, where community also has a responsibil- domestic counterpart. International access to safe water is limited, and ity to provide financial support to post-conflict experience shows that where land has been tilled for years follow up on its commitments at distortions can arise from a concen- by those who remained behind. This the Oslo donors’ conference and tration of large numbers of civilian will put pressure on mechanisms to to help monitor the adherence of and military personnel who create resolve conflicts and heightens the the GOSS, and the National Govern- economic enclaves in terms of urgency of reviewing customary laws ment, to its commitments. At the Sudanese women and practices to integrate them into same time, donors must shift from work to clear mines a judicial system that can simultane- south of Yei. providing crisis-focused humanitar- ously respect international human ian assistance to a modern partner- rights principles (particularly with ship that recognises the importance respect to women) and recognise of country ownership and works southern Sudan’s rich traditions and to reduce the burdens on the GoSS diversity. by harmonising reporting require- ments, working as far as possible Fair and predictable legal and through such mechanisms as the judicial structures and professional Multi-Donor Trust Fund which pool law enforcement agencies need resources. For the GoSS, creating to be developed. Currently positive results on the ground will policing is mostly carried largely depend on mobilising capac- out by former soldiers ity, with the assistance of domestic not trained in civilian law and international partners, to tackle enforcement. A related daunting institutional and economic challenge is the trans- challenges. formation of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army Jeni Klugman is Lead Economist, (SPLA) from a guerrilla Sudan and Ethiopia, World Bank. liberation army into a She was Co-Team Leader (with professional standing Jon Bennett) of the Joint Assess- army as a component of ment Mission, Sudan. Email: Sudan’s National Armed [email protected]. Emily Forces. Gosse Kallaur is a research analyst in the Poverty Reduction Economic Management unit of the Africa region of the World Bank, and was a member of the JAM core team. Email: [email protected]

The views expressed in this article are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Direc- tors or the countries they represent.

1. www.crisisgroup.org/library/documents/af- rica/horn_of_africa/096_the_khartoum_splm_ agreement_sudan_uncertain_peace.pdf See also pp25-27. UNHCR/Mark Pearson FMR 24 19 Reflections on the Joint SUDAN

Assessment Mission by Michael Kevane The Joint Assessment Mission (JAM) Sudan was an idea of building roads. But the poor, in Sudan and elsewhere, know that open and consultative process – and has generated an their benefits go disproportionately to the rich. No doubt they would impressive archive for students of post-war reconstruction rather have bicycles, yet bicycles – but has paid insufficient attention to justice and failed merit no mention at all in the JAM documents. As Sudan rebuilds, there to offer a safety net for marginalised households. is a real danger that the smart and he so-called Government of million) then you have spending of the rich will take advantage of public National Unity, the Govern- about $160 per person. After sub- investment, while everyone else stays Tment of South Sudan and tracting modest bureaucratic, consul- at the bottom of the well. donors are committed, under the tancy and other delivery costs, this budget for development spending amounts to an annual payment of Another major, and related, short- presented by the JAM in May 2005, $150 for each poor person in Sudan coming of the JAM budget is that it to spending just under $8bn in the for the next few years. Most poor lacks any justice component. Those next two and a half years. people would undoubtedly prefer victimised by the perpetrators of to receive such a sum as an income the war are entitled to restitution. The budget is an interesting reflec- supplement rather than as a bundle The summary report avoids blam- tion of contemporary development of services. Why did the JAM authors ing any current power-holders thinking but also of continuing mis- assume that they could plan more – either in Khartoum or the SPLA placed priorities. Building schools, wisely, and government counterparts – for attacks on civilians, arming health clinics and roads takes up the in the GoS or SPLM could spend of proxy militia and human rights biggest chunk of the budget. When more effectively, than poor citi- violations. Diplomatic whitewash- public expenditures suddenly soar, zens in Bahr al-Ghazal or the Nuba ing leaves a lingering impression builders are the first beneficiaries. Mountains or the Red Sea Hills? that the only leader who bears any Land policy in southern Sudan is Why should we not trust Sudanese responsibility is Jaafar al-Numeiri, accorded $200,000 but, bizarrely, to make strategic and livelihoods- the military strongman ousted from $48m is allocated to the region’s enhancing choices – a farmer to buy power two decades ago. Sudan’s media. So 240 times more will be a younger and stronger donkey, civil war is instead presented as an spent on the media than on devel- parents to send their children to a almost inevitable bursting forth of oping policies to avert the risk that better school, or a tea-seller to invest local tensions arising from pressure land disputes will endanger peace. in another set of tea glasses? on a diminishing resource base. The The budget doctors have allocated JAM’s focus on local-level conflict $119m to the functioning of Sudan’s It is disappointing that no consid- implies that the poor – the pastoral- central bank but a mere $1.9m for eration seems to have been given to ists and the farmers who could not mainstreaming gender into govern- an income support scheme, at the get along – were responsible for war ment policy and practice. least for elderly women and families and now need to be taught how to with school-age children. Numer- cooperate. And since they were the cause of the war, and nothing was Why not give away the $8bn? ous studies have shown that these programmes can be just as effective taken from them, there needs to be When we consider that reconstruc- as government spending, and they no restitution. tion spending is to target around have ripple effects throughout the 20 million marginalised Sudanese private sector. Scholars involved with Sudan need Women draw water (of a total population of around 32 to remind policy makers that income from a borehole in Malualkon, Education and guarantee and restitution schemes, southern Sudan. roads are at the rather than state-led development, core of the JAM may be the preference of the poor. budget. One has Such schemes may be more effective to ask whether in alleviating poverty, generating the private sector growth and restoring justice. cannot manage education success- Michael Kevane, the outgoing Presi- fully, especially in dent of the Sudan Studies Associa- the south where tion (www.sudanstudies.org), teaches Christian mission- at the Department of Economics, aries and NGOs Santa Clara University, California. are more than Email: [email protected]. See also: willing to subsi- http://lsb.scu.edu/~mkevane/su- dise schooling. Ev- dan.htm erybody likes the IRIN 20 FMR 24 Standing up for the JAM

partnerships by Jeni Klugman and Maude Svensson

udan is a nation with enormous Prioritising needs is always a chal- out in Clusters 1, 2, and 7 and potential but where the poverty lenge. The UN has an extensive list of entail allocation of about 8-10% Sand living standards of many immediate needs for which financing of total JAM funds. This indicates of the people are among the worst is sought on an annual basis. How- the importance attached to them

SUDAN in the world. The level of public ever, the final JAM report focused on as many of these activities are services and investment has been the long term and what is needed to normally ‘software’ (capacity eroded over the decades of war and meet the aspirations of the Sudanese building, awareness raising, sen- conflict. Neither public nor private in terms of rural development, edu- sitisation etc) and thus consider- investments have reached poor and cation, health and water by building ably cheaper than such ‘hardware’ marginalised areas of the country, sustainable structures. Sudan will support as construction of roads fuelling conflict and further impov- not be able to emulate the prog- and railways. erishment. ress that nations like Tanzania or Mozambique are making towards the ■ There are major programmes The JAM process resulted in substan- Millennium Development Goals as to support women and girls tial commitments from senior policy long as it lacks effective structures throughout the report, including makers to invest in human develop- needed for modern development. proposals for scholarships for ev- ment and poverty eradication, espe- ery schoolgirl in southern Sudan. cially in marginalised areas of Sudan. Making monetary tradeoffs among Within the judiciary, special funds Ambitious but credible targets were a host of competing priorities is, of are allocated for gender equity. set – including access to drinking course, always difficult and arouses water, girls in school, credit for small controversy. Critics should note ■ The allocation for the Central farmers and land mine removal. that the JAM budgeting process was Bank is primarily to promote the Successful development in the Sudan comprehensive, used a bottom-up new currency. This is a practical will have to be based on partner- approach, employed well-researched measure to facilitate markets in ships – most importantly, as Michael costing methods and was based on the South (where the simultane- Kevane points out in the preceding 15 months of continuous dialogue ous circulation of several curren- article, those of the Sudanese people between Sudanese partners and in- cies inhibits trade) and to unify themselves – but solidly supported ternational experts. To clarify details the country in accordance with by well-functioning public sectors on how much funding was allocated the wealth sharing protocol, a key and by the international community. to a particular activity or sector element of the CPA. within the eight Cluster teams and The JAM vision rests on the notion 20 JAM sub-sectors requires analysis Consolidating a still-tenuous peace of the importance of an efficient, of all the three Volumes, including requires a rapid and visible redress accountable public sector. Mr the Result Matrices. Many areas of of the underlying structural causes Kevane may not like it but this is interest – like gender and conflict of conflict and underdevelopment. now recognised by development prevention – run across the Clusters, Redistribution of wealth must be practitioners and such major agen- sub-sectors and geographical areas. accompanied by an overhaul of the cies as the World Bank as critical governance apparatus. Without these to sustainable development. It is Those interested in analysing the issues very firmly on the table, long- not misplaced thinking but based JAM materials – all of which are term development and poverty re- on lessons learned from decades of online1 – would find: duction will never succeed in Sudan. experience of failed development. Handing out cash, while leaving the The role of the state in providing ■ There is a substantial allocation rules of the game unchanged, does public goods is arguably even more – equivalent to $20 per person pa not equal empowerment or promote critical in a post-conflict setting – in directly to local authorities in the sustainable poverty reduction. which needs are many, social capital South to meet local community is eroded and the risk of a return to needs. The vision of decentralisa- Jeni Klugman was Co-Team Leader conflict is high. Robust and flexible tion enshrined in the CPA and of the Joint Assessment Mission, institutional solutions are needed as the community-driven recovery Sudan. See pp17-19 for her article creating ad hoc aid delivery mecha- approach emphasised in the JAM on capacity building in southern Su- nisms leaves the country no better aim to permanently shift the dan. Email: jklugman@worldbank. equipped to handle future challenges locus of decision making. org. Maude Svensson is a Senior and perpetuates dependency on in- Consultant with the World Bank. ternational assistance. Public spend- ■ Restoring and strengthening Email: [email protected] ing is no panacea but neither can justice and rule of law are pri- private investment solve everything. oritised. Such activities are set 1. www.unsudanig.org/JAM FMR 24 21 Land and the Sudanese transition SUDAN

to peace by Domenico Polloni Land policy issues are not fully addressed in the Com- ary legislation or equity principles. None of the commissions have been prehensive Peace Agreement. As IDPs return home, and formed so far. lay claim to land and water use rights, disputes could The international community will threaten stability in south Sudan, the Three Areas, Dar- be asked to provide funding and ex- pertise. International best practices fur and eastern Sudan. should be followed in the fields of he wealth-sharing agreement areas of Southern Kordofan and Blue arbitration, mediation and concilia- signed between the GoS and Nile. The commissions are required tion and in avoiding conflict between Tthe SPLM in January 20041 to coordinate their activities and customary and statutory norms. highlights the transitional nature set guidelines for the resolution Collation and consolidation of all of land tenure arrangements. By of conflicts. Their functions may existing customary norms should focusing on usage rights it explic- include – at their discretion – arbitra- be prioritised. Moves towards legal itly avoids addressing the issue of tion, consultation on land reform consolidation should be participa- land ownership. There is a risk that and customary land rights, appraisal tory, and legal information – and, regulation of land rights and use by of compensations and recording of if necessary, legal aid – should be different levels of government may land use practices. made available for illiterate commu- not be synchronised. The legal status nities and women. of adjudication bodies, their hierar- There are uncertainties concerning chy, internal functioning and referral the nature of the law upon which Reform in the North procedures to the Constitutional arbitration will be based: recogni- Court remain unclear. Progress in tion of customary law; enforceability Many studies have highlighted the incorporating customary norms and of awards on land; alternatives for need for reform of rural land tenure practices into legislation has been redress in case a commission refuses and administration in northern slower than expected. to consider a claim; and possibili- Sudan. This emerges all the more ties for appeal. If the national and clearly as the ongoing conflict in The main instruments of land use southern commissions fail to resolve Darfur is rooted in, though not lim- management during the six-year a disagreement, the matter is to ited to, conflict over land resources. interim period are Land Commis- be referred to the Constitutional While specific solutions may have to sions – a national body, a Southern Court but it is unclear whether the be provided for Darfur and eastern Sudan Land Commission and state Constitutional Court will base its Sudan, the key common drawbacks commissions in the conflict-affected decision upon statutory or custom- of the current system throughout the country are: Arab nomads in ■ vulnerability of North Darfur moving during rainy small farmers to season, July 2005. the risk of be- ing ousted from communal land by wealthier investors ■ lack of clear poli- cies for environ- mentally sustain- able land use ■ failure to con- sistently enforce nomadic land use rights – a constant source of tensions ■ failure to adequate- ly consult with local communities in matters of land use ■ poor coordination and ineffective decentralisation of extension and IRIN 22 Land and the Sudanese transition to peace FMR 24

marketing services converted into statutory land rights of Southern Sudan but no statutory ■ extensive use of low-quality through appropriate registration. land legislation has yet been issued seeds, with greater exposure to This could protect local communities due to the protracted military oc- disease and decreasing yields from undue pressure by returnees cupation by the Sudan armed forces ■ lack of statutory recognition of or powerful outsiders, neutralise or by the SPLM. A growing number of the rights to wild resources disputes arising from the overlap of transactions are being carried out on ■ an agricultural credit structure different ethnic customs and restrict a shaky legal basis. As in the North, heavily skewed against traditional potential land speculation. the need for urban dwellers to have small-scale farmers. access to peri-urban land for sustain- Most customary systems accepted ing livelihoods should be factored As outlined elsewhere in this issue2, by the SPLM as the basis for settling into new urban planning in an effort the status of land in and around land disputes involve the arbitra- to develop green zones around the SUDAN Khartoum and some urban centres tion of family disputes by chiefs or cities, as is spontaneously happen- in the north where IDPs have build sub-chiefs and the remittance of the ing around Juba. Whether returnees temporary housing is a significant case to the higher executive chief or should be allocated in an ad hoc source of concern. Forced remov- regional court when one of the par- fashion to different neighbourhoods als, though in accordance with the ties does not agree with the outcome. or be settled in new areas is an open law and carried out in the name of Shortcomings of this system may question, raising fears of ghettoisa- ‘urban renewal’, are inconsistent include lack of clarity on the rules of tion if the latter option is chosen. with international human rights arbitration, the non-binding nature Other issues relate to unauthorised standards. The major challenge is of the award and the risk that the buildings, past transactions on non- to ensure that local integration in interested parties, especially if from owned land and military denial of the urban centres of the Nile Valley different tribes, may fail to agree access to land. In the former SPLM- is a valid option for those war-dis- to initiate an arbitration case. Also, controlled South the previous land placed who may not wish to return customary land law is unevenly administration has been utterly to the South, the conflict-affected documented – more richly in Dinka destroyed by war. Cases of lost or areas of central Sudan or the West. and Nuer land, much more sparsely incomplete documentation, poor or This implies accelerating urban in Equatoria. Finally, a common absent surveying and lack of techni- planning, facilitating legal access to feature of traditional land manage- cal facilities are proportionally much a residential plot, and investing in ment systems is their discrimination more significant than in former GoS- water and electricity services and against women’s rights to land. held areas. possibly in government-subsidised low-cost housing. The need for urban The development of land-related Conclusion dwellers to have access to peri-urban policies seems to rest on unverified cropland for self-sufficiency should assumptions – that returns will be The challenges from land policy is- be factored in, possibly by develop- clear-cut (either to rural or to urban sues in Sudan seem almost insur- ing green zones around the cities. areas), that returnees will be content mountable, yet many examples can The international community needs with what is available and that the be found of satisfactory solutions in to start a much more sustained and process will be phased. They ignore a variety of post-conflict countries. consistent policy dialogue with the the emerging tendency to form After over two decades of civil war it national and state governments con- new town centres and the need to is vital that the international commu- cerned if any meaningful guidelines re-establish a sustainable balance be- nity understand the importance of are to emerge. tween rural and urban populations. land issues in the Sudan and remain Rural households, particularly if they focused on policy dialogue and insti- Land policy in the South are pastoralists, need access to a tutional support. variety of different soils and natural In conformity with the general resources to make a living. Access to Domenico Polloni was Senior Policy principle that ‘land in the new Sudan land in rural areas is therefore not Advisor with the UN Office of the belongs to the communities’, the just a question of having a plot for RC/HC, Khartoum/Nairobi and SPLM judiciary system relies primar- the construction of shelter, an ad- Conflict Advisor on the UN Joint ily on customary legislation. This is jacent garden and a field for crops. Assessment Mission. Currently characterised by absence of formal Non-farm use of land is as much working in the political affairs land registration, predominance of a challenge in the South as in the department of UNMIS (United Na- land use (as opposed to ownership) North, particularly where insecurity tions Mission in the Sudan). Email: rights, vesting of power to allocate has curtailed pastoralist movements [email protected]. This article is writ- land in tribal chiefs, loss of land and involved them in protracted ten in a personal capacity and does rights in the event of protracted disputes. not necessarily represent the views non-use, virtual absence of land sales of the UN. and possible coexistence of overlap- Land tenure in SPLM-held urban ping rights on the same territory. areas is a substantial challenge as it 1. www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SZIE- 5ZJSKB?OpenDocument Customs need to be accepted as is here that the problems of returns being legitimate legal solutions. It may be felt most acutely. Urban 2. See article pp38-39. might be worth exploring to what ex- areas are deemed to fall under the tent customary land rights could be direct jurisdiction of the Government FMR 24 23 Pledges versus commitments SUDAN by Toby Lanzer Some 400 representatives from more than 60 countries committed is therefore premature but it is clear at least that commit- and organisations met in Oslo in April 2005 for a ments are lagging behind in one donors’ conference on Sudan. Six months on, have particular area. Of the $500m to be channelled through the Multi-Donor expectations been met? Trust Fund during 2005-07, about $102m has materialised so far, leav- he primary aim of the confer- the Norwegian Minister for Develop- ing a shortfall of $80m for 2005. ence hosted by the Norwegian ment, Hilde F Johnson, noted that Six months after Oslo, it is time for Tgovernment was to solicit do- some $2bn was for longer-term donors to turn pledges into com- nor support for Sudan up to the end recovery, $500m of which was to be mitments. The funding is vital to of 2007. Two types of support were channelled through a newly created underpin reconstruction and peace sought. Firstly, $2.6bn was sought Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) man- building in Sudan. as the international community’s aged by the World Bank. This left a contribution to the first phase of gap of some $600m for the longer- The Oslo Conference provided an the Joint National Transition Team’s term. Some $1.1bn was pledged for important forum for the JNTT to out- (JNTT) development plan. (This set humanitarian and early recovery line its plans and for the internation- out the costs of programmes identi- programmes, of which only $306m al community to voice its support. fied during the Joint Assessment was clearly pledged specifically for The pledges are turning into com- Mission and committed Sudan to the Work Plan, leaving it heavily mitments, albeit slowly. Only when provide $5.3bn of the total $7.9bn underfunded. What has happened all pledges – political and financial required.) The second request was since then? – are fulfilled can the conference be for $1.5bn for humanitarian and deemed a complete success. recovery requirements as identified Various UN officials around the in the UN’s 2005 Work Plan, which world are continuing to work with Toby Lanzer (a former Visiting Fel- outlines relief, early recovery and donors to ensure that pledges low at the Refugee Studies Centre) development initiatives. This overall materialise. Pledges for humanitar- is head of the Consolidated Appeals figure of $4.1bn did not include ian assistance are tracked globally Process (CAP) at the UN Office for 1 financial requirements for post-2005 by the Financial Tracking Service at the Coordination of Humanitarian humanitarian action, disarmament, the UN’s Office for the Coordination Affairs (OCHA), Geneva. This arti- demobilisation and reintegration of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in cle is written in a personal capacity. (DDR) activities, debt relief or the Geneva. In the case of Sudan this is Email: [email protected] African Union’s Darfur mission. supplemented by a database run by the UN in Khartoum. Both show the 1. www.reliefweb.int/fts During the conference, delegates same interesting story. In essence, 2. www.oecd.org/dac/stats made substantial pledges which pledges for humanitarian action and totalled some $4.5bn (although early recovery have been commit- Frustration in Juba some of this was for the African ted. In this sense, pledges made in Union). While donors recognised Oslo have come through. However, There is mounting frustration in their responsibility in providing given people’s acute needs in many Juba at delays in receiving fund- financial support for Sudan, they parts of the country, the UN has had ing. Salva Kiir, President of South stressed their expectations that the to increase the Work Plan’s require- Sudan, has chided donors for Parties implement – in good faith ments from $1.5 to $1.9bn, and it delaying the delivery of recon- and on time – the Comprehensive remains no more than 50% funded. struction aid. “All of the pledges Peace Agreement (CPA) signed three Additional cash is needed now to made in Oslo have not materi- months earlier. Some delegations support Sudanese, in particular in alised. People were talking about went a step further, stating that the South where tens of thousands $4 billion and that money has not significant improvements had to be of returnees are counting on relief yet come. We still look forward to seen in Darfur and with respect to and recovery programmes to help those countries who made those human rights throughout the coun- them re-establish their lives. commitments to deliver what they try before pledges would be com- pledged,” Kiir said. For their part, pletely committed. Overall, however, Tracking pledges for development donors have argued they can only the donors struck a positive tone aid is the remit of the Development transfer funds according to the and it seemed as though the target Assistance Committee within the agreed CPA timetable. The fact of $4.1bn had been met. Organisation for Economic Coop- that the Government of South eration and Development2, and Sudan was only formally inaugu- Deciphering $4.5bn pledged by doing so takes considerable time rated on 23 October has delayed dozens of delegations for various given the longer-term nature of the disbursement. purposes over three years was a programmes. Confirming that all challenge. At the conference’s close, pledges made in Oslo have been 24 FMR 24 Perspectives on the CPA by Endre Stiansen

Protocols on wealth and power sharing are at the heart reach a comprehensive compromise that all can live with could turn of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and are the key Abyei into another Kashmir. building blocks of the process to build a new Sudan. Wealth and power sharing he Comprehensive Peace professional, and non-partisan Agreement (CPA) emerged armed forces”2) was necessary be- “To make unity attractive” is a key SUDAN Tfrom an immensely complex cause only the survival of the SPLA phrase in the CPA. During the course national crisis. Civil war had erupted would give sufficient protection for of the negotiations, it became clear even before independence in 1956; the right to secede if the people of that the parties understood this war-related mortality figures were southern Sudan vote in favour of differently. To the GoS, making reportedly as high as two million; the secession at the end of the six-year unity attractive was a joint respon- main protagonists represented two interim period. The protocols on sibility and the ultimate aim of the distinct ideologies – Islamism and the Three Areas were also essen- negotiations. The SPLM position was secularism – that fostered competing tial because the SPLM had always more nuanced. While the SPLM as visions of Sudan; and both parties claimed to represent the interest of a political movement promoted a – the Government of Sudan and the these areas and failure to conclude full-scale reform of the political and SPLM/A – knew that they could not anything less than separate agree- economic structures of the whole of win an outright military victory. The ments would take away from the Sudan, it was well known that most CPA1 is radical in proposing innova- legitimacy of the SPLM. Moreover, the leading cadres of the SPLM, as well tive solutions to redress root causes Nuba Mountains/Blue Nile agreement as the vast majority of the people of of Sudan’s long-running civil war, became the testing ground for what southern Sudan, preferred secession cautious in that key issues are left the principles of power sharing and to continued unity. For this reason unresolved, and conservative since wealth sharing would mean in north- they felt that the primary responsi- the negotiating parties retain control ern Sudan. Representatives from bly for making unity attractive rested in their main spheres of interest both the SPLM and the GoS have with the incumbent government (northern and southern Sudan suggested that arrangement for the in Khartoum and future national respectively). The CPA attempted Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile governments. For example, continu- both to heal a deeply divided country could serve as a model for other re- ation of a heavily centralised system by addressing root causes of the gions in the country, such as Darfur of government would not make unity conflict and to resolve fundamental and the Eastern province. attractive. The GoS therefore had issues that could not be decided by to accept a system of governance military might. The protocol on Abyei forms a that pointed in the direction of real unique part of the CPA in that it is empowerment of states and regions. What did the negotiating parties see the only body of text for which the In addition, the predominantly non- as the root causes? The CPA gives parties do not claim authorship.3 Muslim leadership of the SPLM was quite clear answers. For too long po- This is significant and may indicate not prepared to live under Islamic litical and economic power had been a wish – by both parties – to dis- laws so the GoS had to accept that concentrated in the centre. The ‘new tance themselves from that part of there would only be shari’a law in Sudan’ demanded power sharing and the overall agreement that they will the North. wealth sharing. This in turn required find the most difficult to live with finding ways to secure central rep- when the six-year interim period The GoS negotiators made major resentation of all peripheral regions draws to a close. There continues to concessions to make unity attractive. and to transfer an equitable share of be a great deal of uncertainty as to Principles of decentralisation are the national wealth from the centre how the Abyei issue will be solved at the heart of the agreement, and to the regions. Negotiations were – whether it will join southern Sudan the powers granted to the Govern- structured around these themes and (and perhaps be part of a new inde- ment of Southern Sudan (GoSS) the protocols on power sharing and pendent country) or remain part of are extensive. The Wealth Sharing wealth sharing form the core of the northern Sudan. Already leaders of protocol gives the GoSS roughly 50% CPA. some of the Arab tribes in the area of net revenue from all oil produced – important constituencies of the rul- in southern Sudan, depriving the Security and the Three Areas ing National Congress Party – have central treasury of a very large share signalled that they do not want to of its potential revenue base. High oil This is not to say that the other become part of southern Sudan. prices have to some extent mitigated protocols of the CPA – the security Similarly there are leaders from the the impact of this concession but it agreement and the agreements on African population of the area who will still take time to compensate for the ‘Three Areas’ (the contested are- insist that Abyei must be transferred loss of revenue. Secession of south- as of Abyei, the Nuba Mountains and back to southern Sudan. The report ern Sudan, where most of the oil the Blue Nile) – were less important. of the Abyei Border Commission reserves are assumed to be located, On the contrary, for the SPLM the was meant to address some of the would of course have even greater security protocol (which recognises most controversial issues but stirred consequences for the treasury in the role of the SPLA as “regular, up emotions still further. Failure to Khartoum. FMR 24 Perspectives on the CPA 25

The New Sudan arrangements. Another dimension of ties acknowledged that in the post- SUDAN this question is how the SPLM will re- conflict phase it would be essential Nobody articulated the SPLM’s vision late to the established political par- to broaden the political process. of a transformed Sudan – the ‘New ties in northern Sudan. Since there is The preparation and adoption of the Sudan’ – with more conviction than little reason to believe that the SPLM national interim constitution dem- the late Dr John Garang. The SPLM’s will lose its predominant position in onstrated both the willingness to national ambitions are reflected in the political landscape of southern include other groups and the willing- the Power Sharing protocol. The Sudan, it seems a fair guess that ness of such groups to participate. Chairman of the SPLM is also First any political alliance that the SPLM But that was only one test and prob- Vice-President of the Sudan, and chooses to enter will become the ably a relatively simple one at that. SPLM officials will be appointed predominant political force in the The crisis in Darfur and simmering to about one third of all ministe- country. This explains why so many unrest in the eastern part of the rial posts when the Government of suitors from the full spectrum of the country pose other, more substan- National Unity is formed. Moreover, Sudanese political landscape wooed tial challenges. The CPA provides a the composition of the national civil Dr Garang. Salva Kiir has inherited framework for dealing with these service will be reformed to make it the role of potential kingmaker but challenges. Success or failure may more reflective of the nation as a may not want to invest much time in depend on how far the new political whole. The CPA also paves the way politics at the national level. establishment in Khartoum is willing for the SPLM to establish itself as a to take the principles of power and political force to be reckoned with in Implementing the CPA is also a wealth sharing. northern Sudan. Until elections are question of capacity. The difference held after about three years, SPLM between North and South is stark. Endre Stiansen is a researcher at members will hold 10% of the seats In the North, existing capacity can the International Peace Research in state legislatures in the northern be enhanced; in the South, systems Institute, Oslo. He participated in states, giving the movement a fly- must be built almost from scratch. the GoS-SPLM negotiations, initially ing start in establishing itself as a The financial sector is a good ex- as a Norwegian observer and later national movement.4 ample. There are banks in most com- as resource person on wealth shar- mercial centres in northern Sudan ing for the IGAD Secretariat on The sudden death of Dr Garang has and the banking system is stable. Peace in Sudan. None of the views led many observers to wonder if the Apart from in the major towns in expressed in this article should SPLM will downplay its national as- southern Sudan, there are no banks, be seen as the views of either the pirations in favour of preparing for which means that money transfers Norwegian government or IGAD. full independence in six years. The are difficult, the public have to carry Email: [email protected] new Chairman, Salva Kiir, does not cash, and the commercial sector has have the same history of articulating no access to financial markets offer- 1. Full text at www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/ db900SID/EVIU-6AZBDB?OpenDocument a national agenda (despite his inau- ing loans at competitive rates. It will 2. www.justiceafrica.org/Final_Cease_Fire_agree- gural speech in which he rebuffed take time for institutional capacity ment.pdf suggestions that he was in favour of in southern Sudan to develop, even 3. A footnote explains that the protocol “is the full text of the proposal entitled ‘Principles of 5 independence ) and the new deputy with extensive support from the Agreement on Abyei’ presented by US Special chairman, Riek Machar, came to international community. Envoy Senator John Danforth to HE First Vice the fore in 1991 when he sought President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and SPLM/A Chairman Dr John Garang ... The Parties hereby to oust Garang in part because the Conclusion declare to adopt these Principles as the basis for latter did not favour secession. The the resolution of Abyei Conflict.” Two parties negotiated the CPA. 4. The CPA also gives the National Congress commitment – or not – of the SPLM Party 10% of the seats in the state legislatures in leadership to a national agenda will Critics accused the process of being southern Sudan, thus ensuring that it remains a have important consequences for the exclusive and other political forces substantial force also in southern Sudan. demanded to be included. The par- 5. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4142554. implementation of the power-sharing stm Could peace unravel ? by Suliman Baldo f the international community ment (CPA) included something for Although the CPA is detailed and does not confront the hard issues everyone but left all parties short of comprehensive, it reflects the direct I– ending ruling party support for their full goals. The deal was predi- interests of only the Sudan’s People its proxy southern militias, challeng- cated on extensive sharing of power, Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM) ing corruption, fostering democracy wealth and security arrangements and the ruling National Congress and broadening participation and and established an asymmetrical Party (NCP). The exclusion of the transparency (particularly in relation federal system, with the Government many other groups on the periphery to oil revenues) – Sudan’s respite of Southern Sudan (GoSS) existing as threatens the long-term viability from war may be short-lived. a buffer between the central govern- of the agreement. The NCP and the ment and southern states but no SPLM – long-time sworn enemies Like most negotiated agreements, parallel regional government in the – have become strange bedfellows the Comprehensive Peace Agree- North. who must work together on imple- 26 Could peace unravel? FMR 24 mentation at the expense of former Agreement and what has been done Increased public and diplomatic allies left on the outside. to weaken other opposition groups support for the peace agreement since the present leaders took power and particularly the SPLM is needed The peace deal poses a real threat in 1989. The NCP’s intransigence at this difficult time. The troika to many groups associated with the during the negotiations for the partners, the USA, UK and Norway, NCP regime which signed the CPA establishment of the Government of have a particular responsibility. More under some duress both to deflect National Unity and its appointment must be done to ensure that hard- international pressure over Dar- of known hardliners to key security line elements in Khartoum opposed fur and to strengthen its domestic and economic ministries and as to the CPA do not exploit Garang’s power base by securing a partner- advisors to the president indicated death to back away from its strict ship with the SPLM. Most NCP its determination to retain control. implementation. The UN Security members recognise that the free and Realising the consequences of being Council must react quickly to any SUDAN fair elections required by the CPA in outmanoeuvred, the mood among violations of the CPA’s timetable in 2009 would probably remove them the SPLM and the northern opposi- order to keep the parties on course from power. Many also fear that tion was gloomy as as the long- the self-determination referendum awaited implementation of the CPA Recent deals signed by the SPLM to will produce an independent South, got underway. develop oil concessions in the South thus costing Khartoum much of its violate the CPA, have generated control over oil and other southern John Garang survived numerous considerable criticism both from the natural and mineral resources. There challenges and splits to hold the government and within the SPLM are signs the NCP seeks to undercut SPLM together, only to find a tragic itself, and should be scrapped. Given implementation through its use of death in a helicopter crash three that Khartoum’s approach to oil has the South Sudan Defence Forces weeks into the implementation of long been even more problematic, (SSDF) militia, bribery and divide- the CPA. The peace negotiations it is urgent to review all contracts and-rule tactics. It actively encour- were conducted by a select group signed in the past year. Worryingly, ages hostility between southern around Garang, creating resentment the CPA has no mechanism for groups, with the hope that intra- among those excluded. Salva Kiir, rapidly resolving disputes that have south fighting will prove sufficiently new President of South Sudan, had arisen over North-South boundaries destabilising for the referendum to a high-profile clash with Garang in in the oil areas, risking further delay be postponed indefinitely without its November to December 2004 over in much needed disbursement of oil being blamed. the lack of transparency and consul- revenue to the GoSS. tation in decision making. Remaking These tactics are likely to intensify the SPLM into an open, transparent Key recommendations made by the if pressure over Darfur diminishes body inclusive in its decision making ICG are that: and the African Union-sponsored was an important challenge Garang talks in Abuja remain stalled due to had just begun to deal with; it is ■ The NCP must end all support to divisions between the two main rebel more critical than ever now that he SSDF members who have not been movements. Regime policies towards is gone. It is now less likely to be integrated into the Sudan Armed Darfur have not changed, despite able to make a major contribution Forces. foreign disapproval. The architects towards resolving the war and hu- ■ IGAD, the US and the UK should of ethnic cleansing retain significant manitarian catastrophe in Darfur or establish a commission, similar to power in the new government of na- the simmering problems of eastern the Abyei Boundary Commission, tional unity, which thus far remains Sudan. The odds of southern seces- to determine the North-South bor- unwilling to take the military and sion have increased. ders in the oil-producing areas. political steps needed to resolve the ■ The international community conflict: neutralising the Janjaweed If the SPLM is to do its part in pre- should provide technical exper- militias and establishing genuine venting an eventual breakdown of tise to assist the SPLA transition power and wealth sharing between the CPA and return to war, it must from a guerrilla force to a profes- Darfur and Khartoum. make fundamental shifts in the way sional army. it operates. It has struggled, how- ■ Churches, women’s organisations In preparation for the SPLM’s ar- ever, in its transition from a rebel and other civil society groups rival in Khartoum, NCP leaders movement to a political party. Its need enhanced capacity to pro- prepared multiple incentives. An lack of inclusiveness and transpar- mote South-South dialogue. NCP leader told the International ent decision making has mirrored ■ UNMIS should provide a peace- Crisis Group (ICG): “They have new in some ways its long-time foe’s keeping force in the South with cars and houses set aside to offer. approach to governance. It is far be- sufficient rapid response capacity Each strong SPLM figure will be hind its timetable for converting its to protect civilians and respond assigned a deputy from the govern- guerrillas into a new army and has to outbreaks of violence, particu- ment security services to watch over made little progress in creating in- larly offensive actions by rogue them.” Members of the first SPLM stitutional structures of governance militias. delegation to reach the capital joked and changing overly centralised ■ The SPLM should address trans- that they would be ‘subsidised’ upon methods of taking decisions, weak- parency and accountability in the arrival. This is what was done with nesses that have been compounded new GoSS by establishing an anti- many southern politicians during the by lack of money. There is growing corruption commission, creating peaceful interlude of 1972-1983 that frustration as early expectations of a post of auditor general, requir- was ushered in by the Addis Ababa the peace have not been met. ing ministers to declare assets FMR 24 Could peace unravel? 27

and developing an enforceable unstable for the foreseeable future Suliman Baldo is Africa Program SUDAN code of conduct for civil servants. given the problems in Darfur and Director, International Crisis ■ More women must be included in elsewhere that have no easy answers. Group. Email: sbaldo@crisisgroup. all government bodies and com- With the CPA, the people of Sudan org. missions. have taken a small but important step towards turning the country For further information, see ICG Even if implementation moves around but the road ahead is far Sudan reports at: www.crisisgroup. forward, Sudan is likely to remain from certain. org/home/index.cfm?id=1230&l=1 NGO coordination in south

Sudan by Adele Sowinska and Wendy Fenton ficult to reach consensus and could The peace agreement and the establishment of a govern- make it difficult to agree on self- ment in south Sudan pose new challenges to established regulation mechanisms. Even larger NGOs are already overstretched and means of NGO coordination. senior staff often find it hard to he NGO Forum was started and rivalries which undermined contribute to the Forum. in 1996 to bring together coordination between NGOs. Lack Tinternational NGOs (INGOs) of international political recognition Individual SINGOs and small INGOs associated with Operation Lifeline of the SPLM’s de facto government do not always have the capacity to Sudan (OLS) – the umbrella operation complicated attracting funding. participate actively in the Forum, for UN agencies and NGOs work- Lacking a viable tax base, and in particularly on the SC. There is a ing in southern Sudan established the absence of effective governance danger – real or perceived – that in 1989. The Forum was created to and regulation, the local authorities their perspectives are not ad- discuss issues around programming, resorted to taxing NGOs directly and equately represented or that they delivery of humanitarian aid and indirectly – behaviour which was feel excluded altogether. Some access, and subsequently evolved tolerated, and even encouraged, by Sudanese NGOs who are members of to include non-OLS members and some donors. SINGO networks, such as New Sudan 1 Sudanese Indigenous NGOs (SIN- Indigenous NGOs (NESI) and the GOs). From the outset the Forum The NGO Forum provided an entry Federation of Sudanese Civil Society developed terms of reference, met point for NGOs to engage with and Organizations (FOSCO), have tried monthly and agreed that representa- influence the process and outcomes to address this issue by allowing the tion would be through an elected of the Joint Assessment Mission networks – to represent them. Steering Committee (SC) of seven to (JAM). The Forum appointed NGOs eight NGOs. Representation on the to serve as JAM cluster focal points, New realities SC was initially divided between Eu- enabling the JAM teams to get NGO ropean/US and larger/smaller NGOs perspectives without having to con- To date, all NGO Forum meeting but it soon become clear some of the sult individually all of the members. have been held in Nairobi. In future, smaller NGOs did not have sufficient Forum engagement through the SC the NGO Forum hopes to hold most staff to allocate to SC activities. and focal points has helped to es- meetings in south Sudan. Many High-level liaison with donors and tablish NGO credibility with new and NGOs have already established bases the UN were the responsibility of the important actors such as the World or liaison offices in Rumbek, the SC which consulted with the larger Bank and UNDP. former capital of south Sudan, or are forum on matters of common inter- focusing on improving infrastructure est and advocacy. Although it will never be possible for and management presence at bases the Forum to represent adequately and offices in other parts of Sudan. Working under a tripartite agree- the views of all 80+ NGOs work- ment between the UN, Government ing in south Sudan, attempts are Prior to the peace process it was pos- of Sudan (GoS) and the SPLM meant always made to consult as widely as sible for NGOs to bypass the SPLM that NGOs, which came under the possible and to integrate differing and the Sudan Relief and Rehabilita- umbrella of the UN, were unequal viewpoints. Some NGOs are particu- tion Commission (SRRC), its humani- partners. With the establishment of larly good at keeping abreast of the tarian wing. The policies of many the Forum and the SC, NGOs could complex political context of Sudan donors and the UN discouraged or use their collective voice to greater while others are more focused on even prohibited direct engagement advantage. Unfortunately, the OLS/ programme implementation. The with the SPLM. Now that the Govern- non-OLS distinction – which the UN broad range of mandates, structures ment of South Sudan (GoSS) has was obliged to maintain rigorously and capacities of INGOs and NGOs been formed, the establishment of a until the peace talks were well un- – and the fact that some have overt clear and workable NGO regulatory derway – created artificial divisions political allegiances – makes it dif- framework is essential to provide an 28 NGO coordination in south Sudan FMR 24

environment conducive to recovery discussion on the resources available to operating primarily in relief and and development. Recognising this, to implement some of the recom- emergency modes will find it dif- the SRRC/SPLM and NGOs have made mendations. The meetings, therefore, ficult to adapt to a context which huge efforts to work together to de- focus on information sharing, rather requires a range of relief, recovery velop an inclusive and open process than decision making. and development responses within for the design of this framework. At an agreed government framework. meetings in Rumbek the SRRC/SPLM Challenges ahead The continuing lack of emerging gov- ensured that SINGOs and INGOs were ernment capacity has led to unreal- represented equally. Discussions Although initial meetings and discus- istic and unreasonable expectations were frank and all participants were sions around the future NGO regula- regarding the role NGOs will play in able to express their diverse views in tory framework have been positive, service delivery. The SPLM will need an open and unthreatening environ- there remain many challenges to to articulate a vision of peacebuild- SUDAN ment. The meeting benefited from effective NGO coordination in south ing which embodies principles of jus- the presence of Dr Riek Machar, 2nd Sudan: tice that can be integrated into the Vice-Chairman of the SPLM, and Dr existing policies, structures and sys- Bellario Ahoy Ngong, the Director of ■ There is ongoing lack of clarity re- tems of the new government. Dealing the SRRC. The SPLM confirmed their garding the relationship between with the latent conflicts expected to intention to provide an enabling the CPA and the proposed local surface in the wake of the CPA and environment for both NGOs and the governance framework. ensuring peace will require a coordi- private sector. They also indicated ■ The timetable for establishing nated response by the GoSS, NGOs, that, while the role of NGOs may not the political structures and wider civil society groups and churches. change dramatically, NGOs will need legal framework within which the NGOs should not be confined to a to recognise the central role of GoSS NGO regulatory framework will be service provision role but be allowed in recovery and development policies situated remains unclear. to continue to provide valuable input and planning and to formally regis- ■ There are tensions between into policy and strategy debates and, ter with a newly formed NGO Board centralists and decentralists in when necessary, to act as watchdogs comprised of NGOs, GoSS and SRRC the SPLM regarding the regula- and advocates. representatives. tory roles of the SRRC and vari- ous ministries, commissions or Adele Sowinska is Assistant Coun- Coordination around IDP and refugee departments: NGOs have received try Representative, Catholic Relief return and reintegration should mixed messages as to which Services’ South Sudan Programme. benefit from establishment of a clear authorities they should interact Email: [email protected]. NGO regulatory framework. In 2001 with. Wendy Fenton is the south Su- Francis Deng (the then Special Rep- ■ There are difficulties recruiting dan Programme Director for resentative of the Secretary General) international and national staff Save the Children UK. Email: chaired a conference in Rumbek willing to be based in south Su- [email protected] to address IDP issues and assist dan: GoSS, the UN, donor missions the SRRC to plan for their eventual and NGOs are all competing for 1. www.nesinetwork.org return. While important issues like the same limited pool of qualified protection were discussed at the and experienced Sudanese staff. meeting, and the IDP Framework ■ It is unclear at what level of the Guiding Principles available drafted and later endorsed by both emerging administrative structure in Dinka and Nuer the SPLM and GoS, there has been NGOs will coordinate. no structured follow up. NGOs can ■ SPLM bodies still require sub- Dinka: www.brookings.edu/fp/ and should play a role in holding the stantial support from the UN and projects/idp/resources/GPsDin- GOS, GoSS and UN to account for NGOs in order to carry out coordi- ka_20051018.pdf ensuring that the IDP Framework and nation functions effectively. Nuer: www.brookings.edu/fp/ the UN Guiding Principles on Internal ■ Many mid- and high-level SPLM/ projects/idp/resources/GPsNuer_ Displacement are upheld, that forced GoSS government personnel not 20051018.pdf returns do not take place and that only have duties associated with returnees and potential returnees are their membership in the SPLM The Brookings-Bern Project on not manipulated by political actors. Leadership Council and in CPA- Internal Displacement has had the related bodies but now have even Guiding Principles translated into Dinka and Nuer, the languages of For more than a year the GoSS/UN- less time to devote to coordina- the two major tribes of southern led Sustainable Returns Team (SRT) tion as they attend the plethora Sudan most affected by internal has been responsible for planning of post-peace agreement capacity- displacement. The Dinka and for returns to all areas of the South. building events. Nuer translations will be widely However, the SRT’s ability to carry ■ There is an increasing tendency disseminated among civil society out its responsibilities has been con- for GoSS and donors alike to view groups in Sudan as well as to the strained. Meetings only take place NGOs merely as contractors and Dinka and Nuer diasporas. They in Rumbek and not in other areas of implementors, ignoring their role will also be made available to gov- southern Sudan. They involve only a as advocates and contributors to ernment offices, UN agencies and handful of NGOs who happen to be policy debates. NGOs. For copies, visit our web- present in Rumbek, are not usually page or contact Molly Browning at attended by decision makers and NGOs, local government authori- [email protected]. information presented is at times ties and communities who are used inaccurate. In addition, there is no FMR 24 29 Promoting the rule of law in SUDAN post-conflict Sudan by Yasmine Sherif The main protagonists in Sudan’s conflicts have commit- ment agents. The fact that only 22 of the 750 trained judges envisaged ted to peace but the obstacles to building good governance under the CPA are in place highlights are enormous. the need for establishing a paralegal training centre to fill the gap in the he Comprehensive Peace capacity building and sustainable number of qualified professionals Agreement (CPA) signed human development. during the Interim Period. The physi- Tbetween the Government of cal infrastructure of the court sys- the Republic of the Sudan (GoS) The challenge tem in southern Sudan is practically and the Sudan People’s Liberation absent. Traditional justice is still ad- Movement/Sudan People’s Libera- Decades of war have militarised ministered under a tree, while even tion Army (SPLM/SPLA) on 9 January Sudan. Legislative, judiciary and higher courts in towns lack windows. 2005 represents a major opportunity law enforcement institutions suffer The judiciary has virtually no means for restoring the social contract be- from capacity deficits and a lack of of transportation, communication or tween Sudanese authorities and the adequate training. other essential resources necessary citizens of Sudan. to administer justice, such as librar- The institutional and operational ies, law books or even the text of the However, in order to maximise the gaps in the rule of law sector are few laws promulgated by the SPLM. impact of the renewed commit- compounded by a massive circu- There is a need to strengthen tra- ment to building a just and peaceful lation of small arms, continued ditional conflict resolution mecha- Sudan, it is essential also to acknowl- low-intensity conflict in some parts nisms in the South (along with the edge the fragile state in which Sudan of the country and a lack of public establishment of viable statutory, and her people are currently held confidence in an impartial justice conventional rule-of-law institutions) captive. For, as Sudan emerges from system. Military and security forces and to ensure that policemen – a protracted war and moves forward are the principal agents of ‘law and almost all of whom are demobilised towards a political settlement, the order’, often at the cost of basic hu- SPLM soldiers – receive training in country remains stifled by conflict man rights. The authority bestowed community-based policing. and by weak governance and rule of on military and security actors con- law institutions. stitutes the greatest threat to justice, Customary law has in the past been peace and sustainable development integral to peaceful conflict resolu- Against these realities, the promo- taking root in Sudan. Decades of tion which means that the establish- tion of rule of law in Sudan is a over-centralised government, ab- ment of statutory structures cannot long-term objective, which will sence of rule of law practices, huge be done without due regard to require an incremental approach development disparities between the traditional mechanisms. However, it towards a larger vision. While the centre and the regions and weak or will be necessary to review custom- CPA represents a formal commit- non-existent administrative capaci- ary laws and practices against inter- ment by the GoS and the largest ties make matters worse. It is antici- national human rights standards. southern rebel group to standards pated that violence will continue to Women and children are particularly conducive to democracy, justice and plague certain areas in spite of the vulnerable within the customary sys- peace, the peace-building process CPA. In the current environment, tem as practised in southern Sudan. will need to advance and expand and imbued with a strong sense of Often not considered legal subjects, these aspirations through immediate a right to own arms, communities women cannot own property, while and medium-term interventions that view their arms as the only means of juvenile justice appears non-existent. can serve as building blocks for long- protection in the absence of the rule term development and, perhaps, of law. As people return to places of In the North, judiciary structures are even a peace dividend. origin disputes over land and other more developed but the independ- property are certain to intensify. ence of the judiciary seems to have The peace-building process must been compromised – as evidenced seek to empower national stakehold- While Sudanese society at large has by the arbitrary dismissal of quali- ers to actively engage in preventing suffered the consequences of armed fied judges, attorneys-general and and bringing an end to violations of conflict, the brunt of the war has law officers. Existing legislation international and national laws and been borne mainly by the South, fails to guarantee the full spectrum standards and restore confidence where there is an extreme absence of human rights and fundamental in informal and formal law-enforce- of the most basic physical, human freedoms, while military decrees and ment and judiciary institutions. Time and institutional capacities. There is emergency laws undermine those is needed to build a culture of justice a chronic shortage of competent and rights currently protected by statu- that is responsive to long-term independent judiciary and enforce- tory law. Although physical infra- 30 Promoting the rule of law in post-conflict Sudan FMR 24

has created barriers between south- erners and northerners and amongst southerners themselves. There is an urgent need to invest in a national dialogue, as well as in the South- South dialogue that has already begun. Similarly, there is a need for a new institutional culture based on citizenship, a sense of service, professional honesty and integrity. Government officials, as well as the general public, desperately need SUDAN knowledge of international human rights standards.

The peace-building process

In establishing an environment that is conducive to the rule of law, it is fundamental to replace a military culture with a constitutional and legal framework, competent law enforcement and an independent judiciary. Without these basic com- ponents in place, little progress can be made. These can only be realised through a multi-sectoral approach. Interventions to address the rule of law must be reinforced by parallel efforts to demobilise armed actors in line with the CPA, combat corrup- tion and ensure accountability and IRIN transparency in all of the structures When southern structure does exist in major towns, not qualified to handle juveniles. The of governance. A comprehensive and Sudanese women large areas in the North remain problem of street children and their integrated approach to rule of law attempt to get a divorce, they are grossly underdeveloped, with one detention is a serious one that will will require a broader framework sometimes sent police officer per 1,000 inhabitants. require investment in education and that addresses: to prison. The In terms of gender equity and equal- social services, as well as measures Bahr-al-Ghazal Women’s Legal ity, particular concerns have been to upgrade the juvenile justice sys- ■ law enforcement, the judiciary Centre works to raised regarding the (in-)ability of tem and encourage respect for the and legal reform prevent this and to uphold the rights of women to seek justice and appeal rights of the child. ■ demobilisation, disarmament and those imprisoned. decisions. Judges need to be offered reintegration (DDR) and security refresher courses in all matters of The prison system is in an extremely sector reform modern jurisprudence, including bad state. There are some 55 prisons ■ decentralisation, public adminis- gender justice. but many are not operational, or tration and elections only partially functioning. Condi- ■ establishing electoral laws, moni- Women prisoners are vulnerable. tions are dire and inconsistent with toring compliance and creating Estimated at about 2% of the prison international human rights stand- a political and security environ- population, their main crimes are ards. Prisoners lack food, health ment that is conducive to free brewing alcohol, prostitution and services, water and electricity. Often and fair elections petty theft. Most are displaced from they are let out on day release to ■ bringing legal processes closer to the South and are the family’s sole search for food to survive. As with communities breadwinner. Most women do not the police service, many wardens are understand court procedures and former military officers and, due to The need for institutional capacity lack both the language skills and their background, conduct duties as building in all these sectors is enor- legal counselling necessary to defend soldiers rather than in a manner con- mous. While in the North, existing their case. A number of women bring sistent with international standards. structures will need rehabilitation their children with them to the pris- None of the wardens has received and reform, the South will need mas- on, which, in turn, lacks any budget any training. sive support to establish institutions to provide for the children’s needs. from scratch. Professionals in the Many imprisoned children appear to While the IGAD-led peace process North will be in need of upgraded be street children displaced by the has contributed to building confi- training and refresher courses while war. Vagrant children are criminal- dence and political reconciliation the South must acquire a whole new ised and staff of penitentiary and between GoS and the SPLM, the lack workforce of professionals. The Joint correction institutions are generally of information and communication Assessment Mission (JAM) outlines FMR 24 Promoting the rule of law in post-conflict Sudan 31

in detail the institutional capacity- ity building addresses both insti- their own powers to have a positive SUDAN building needs across all sectors, not tutional and attitudinal reform. As impact on their environment. Only the least in the Rule of Law Sector. in any other post-conflict situation then can we truly build the capacity Adopting an incremental approach, where societies are shattered and of national stakeholders to integrate the JAM has identified the following deeply affected by a protracted civil human rights and core values of immediate and medium-term objec- war, confidence building must be justice in their own sphere of power, tives: a cross-cutting priority that under- day-to-day life and responsibilities. pins humanitarian, developmental ■ to strengthen the immediate com- and political action. Without an Finally, progress indicators must be petence and capacity of gover- attitudinal change towards justice redefined. The overriding objec- nance and rule of law institutions and equality all other efforts will be tive of the rule of law is to restore to provide human security and undermined; ultimately, the social a viable social contract between the access to justice, with particular contract between the state and its citizens and the state – a contract respect to gender, while protect- citizens is restored and sustained that protects the full spectrum of hu- ing human rights by the human component of that man rights, be they civil and politi- ■ to improve human resource ca- society. cal, or economic, social and cultural. pacity, backed up by an adequate Against this objective, the impact of legal framework and institutional, While a formal peace agreement an effective rule of law programme operational capacity can kick-start the process of peace must, ultimately, be measured not by ■ to ensure that confidence build- building, the effects of armed con- the number of policemen or lawyers ing and reconciliation are given flict often require a long process of trained but rather by the degree of due attention in the design and behavioural adjustment. New and safety, justice and empowerment implementation of the rule of law progressive ways of advocacy and experienced by the citizens of Sudan. programmes, so as to promote training will be required. Field- lasting transformation of a con- based experiences prove that legal Yasmine Sherif, a lawyer, is the flict-prone society and structural reform alone is not Head of Unit & Senior Adviser on ■ to contribute to creating an envi- sufficient in promoting respect for Rule of Law, UNDP Sudan. She is ronment that is conducive to the human rights in post-conflict situ- the author of Freedom from fear: implementation of the CPA, in- ations. Rather, efforts must also be promoting human security for the cluding the return and reintegra- made to assist national stakeholders return and reintegration of dis- tion of displaced persons, other to acquire a deeper comprehen- placed persons in Sudan – A protec- returnees, including reintegra- sion of universal human rights and tion assessment by the IRC, May tion of former combatants; and, the ethical standards inherent in 20041. Email: yasmine.sherif@undp. eventually, long-term capacity Sudanese culture. Programmes must org. building in the rule of law sector, be aimed at cultivating positive at- free and fair elections and good titudes and healthy belief systems, This article is written in a personal governance. which can replace negative attitudes capacity and does not necessarily that reinforce a violent culture. Na- represent the views of the UN. In the final analysis, peace can only tional stakeholders must be support- be built and sustained where capac- ed and given the tools to unearth 1. www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/IdpPro- jectDb/idpSurvey.nsf/wViewCountries/

Sustainable return depends on collaborative approach by Sajjad Malik displaced populations. Many of The Livelihoods and Social Protection cluster1 of the Joint the displaced will be returning to Assessment Mission (JAM) forms the basis of the plan for communities and areas that have suffered severely from a variety of the return and reintegration of some 6.7 million people by factors including war and drought 2011. Success will depend on commitment to the Compre- and are currently with extremely lim- ited access to basic social services. hensive Peace Process and sustained international support. For this reason, the Cluster report he UN estimates that conflict the largest displaced population in highlighted the importance of: and drought have left 6.7 the world but community recovery Tmillion2 Sudanese displaced, will also target those populations ■ improved access to basic social including some 550,000 refugees who were not able to flee violence services for all vulnerable Sudanese in neighbouring countries. Much or drought as well as those who ■ increasing the participation attention has rightly been placed on have borne the burden of hosting and protection of rights of 32 Sustainable return depends on collaborative approach FMR 24

vulnerable, disabled, elderly, balance. In many villages of return persons women and children there are disproportionate numbers ■ improved access to basic social ■ increased local economic activity of elderly and women as able-bodied services including HIV/AIDS pre- in war-affected and marginalised males search for work elsewhere and vention and treatment communities youth seek education opportunities ■ increase in the participation and ■ effective national protection in towns. protection of rights of vulner- mechanisms able groups (including disabled, ■ supporting local development Over the years, women, children elderly, women and children) in initiatives for Sudan’s most and the elderly have traditionally relation to service provision vulnerable communities been excluded from participatory ■ increased local economic activity ■ working towards self reliance of mechanisms. Some refugee women in war-affected communities returnees and eventual phase out in camps fear that freedoms won in ■ improved effectiveness of na- SUDAN of humanitarian assistance. exile will be lost on return. Unless tional protection mechanisms humanitarian, recovery and develop- ■ improved effectiveness of local Efforts to ensure durable solutions ment activities address these issues development initiatives to displacement and to strengthen from the outset and involve margin- ■ self-reliance of returnees en- livelihoods must take account of the alised groups in community decision hanced, and needed humanitarian reality that those communities to making, there is a risk that these aid minimised/phased out. which many will return have them- inequalities will be perpetuated. selves suffered extreme destruction In Sudan’s politically fragile environ- Collaborative efforts and and deprivation. The process of ment, returnees and their commu- integrating humanitarian, return is further complicated by the nities must not be left in deprived recovery and development long-term nature of displacement conditions for extended periods activities and the fact that significant portions without protection, basic services of the displaced population have and livelihoods. The return pro- Signing of the Comprehensive Peace been displaced for more than 15 cess itself may trigger flare-ups of Agreement (CPA) in January and years, reside outside camps and have localised tensions between returnees formation of the Governments of developed sophisticated coping and and host communities as the delicate National Unity and South Sudan in livelihoods strategies quite different local ecology and economy may be July 2005 have provided an oppor- from those they knew in their areas destabilised. Without commitment tunity for millions of displaced to of origin. Many returnees do not nec- and external support, there is a real return home. The challenges, how- essarily speak the language of their risk of back-flows to countries of ever, are enormous. The return and people and a significant number asylum or renewed internal displace- reintegration of millions of displaced have been educated via the medium ment. Ongoing conflict analysis and refugees and IDPs is simply not a of Arabic. monitoring, therefore, should be business-as-usual situation. Capacity undertaken with a view to prevent- and resource constraints are evident Progress in the peace negotiations ing nascent differences or low-key at all levels and in all sectors. This between the Government of Sudan conflicts from spilling over into will require concerted and sustained and SPLM brought increased secu- violent confrontation, either between efforts of all actors, national and rity in 2004 and in 2005, ensuring vulnerable groups themselves or international, and communities at greater access for humanitarian between vulnerable groups and host large. agencies to populations in need. communities during transit and after These developments encouraged resettlement. The first two years of the plan significant spontaneous return prepared by JAM will be crucial. The (i.e. without external assistance) to JAM research suggests that around focus must be on immediate and southern and transitional areas of 70% of IDPs will have returned or re- short-term interventions creating Sudan with limited or no resources. settled by the end of the first phase grounds for the return and reintegra- However, groups undertaking to of the Interim Period in 2007 and tion of displaced populations. Initial return or resettle are facing extreme that 22% will be remaining where assistance must have an immedi- conditions en route. Many are il- they currently reside at the end of ate and visible impact and focus legally taxed, sometimes harassed or the Interim Period in 2011. UNHCR on meeting basic needs, building attacked resulting in loss of assets estimates that 90% of refugees will confidence and promoting conflict – and occasionally lives. Lack of return to Sudan during the Interim resolution and reconciliation among access to timely or accurate informa- Period. The desired situation in 2011 the population in areas of return. tion regarding the return process is to have met the sustainable reinte- A successful initial phase will also precludes informed choice and gration needs of displaced popula- ensure that the reintegration is sus- obscures potential risk factors for tions (and ex-combatants) and the tainable and will avert the recurrence returning populations. Some IDPs in communities to which they return, of displacement, or exodus from the Khartoum are being forcibly moved resettle or in which they choose to rural to urban areas. The subsequent from existing areas of displacement integrate throughout Sudan. Measur- process of reintegration to recovery 3 as part of urban renewal efforts. able goals by 2011 are: and development must start at the Lack of adequate access to protec- same time. tion and services in areas of re- ■ sustainable return, integration in turn/resettlement has led to some places of displacement, reinte- For the return and reintegration of secondary migration. These move- gration and resettlement inside displaced population, the principle ments have skewed the demographic Sudan of 6.7 million displaced of the ‘4Rs’ has been adapted in FMR 24 Sustainable return depends on collaborative approach 33

For the return of displaced popula- SUDAN tions, which remains a priority of the government, the following actions will be conducive to promoting the dignity and rights of displaced and returnees in Sudan and are based on international instruments for the protection of IDPs and refugees:

■ increased presence of inter- national monitors as well as programme/protection staff in the field and in IDP camps to strengthen monitoring, interven- tion and programming ■ monitoring of the push-and-pull factors that may impact the re- turn process ■ assessing options for local inte- gration in the North ■ information campaign to promote free and informed choice and voluntary return ■ provision of transport during the phase of spontaneous return to IRIN/Derk Segaar specially vulnerable individuals A 26-seater bus Sudan to include ‘resettlement’ of services and provide opportunities ■ ensuring safe passage along carrying 94 returnees to Kosti, en route displaced within Sudan. The 5Rs to those without farming experience return routes through deploy- to southern Sudan, programming approach with area- to restore or acquire a means of ment of UN military observers, September 2005. based planning will ensure linkages earning their living, avoiding total UN agencies and international and between return and reintegration of dependence on food aid. The UN national NGOs displaced populations with recovery Work Plan for 2005 builds on some ■ establishing a legal framework for and development activities. of these interventions aiming to the return of the displaced provide support to the displaced in ■ monitoring the establishment and JAM research suggests that social their areas of displacement, en route management of way stations protection interventions must be and in areas of return. ■ dissemination of information on focused on points of transition (en the CPA route from areas of displacement There is a natural impatience on ■ advocacy of international humani- and immediately upon arrival in a the part of many stakeholders – the tarian law to all armed actors new area) when shocks to the gener- Sudanese population, especially the ■ ensuring that a general amnesty ally vulnerable may exceed their ca- displaced and war-affected, politi- law is in place prior to organised pacity to cope and where the arrival cians and international actors – to return. of returnees could make life harder attend to the urgent and immediate for residents already lacking re- needs and to see ‘quick wins’. These Challenges facing UNHCR sources. Food and physical security are most often infrastructure proj- must be guaranteed and adequate ects. However, experience from other UNHCR has been an active partner transportation provided. Monitor- post-conflict settings suggests that in these collaborative efforts in the ing is required to reduce the risk of this should be balanced with equally Sudan including in the process of illegal taxation or physical attack, to strong support for the ‘software’ of drawing up the operational frame- verify the voluntary nature of return transition and recovery – capacity work for the return and reintegra- and to help facilitate local integra- strengthening and rebuilding social tion of displaced set out in the UN tion and resettlement opportunities. capital. JAM research suggests that Work Plan for 2005. This approach HIV/AIDS-related information and the process of community-based has resulted in the harmonisation of establishment of structures assist- livelihood recovery interventions, standards for the protection, return ing people living with the disease which will consist of support to and reintegration of IDPs on levels must be established. Attention must basic services, support to environ- comparable to those for returning also be paid to the protection needs mentally safe and sustainable subsis- refugees. of child soldiers, women associated tence agriculture practices and other with fighting forces, disabled com- agro-pastoral activities, and support UNHCR is scaling up its operational batants and chronically ill combat- to on- and off-farm income generat- and logistical capacity for the repa- ants. Farming input baskets must be ing activities, should include protec- triation of refugees from neighbour- given to those with an agricultural tion and security, peace building and ing countries. Recent missions to the background to prepare for self-reli- reconciliation, social welfare, and Democratic Republic of Congo and ance. Rapid impact community- capacity strengthening of authorities the Central African Republic have based reintegration projects should and communities. confirmed that the overwhelming assist communities with basic social majority of Sudanese refugees wish 34 Sustainable return depends on collaborative approach FMR 24

to return home. The first organised Guiding Principles on Internal Dis- among the people of the Sudan, repatriations will take place dur- placement. To date, there are over especially the displaced. The JAM ing the last quarter of 2005. Plans 100 community-based reintegration process has laid the basis for long- are being finalised for the return of projects being implemented by UNH- term reintegration and development. refugees from Kenya, Ethiopia and CR in partnership with communities, The revised 2005 UN Work Plan4 sets elsewhere. UNHCR is assuming the NGOs, UN agencies and the Govern- out immediate and urgent support leadership role of coordinating UN ment of South Sudan and many more required by displaced and receiving activities for the return and reinte- are planned, at a total cost of some communities in areas of displace- gration of IDPs in greater Equatoria $28 million. ment, en route and in areas of (West Equatoria, East Equatoria and return. However, large-scale recovery Bahr el Jebel) and Blue Nile states, UNHCR activities and resources are and development and humanitarian which are also areas of refugee limited, however, and challenges are interventions remain a priority. Any SUDAN return, to ensure that return is enormous. Speaking to villagers in delay in implementing the actions sustainable and takes place in safety south Sudan, the High Commissioner recommended in the JAM report may and dignity. promised to “tell the chiefs of the have implications if people do not rich people” in the world that they see concrete peace dividends, and On a recent mission to the region, must do more but he also warned the displaced are unable to return High Commissioner António Gu- that “we do not have the money to home. This would be a setback for terres reassured representatives of help with everything you need.” He both development and peace. the 66,000 Sudanese refugees in drew a clear link between develop- Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp that ment aid, economic growth and Sajjad Malik, one of the JAM Cluster return would be completely volun- peace. “If we want Ugandans to be Seven leaders, is UNHCR’s Reinte- tary. Urging them to work with the in Uganda, Sudanese in Sudan and gration Coordinator in Khartoum. new south Sudanese authorities to Portuguese in Portugal,” the former Email: [email protected]. This arti- consolidate peace, he outlined the Portuguese Prime Minister said, “we cle is written in a personal capacity measures being undertaken by must stop war. But it is very difficult and does not necessarily represent UNHCR to prepare for their return. to have peace if everybody is poor, if the views of the UN. These include building schools, people don’t have enough to eat, if de-mining roads, rebuilding health children don’t have schools.” 1. pp211-246 of the report available at www. unsudanig.org/JAM/drafts/final/JAM-report-vol- facilities, restoring water services, ume-III.pdf building the capacity of local institu- The successful conclusion of the 2. See Cluster-7 report, pp 219, para 25 tions and training the judiciary, JAM, adoption of its report in Oslo 3. See Cluster-7 report, pp 220, para 28 4. http://ochaonline.un.org/cap2005/webpage. police and other civil servants in and generous funding pledges have asp?MenuID=6357&Page=1217 human rights, refugee law and the generated much hope and optimism The reality of return:

IDPs in Darfur by Mathijs Le Rutte Despite continuing insecurity, IDPs in Darfur are starting ation and reconstruction will be a lengthy process. to return home. UNHCR and other agencies involved in Nevertheless, a small number of their assistance and protection must ensure that the prin- people are returning home to their ciples of voluntariness, safety and dignity are adhered to. villages, often in precarious circum- stances, hoping to rebuild their lives. n 5 July 2005, a Declaration African Union civilian police appears Some of these return movements are of Principles for the Resolu- to have contributed to a relative of a local nature, from village centre Otion of the Sudanese Conflict improvement in security but the to outlying settlements, while others in Darfur was signed in Abuja by the situation remains unpredictable are over longer distances, within and Sudanese government, the Sudan and volatile. The Secretary-General’s between the three Darfur regions.3 2 Liberation Movement and the smaller report on Darfur of 18 July states Some movements have also taken 1 Justice and Equality Movement. that “Darfur may be a less active war place from the Chadian border area. Although this is unquestionably the zone than it was a year ago, but vio- As far as UNHCR has been able to most concrete step towards peace lations of human rights continue to monitor, most of these returns are so far, doubts remain as to how this occur frequently, and active combat proving successful. commitment in principle will be has been replaced by a suffocating translated into reality. IDPs in Darfur environment of intimidation and Those who return are in dire need of continue to suffer violence and rape, fear, perpetuated by ever-present humanitarian assistance. UNHCR’s forced recruitment and abuse of militias.” Even if the commitment to decision to assist those returning children, banditry and tension over peace of the parties involved is genu- initially provoked criticism as it was scarce resources. The presence of ine and fighting subsides, reconcili- feared that this would create false FMR 24 The reality of return: IDPs in Darfur 35

expectations among IDPs about the assessing voluntariness. The individ- concept will vary between different SUDAN feasibility of return. This concern is ual’s initial reason for flight needs to cultures and assumptions should not not wholly unjustified and it is con- be understood in order to verify to be made. An approach that ensures sequently all the more important that what extent the reasons have ceased the effective participation of the in- UNHCR strictly applies the principles to exist or at least have evolved suf- ternally displaced will go a long way of voluntariness, safety and dignity, ficiently to warrant return. For the towards meeting the requirement of maintaining a strict division between condition of voluntariness to be met, dignity. facilitation and promotion and insist- the deciding factor for return needs ing on complete transparency. to be the positive pull factor of the Stages of repatriation place of origin, rather than pres- UNHCR has extensive experience sure from the area of refuge. This UNHCR makes a distinction between with respect to voluntary repa- would usually entail an improvement different phases of return: sponta- triation and has developed a basic in conditions in the area of origin, neous, facilitated and promoted. It framework of standards for all although there may be other reasons is important that UNHCR – and any repatriation operations.4 Adhering why an individual wants to return, other humanitarian actors involved to these standards has been a chal- such as family reunion. UNHCR con- in return – determine explicitly lenge, not because of the principles siders the core of voluntary repatria- under what conditions they will themselves – which are clear and tion to be return – with dignity – in be involved in the different stages firmly rooted in human rights law and to conditions of physical, legal of return and what activities will – but because repatriation move- and material safety. constitute such involvement. For ments are inevitably influenced by each stage there needs to be a list political forces. Repatriation is seen Where hostilities are ongoing or a of benchmarks to be met before as evidence of political stability of general breakdown in law and order supporting return. Such benchmarks the areas of origin. It lessens the persists, return would normally not need to be guided by the degree burden on the hosting areas and be facilitated. Physical safety would to which conditions conducive for may simply be a cheaper option than require some form of assurances return – i.e. physical, legal and mate- continuing to provide assistance at from the authorities, supported by rial safety – have been met. Where the place of refuge. Repatriation is the international community where IDPs return spontaneously, UNHCR therefore likely to be seen as the necessary. Legal safety involves the can assist in the areas of return, if best possible solution by both coun- removal of legal and administrative access exists. Facilitation can occur tries of origin and asylum, as well as barriers to return. This could include upon the specific and fully informed donor countries. the declaration of amnesties and request of IDPs, even if UNHCR does assistance in the restoration of hous- not consider that, objectively, it is The Guiding Principles on Internal ing, land and property rights. Mate- safe for most to return. Promotion Displacement, if properly applied, rial safety implies availability of the of return will only occur if and when will protect individuals against means of survival and basic services, conditions are considered conducive hasty, badly organised or even such as potable water, health and for return in safety and dignity. forced repatriation. Principle 28 reit- education. erates key standards used in refugee Decisions by the international repatriation: voluntariness of return, In order to be able to make a free community to facilitate or promote and in conditions of safety and choice, IDPs must have access to return must not only be taken with dignity. A major challenge is to make accurate, objective and up-to-date due consideration of all relevant these standards operational. information on the situation in areas factors but must also be clearly of return. Ideally, return monitor- explained and communicated to all The Principles in operation ing will be established as soon as actors, including IDPs themselves. returns commence in order to collect Failure to do so may create false In refugee protection, ‘voluntariness’ information for potential returnees impressions about the conditions for is widely regarded as the fundamen- and to assess the needs and pro- return, which in turn risks jeopardis- tal basis of repatriation and the best tect the rights of returnees. Factors ing its voluntary nature. assurance against refoulement. Far pushing – rather than pulling – IDPs from being merely the opposite of to return may involve intimidation, Mathijs Le Rutte is a Senior Legal ‘forced’, voluntariness represents the incentives to encourage departure Officer with the Department of individual’s ability to decide that the or other undue pressure. Among International Protection, UNHCR, conditions that made him/her leave the most important elements in the Geneva. The views expressed in this no longer exist, or at least not to the verification of voluntariness are the article are personal and do not nec- extent that warrants protection else- status and condition of the person in essarily reflect the views of UNHCR where. It is also a pragmatic require- the area of refuge. If the person has or the UN. Email: [email protected] ment, as voluntary return is far more found no protection, if his/her rights likely to be sustainable. are not respected, the person may 1. www.africa-union.org/DARFUR/DOP%205-7- decide to return but it will not be a 05%20new.pdf 2. http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/ Access to the internally displaced is free choice. Furthermore, the level of N05/423/17/PDF/N0542317.pdf?OpenElement a primary requirement for ensuring pressure that collective intent may 3. The states of West, North and South Darfur. 4. UNHCR Handbook on Voluntary Repatriation: voluntariness. Although decisions place on an individual should be International Protection www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/ to flee can be taken in response to a considered. texis/vtx/publ/opendoc.pdf?tbl=PUBL&id=3bfe mass movement, and return can also 68d32 Global Consultations Third Track ExCom Meetings, EC/GC/02/5 of 25 April 2002 www. be decided as a group, it is impor- The concept of ‘dignity’ in return unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendoc. tant to consider the individual when has not been clearly defined. The pdf?tbl=PROTECTION&id=3ccfe52c4 36 FMR 24 Assisting the return of displaced

Dinka Bor by Paul Murphy The issues involved in supporting the return of internally ■ safe passage through hostile territories displaced Dinka Bor communities highlight the complex, ■ addressing reintegration chal- lenges such as ownership of and often ignored, challenges of addressing the conse- livestock, access to grazing and SUDAN quences of South-South conflict. governance ■ providing opportunities for Moro udan’s civil war drove hun- Equatoria accuse the Bor camp com- and Dinka to meet, exchange dreds of thousands of people munities of damaging their forests, views and address the authorities Sfrom their homes to encroach croplands and water points and of ■ establishing a guidance team to on others’ resources, often sparking lack of respect for local traditions facilitate community dialogue conflicts within and between south- and authorities. Since 1999 numer- ■ ensuring inclusion of community- ern communities. At the same time, ous attempts have been made to based institutions, peace com- traditional methods of governance facilitate IDP return – rallies, peace mittees, chiefs and civil society and arbitration, that once kept inter- meetings, needs assessments, flying groups. ethnic and communal disputes in IDPs back to Bor, providing trucks check, have been severely weakened. for transportation and improving Central to the response strategy was The story of the Dinka Bor in Equa- some services in Bor – but without the establishment of a Joint Inte- toria highlights the challenges as- success. Equatoria offered good gration Return and Rehabilitation sociated with the return of southern grazing and other economic op- Support Team (JIRRST) made up of displaced communities. portunities for IDPs, safe passage Dinka Bor, Moro and later Mundari was not provided and inadequate representatives. JIRRST was tasked The 1991 leadership contest within services in Bor provided little incen- with facilitating and monitoring the SPLM had political and military tive to return. return movements, anticipating new consequences that reverberated concerns, disseminating information, down ethnic fault lines. It triggered In 2004, the situation worsened helping to avert conflict and ensur- the flight of over a quarter of a mil- in western Equatoria, and law and ing communication and coordina- lion people, mostly from the Dinka order broke down in the Mundri tion with the relevant political and Bor – the same ethnic group as many and Maridi areas as conflict be- military authorities and other actors. senior SPLM leaders – in Upper Nile. tween hosts and IDPs spiralled out Numerous meetings with stakehold- Thousands were reported to have of control. The SPLM leadership ers led JIRRST to conclude that been massacred and over a million took action, though without all the preparations for return could not cattle killed. practical implications necessarily be rushed. In May 2004, however, considered. All IDPs and cattle in during a Moro community meeting, The Dinka, southern Sudan’s largest Mundri and Maridi were ordered to a senior SPLM official ordered the tribe, are predominantly pastoral- return immediately to Bor County. displaced people and cattle to begin ists, yet many of the displaced Pact, an international organisation to return the following day. sought refuge in Equatoria region, with a track record in peace build- an area dominated by agricultural- ing in Sudan, was asked to assist. All 62 cattle camps reluctantly ists. Consequently, tension followed The intervention was to be a pilot to started to move but only to an area their arrival, aggravated by the fact generate approaches and lessons for in eastern Mundri County as the that IDPs came under a separate the SPLM leadership and the many rains had already started. IDP lead- administrative structure from that other Bor IDPs scattered throughout ers were concerned about keeping of their hosts and maintained their Equatoria, to ensure a broader and the most vulnerable IDPs (women own customary norms with little successful return process. with young children, elderly and the consideration for local traditions. handicapped) with the cattle camps Further complications arose as the The return of the Dinka to their during weeks of slow travel. Many Dinka-Bor IDPs occupied farmlands home areas was not a simple logis- of the Dinka Bor felt pushed and and grazing areas of Equatorian tics exercise but required a multi- feared for their security. The JIRRST ethnic groups who felt that the IDPs faceted approach and extensive dia- continued dialogue and mediation, were acting with impunity due to logue between the ethnic groups, the established local peace committees the political protection they were authorities and Pact. The framework along the planned return routes and thought to receive. devised to guide the return process mobilised NGOs and the UN to pro- focused on: vide humanitarian assistance. After over a decade in Equatoria, the Dinka Bor are now thought to ■ the causes and legacy of the In June 2005 chaos ensued after have vast herds of cattle – 1.2 mil- breakdown in relationships, and a Mundari military officer and lion in 62 camps in the Mundri and its future political ramifications; some civilians were shot dead. Two Maridi areas and far more elsewhere thus the need for healing and advance cattle camps were robbed in Equatoria. The Moro in western reconciliation of livestock and personal posses- FMR 24 Assisting the return of displaced Dinka Bor 37

leadership and the international SUDAN community. The approach focuses on the aggrieved host communities, the intricacies around the safety of passage, and protection around the IDPs in their host communities, dur- ing migration and in their areas of return. It is vital to:

■ understand and acknowledge the complex political environment in which return will take place ■ analyse key issues affecting sta- bility and conflict and share the analysis with all stakeholders ■ facilitate collaborative efforts around agreed strategies and objectives ■ encourage and enable local institutions to play active roles in mediation and advocacy.

Despite many at the grassroots fear- ing that the conditions for peace are Rebecca Hamilton & Kristin Harris Hamilton & Kristin Rebecca being brokered by elites and that sions and another 32 camps quickly one step back, yet investments the process will be protracted, the retraced their steps back towards made through the JIRRST have been signing of the Comprehensive Peace western Equatoria. The JIRRST was substantial and largely effective. The Agreement brings new hope for a faced yet again with having to con- overall trend is positive, if slow, and peaceful return of the Dinka Bor and tain rapidly deteriorating relation- the approach has managed to raise others displaced in southern Sudan. ships between hosts and displaced. levels of awareness and sensitivity The challenges ahead are monumen- Eight camps have crossed the river and to draw in appropriate actors tal but must be addressed (systemat- to Bor County in Upper Nile and the around a common framework of ically and holistically) to bring about rest are expected to stay until the ap- action. A greater commitment by the the conditions for a lasting peace in proach of the next rainy season. wider aid community is still needed. Sudan.

Conclusion Pact’s experience in conflict reduc- Paul Murphy has worked in Sudan tion leads us to advocate a multi- since 1989 and is the Director for This case – though still a ‘work faceted and multi-actor approach, the NGO Pact (www.pactworld. in progress’ – raises many issues requiring facilitation that encom- org) in Sudan. For elaboration of relating to appropriate practice in passes the involvement of grassroots the approach outlined above, and supporting population movement stakeholders, support for local other information on Pact’s Sudan in unstable situations. Progress has government officials and chiefs, programme, please visit www.pact- been a case of two steps forward, and engagement with the national sudan.org. Epic trek of Mabia IDPs by William Lorenz The intensive support given by the international com- journey from their camp at Mabia, south of the town of Tambura. The munity to assist the spontaneous return of IDPs from the group followed a route along the camp at Mabia highlights the enormity of the task of border with the Central African Republic in a bid to cross the Busseri providing similar humanitarian assistance to the hun- River before the onset of the rainy dreds of thousands also on the move home. season. he International Organization forests and rough terrain of western It was mentally and physically for Migration (IOM) – with Equatoria to their homes in west- draining for the returnees (many Tsupport from the World Food ern Bahr el Ghazal. The initiative to from female-headed households), the Programme, OCHA, UNICEF, World return began with the IDPs and in- SPLM soldiers who provided security Vision, MSF Spain and the Camboni ternational assistance was provided and the IOM team who accompanied missionaries – assisted some 5,000 only after the start of their journey. them. Soon after their departure IDPs from 10 different tribes on a The returnees, who had fled their the group found they had to hack 350-km return route through the homes four years earlier, began their their own road through the forest. 38 Epic trek of Mabia IDPs FMR 24

They had to contend with mines, mosquitoes, guinea worms, tsetse flies, swamps and swollen rivers, negotiate with rebel militias not engaged in the peace process and forage for food when planned food drops were delayed. For much of the route, food, plastic sheeting, mos- quito nets and medical kits could only be delivered by air. Fuel short- ages and mechanical breakdowns meant that only the most vulnerable SUDAN could be transported by truck, forc- ing most to move on foot. Diarrhoea, dysentery, malaria, acute respira- tory infections and injuries took their inevitable toll. Planned medical evacuations could not take place. As the rain came down, trucks became stranded and access to air transport was complicated by the emergency

which followed the death of Dr John Lorenz IOM/William Garang. Despite considerable international and reintegration assistance such as commitment, a journey planned to seeds and agricultural tools. On 7 August the group finally last 30 days had taken three and a arrived at an interim camp in Bile, half months. While 43 had died en William Lorenz led the IOM team near the town of Deim Zubeir, route (before the IOM team arrived, accompanying the IDPs. Email: where they were welcomed by 23 IDPs were crushed to death when [email protected]. See his BBC officials from the Sudan Relief and a truck turned over on a makeshift online diary at: http://news.bbc. Rehabilitation Commission and bridge), 34 children had been born. co.uk/2/hi/africa/4134230.stm and the Government of Sudan garrison The IDPs will stay at Bile for a couple photo gallery at: http://news.bbc. commander. Many returned with of months before finally returning to co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gal- their heads held high, wearing new their former homes across the dis- lery/05/africa_sudan_trek_revis- clothes and shoes they had put tricts of Raga and Wau. During their ited/html/1.stm on after laboriously carrying them stay in Bile, they will receive food wrapped up during their ordeal. This article is written in a personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the views of IOM. IDPs and urban planning in

Khartoum by Agnès de Geoffroy unequal access to jobs, education Urban planning policies – which have led to demolition and basic services.

of IDP housing in and around Khartoum – highlight the The official IDP camps were estab- need for Sudan to adopt specific IDP legislation and to lished outside urban boundaries but the pace of urban growth is so great find durable solutions for those displaced southerners that the camps are now integrated who do not want to leave Khartoum. into the outskirts of the city. Provid- ing water and electricity is an enor- ragic recent events have drawn An estimated 325,000 IDPs live in mous challenge which the state has attention to the neglected is- four official IDP camps, established not addressed. In squatter areas and Tsue of IDP settlements in the in 1991, with an additional popu- in IDP camps only a handful of resi- Khartoum metropolis, now home to lation of at least 1.5 million IDPs dents have electricity, provided by five million people. In May 2005 Su- scattered in unauthorised squatter privately-owned generators. Water is danese security forces arrived in the settlements. Mobility between settle- generally obtained from wells drilled squatter area of Soba-Aradi, 30km ments, whether as a result of forcible by NGOs and managed by commu- south of Khartoum. Their attempts relocation by the government or vol- nity-based organisations. Water is a to demolish IDPs’ shelters and load untary movement, is high. Most IDPs major household expense, especially people onto trucks led to clashes were primarily displaced by conflict for those living far from wells. which resulted in the deaths of 15 in the south and the Nuba Mountains policemen and an unknown number or by drought in the mid 1980s. They During the 1990s international NGOs of IDPs, including children. are discriminated against and have were active in the camps, providing IOM/William Lorenz

Agnès de Geoffroy FMR driven thepooresttofurthest Demolitions andrelocationshave ated withviolationsofhumanrights. Greater Khartoumhasbeenassoci For decadesurbanplanningin ing assistance. shows littlecommitmenttoprovid in areaswherethegovernment sources andstruggletomeetneeds often havelimitedcapacitiesandre through localagencies.LocalNGOs and insquatterareasrunprojects tional NGOsstillworkingincamps based agencies.Mostoftheinterna projects tonationalorcommunity- Khartoum, generallyhandingover agencies withdrewfromGreater restrictions onaccessbyNGOs,most in otherpartsofthecountryand the situationincamps,acuteneeds However, duetoanimprovementof water, sanitation,healthandfood. years –atthesametimeas Evictions haveintensifiedinrecent which privilegeswealthierpeople. untransparent andcorruptsystem Their hopesareoftendashedinan hope ofgettingaccesstolegaltitle. plastic sheetsandcardboard–inthe racuba the demolitionsandestablisha move intotheIDPcampsbefore Rumours aboundandsomefamilies official criteriaofplotallocation. know littleaboutplotpricesand in subsequentplotallocations.Most of eventuallygettinglandownership urban planningdecisionsinthehope some resist,IDPsmostlysubmitto and illegallysubdivided.Although areas landhasusuallybeensquatted access tolandwhileinthesquatter en atemporaryusufructary(usage) IDP camps,residentshavebeengiv peripheries ofthecity.Incase 24 – a

shelter madeofbranches, - - - - - is aclearstrategytorelocatepeople have beenmovedsince2004.There relocated since1989,morethanhalf homes demolishedandbeenforcibly 665,000 IDPswhohavehadtheir towards peace.Oftheestimated government andSPLMhaveworked of Planning. methods andpetitionedtheMinistry the UN–hasdenouncedgovernment Droits del’Hommeandsupportedby tiative startedbyEnfantsduMonde, African Relief(FAR)followinganini Coalition –ledbyFellowshipfor ment. AKhartoumStateInteragency tices oftheKhartoumStategovern have attemptedtochangetheprac International andnationalagencies Advocacy for anewplot. demolished andwhoarenoteligible of IDPswhosehouseshavebeen has nopolicytoaddresstheneeds pay foranewplot.Thegovernment and thosewhocouldnotaffordto who arrivedinKhartoumafter1996 female-headed households,those have lostidentificationdocuments, cessing aplot,especiallythosewho IDPs havebeenexcludedfromac come toremovethem.Manyevicted be awokenbythearrivaloftrucks notice ofdemolitionormaysimply provided forIDPswhomaybegiven destroyed. Noalternativeshelteris health clinicsandlatrineshavebeen that whenIDPsaremoved,schools, The GlobalIDPProjecthasnoted plans ofSaudiArabianinvestors. in Shikanearedesignedtoassistthe There arerumoursthatdemolitions Aradi haspushedupplotprices. ble deeper.InvestorinterestinSoba- soils arelessfertileandthewaterta to north-westernKhartoumwhere 1 IDPs andurbanplanninginKhartoum - - - - - Although governmentintentionsto Aradi weredismissedasunfounded. aftermath oftheincidentsinSoba- INGOs. Internationalconcernsinthe Khartoum Stategovernmentand Tensions arehighbetweenthe ■ ■ ■ particularareasaretobere- ■ agencies arecallingfor: The Coalitionandhumanrights 2. 279C1256E550059AEBD idpSurvey.nsf/wViewCountries/C2D3EBD8BAE2E 1. [email protected] Bogotá andKhartoum.Email: ing urbanintegrationofIDPsin University ofParis8,compar completing adoctorateatthe Développement (URD). Groupe UrgenceRéhabilitation and aresearchworkerwiththe consultant onIDP-relatedissues Agnès deGeoffroyisapart-time reconciliation processes. become anintegralpartofnational be acomplexchallengeandmust who wishtostayinKhartoumwill ing theissueofdisplacedpeople should becomeindependent.Manag referendum onwhethertheSouth political baseinthebuild-upto in theSouthordertoincreaseits interested inhavingpeopleresettle For theirpart,theSPLMiskeenly large numbersoftheminKhartoum. southern populationbykeeping be interestedincontrollingthe of transition,thegovernmentmay IDPs. Nevertheless,inthesetimes government toselllandoccupiedby a cleareconomicincentiveforthe streets andnothingmore.Thereis only resultisneatlydemarcated may bewell-intentioned,oftenthe provide servicestoresettledpeople www.urd.org

www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/IdpProjectDb/ presently livinginthecamps”. to identifythosepeoplewhoare people’ isnolongerappropriate “the terminologyof‘displaced Planning andPublicUtilitiesthat statement fromtheMinistryof agencies areconcernedbya IDP usedbythegovernment: rejection ofthedefinition voluntary nature return ofIDPswillbeatotally guarantees thatrepatriationand in allocatingplots greater transparencyandequity to beprovided electricity andotherservicesare zoned andwhenhealth,water, a clearertimeframeofwhen m 2

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Omdurman. Racubas 39 inIDPcamp, SUDAN 40 Norwegian Refugee Council FMR 24 Information, counselling and legal assistance for returning IDPs by Sonia Di Mezza ith the signing of the Com- Common questions and issues of counter-productivity in the form prehensive Peace Agree- concern include: of unwanted repercussions for the Wment many IDPs are opting ■ How to prepare for return? individual or group involved. to return to their homes or relocate ■ What are the security facts and SUDAN to other areas. They urgently need considerations? ICLA in Sudan accurate, reliable information before ■ What are the economic prerequi- doing so. sites or considerations, such as In Sudan, NRC has so far established repossession of land and prop- ICLA offices in three Khartoum Some IDPs send male family mem- erty, employment opportunities camps. There is also a mobile unit bers ahead to assess conditions but or pension rights? that visits IDPs in other places of the journey can be hazardous and ■ What particular issues affect displacement. A key task of the ICLA the information gained scanty. Infor- vulnerable groups such as ethnic project is to assist IDPs in acquir- mation provided by the authorities minorities, female-headed house- ing identity documents and apply- is not always reliable either, often holds and separated children? ing for plots of property from the reflecting political objectives. The ■ Have others returned to the home government. ICLA has implemented Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) area, and what are their experi- workshops for IDPs and also assists has established an Information, ences? Sudanese lawyers in providing legal Counselling and Legal Assistance ■ Are there particular formal proce- counselling for IDPs. (ICLA) project in Sudan, drawing dures and documents required to on NRC’s experience of providing return? NRC intends to expand these ac- similar assistance in countries such tivities in Sudan, in order to provide as Colombia, Former Yugoslavia, Refugees and IDPs themselves usu- information, protection and counsel- Pakistan, Afghanistan, Georgia and ally have no return experience. The ling services to returnees as well as Uganda.1 process of decision making can be to IDPs. Assistance capacity will be facilitated by skilled staff at coun- increased by using a network of part- Information and counselling on selling centres and through mobile ners, including protection officers return is based on the experience teams visiting other locations. already stationed in various places of that refugees and IDPs contemplat- return and along return routes, host ing – but as yet uncertain about Legal requirements or problems communities, community leaders – return are best prepared when they frequently constitute obstacles to and other humanitarian organisa- themselves have carefully considered durable return or reintegration. NRC tions. NRC plans to work to prepare what the process of voluntary return will, if necessary, approach relevant communities in areas of return to and reintegration actually entails. administrative bodies for repos- address potential conflicts that may IDPs need accurate and reliable session of property or land tenure arise from influxes of returnees, as information regarding their areas rights, for obtaining necessary well as provide training on princi- of displacement and origin, return documents required for citizenship ples of protection, human rights and routes, security, employment, health or identity documentation or for ob- non-discrimination to enable and and education facilities and other taining benefits such as employment empower communities to recognise, return-related issues. NRC’s work on or pension rights. If cases are not report and resolve violations of information and counselling provi- solved because of neglect, deliberate rights. NRC will also work with other sion is founded on the importance of obstruction of procedures or justice humanitarian agencies to empower having credible and extensive local or simply unlawful action, NRC will the Government of South Sudan to knowledge of experiences of those pursue other available options, such remedy and redress issues stemming already returned, conditions in vari- as in-court representation, including from return. ous potential return areas and what possible appeals to domestic higher legal or other obstacles returnees courts. On issues of systematic legal With the expansion of humanitarian may face. denial of basic returnee rights, cases activities in Sudan, it is hoped that may be further pursued to interna- return conditions and integration op- In addition to NRC’s own experi- tional courts such as the European tions will be communicated to even ences, other sources of information Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg more IDPs, ultimately resulting in are always sought and used. Exter- or to international treaty bodies such greater protection of IDPs, returnees nal sources need to be assessed, as the UN Commission on Human and residents of host communities. however, for credibility, lack of bias Rights in Geneva. In other, non-legal and how information has been ac- contexts, solutions may be pursued Sonia Di Mezza is ICLA Project cumulated and documented. NRC through other customary channels Manager for NRC in Sudan. Email: has developed a specially designed or through requests for assistance [email protected] database for cross-border processing by relevant local, national or inter- www.nrc.no/engindex.htm of large quantities of information on national agencies. Such measures return areas and legal issues. will always be considered to avoid 1. www.nrc.no/NRC/core/Legal.pdf FMR 24 41 Time to strengthen protection SUDAN of IDPs by Walter Kälin Lack of resources and infrastructure, the volatile security spend funds on emergency humani- tarian assistance which should be situation and the absence of state structures pose serious invested in recovery and develop- threats to the human rights of returnees and IDPs. ment projects. n October 2005 I undertook a In order to provide returnees en Although return movements are still mission to study the situation of route with limited and short-term as- limited there is already evidence IIDPs and returnees to the South. sistance and protection, the humani- of cases where returnees see their I realised that the Sudanese authori- tarian community has been planning expectations frustrated upon arrival ties, the international community to erect way stations. Unfortunately, and opt to return to Khartoum. and donors need to do much more these plans have not yet materi- to ensure the protection of the rights alised, and most returnees lack Creating an environment in which of the four million people displaced any material support during their returns can be sustainable requires: by conflict. journeys. Some reported having been attacked, illegally taxed and looted ■ removing militias from areas of As stated in the Guiding Principles on the road. As returns are already return, disarming civilians and on Internal Displacement, the right under way and expected to increase demining of access roads and of IDPs to choose freely whether to during the coming dry season, there agricultural land return, locally integrate or resettle is an urgent need for the internation- ■ action to address the major elsewhere must be respected. How- al community to implement existing obstacles to return reported by ever, it became clear from talking to plans. IDPs – absence of clean drinking IDPs in camps in and around Khar- water, primary education, health toum that many were badly or not at Despite the peace agreement, service and household building all informed about conditions in their returnees fear for their safety due material places of origin. Most have unrealistic to militia activities, land mines and ■ UN agencies and NGOs to be expectations of intact infrastructure, the widespread presence of armed resourced to undertake fast re- functioning basic services and op- civilians within communities. Upon covery programmes and provide portunities to maintain a livelihood. arrival, many remain without shelter, such non-food items as seeds, Many lack information about how to sufficient food, clean drinking water tools, fishing nets and basic obtain relevant documents. and access to medical services. building materials Parents whose children attended ■ establishment of mechanisms The authorities in Khartoum State schools during their displacement in for speedy resolution of land are implementing an urban plan- the North are fearful they will not be disputes ning programme which aims to give enrolled in already over-subscribed ■ ensuring that returnees receive, residents of irregular settlements a schools. The elderly and women, es- with little or no charge, docu- plot of land in the desert outskirts pecially female-headed households, ments to enable them to access of the city. In principle, IDPs - like remain particularly vulnerable. basic services. other Sudanese citizens - are eligible to benefit from a land allocation Information is scanty due to lack of Instead of aiming at perfection and programme which has potential monitoring outside the main towns getting lost in long-term planning, to provide a durable solution to and settlements. Protection activi- flexible and creative community- their plight. However, I learned that ties of international agencies and based solutions for providing basic there are great difficulties with its NGOs are hampered by lack of funds infrastructure and health and educa- implementation. Many IDPs are not and restriction of access. Rushed tion services should be found in eligible and methods by which settle- returns may create serious humani- order to bridge the period until full ments are relocated give rise to hu- tarian problems and should not be services can be set up. man rights concerns. IDPs and NGOs promoted. The current capacities reported that persons are forcibly in the South to receive and quickly Professor Walter Kälin is the removed from their previous settle- integrate large numbers of returnees Representative of the UN Secretary- ments with inadequate or no prior are limited. In areas of mass arrivals, General on the Human Rights of consultation. During the removal, the humanitarian problems of IDP Internally Displaced Persons and housing, personal belongings and camps and irregular settlements in co-director of the Brookings Insti- infrastructure such as schools are the North may simply be transferred tute-University of Bern Project on destroyed. Fearing for their survival to the South. As a result, tensions Internal Displacement www.brook. many IDPs relocated to inhospitable may arise within overstretched local edu/idp. Email: walter.kalin@oefre. urban margins see return to the communities due to competition unibe.ch South as their only option, despite over scarce resources and services. the fact they often lack the means to There is a danger that the interna- travel. tional community may be forced to 42 FMR 24 Challenges facing returnees in

Sudan by Judy McCallum and Gizenga Yemba Willow Food and Agriculture Organisation, Fellowship for African Relief (FAR)1 is working to FAR is implementing a pilot poultry address the needs of IDPs at key points along the project in Renk town, with plans to returnee route. replicate this activity in rural areas should the market prove sufficient. rovision of services along the cles, with numbers of those requir- SUDAN Our future plans include providing whole returnee route is critical ing assistance varying widely – up to much needed agricultural training, Pto the return process: at points 1,000 families at a time – and putting agriculture extension services, as- of displacement (such as Khartoum a huge strain on shelter, sanitation sistance with setting up community and Kosti IDP camps and squatter and washing facilities. In addi- ‘seed fairs’, distribution of seeds and areas), at key transition points which tion, the barge trips can also vary tools, livestock restocking, introduc- IDPs will pass through to return in length of time depending upon tion of animal traction for improved home (Kosti ferry embarkation) variables such as water level and agricultural production and micro- and at destination points (such as security. At the Kosti wharves FAR credit services for income-generating Northern Upper Nile and the Nuba and ADRA (Adventist Development activities. mountains). and Relief Agency International) are providing shelters, latrines, wash- Some of the key obstacles to FAR’s Most of the IDPs have been displaced ing areas, food, basic health services work in this area include the dis- for 20 years. Many who have grown and health education. On the barges tance between the communities up in Khartoum can no longer speak themselves, FAR provides further served and the difficulty accessing their native language – potentially health and nutrition education train- some of them during the rainy sea- problematic for reintegration in their ing sessions (including cooking), as son. In addition, the communities in home areas. In addition, through well as shelter. these areas have received hardly any isolation from their communities humanitarian assistance for over 20 and interaction with other ethnic In the areas around Kosti FAR is years and lack representative institu- groups and cultures, they have lost working with NGOs and community- tions. It therefore takes much longer knowledge of traditional customs based organisations to help provide to get the communities organised and have adopted new traditions and much needed services – including around longer-term goals, as they customs. One prime example of this those with a peace-building compo- are currently focused on day-to-day is food. Many IDPs returning from nent. Peace-building activites have survival needs. FAR and its partners the North may not have had access included holding inter-community need to strike a careful balance to foods grown in the South and no festivals, assisting the communities between providing much needed longer know how to prepare them. to set up local arbitration for minor emergency and relief support while To remedy this, one of FAR’s activi- disputes and training civil society building communities’ capacity and ties is organising cooking demon- organisations to provide leadership initiative to address their own priori- strations – especially for young girls in their communities. ties and development needs. who have grown up and married in the North – focusing on foods grown Support for returnees As the international community in southern Sudan. seeks to support the Sudanese com- In Northern Upper Nile State, FAR munity in rebuilding their country Transition points – as part of a five-organisation con- and establishing a lasting and sortium – is currently focusing on sustainable peace, it is vital that we At the Kosti riverfront, where re- providing immediate emergency sup- work to help strengthen civil society turnees gather to await the barges port to returnees as well as house- and provide an environment where going south to Malakal and Juba, hold food security services. local community initiatives can FAR is working with other INGOs and flourish. NGOs to provide essential services The emergency support activities, and health education. The departure funded by ECHO, include providing Judy McCallum was Director times of the barges can be erratic ‘returnee kits’ to households arriving of Programs for FAR Sudan and returnees can wait for up to a in the area and – in collaboration until August 2005. Email: judy_ month for a barge, when they may with Medair – emergency health in [email protected] have been anticipating a wait of just case of disease outbreaks. The re- a day or two. Road transportation turnee kits contain basic household Gizenga Yemba Willow, an IDP in has not yet been possible due to the items: two saucepans, one tray, two Khartoum, is Deputy Program Di- presence of landmines. water cups, two water jerry cans, rector for FAR Sudan in Khartoum. mosquito nets and one blanket. FAR Email: [email protected] The unpredictable nature of the also plans to distribute farming return process and the erratic barge implements in the planting season. 1. www.farsudan.org schedule pose considerable obsta- In addition, with support of the FMR 24 43 Towards a culture of human SUDAN

rights in Darfur by Joseph Aguettant The International Rescue Committee and UNDP have bers of the community, establishing Justice and Confidence Centres and embarked on an ambitious training programme to raise building the capacity of paralegals awareness of human rights amongst law-enforcement, judi- and human rights defenders. ciary and security officials and restore trust between citizens Experience has taught the IRC that targeting specific categories of indi- and statutory and customary authorities in Darfur. viduals does not produce sustainable he IRC/UNDP Human Rights an accusatory or lecturing style, effects and can increase tensions or and Rule of Law training condemning police officers for hu- cause harm. The programme has had Tprogramme was launched in man rights violations, trainers have to tread a careful line in terms of se- September 2004 with the support first discussed situations in which lection of participants. We felt that it of tribal leaders in Darfur and the the rights of police officers may be was equally important for displaced endorsement of state and federal violated. This then allowed them to persons, host communities and authorities. Human rights training explore ways to improve the human conflict affected populations to be courses and workshops have been rights of others. Similarly, trainers aware of their rights as it is for local attended by some 7,000 people. have used domestic law, primarily authorities, traditional leaders and Participants have included military the Interim National Constitution other duty-bearers to be conscious officers, local police officers, law- as a starting point for discussions of their responsibilities. yers, judges, law students, leaders on human rights. Only after local of women’s organisations and youth notions of human rights have been This successful first phase has groups, IDP camp leaders, municipal discussed, do facilitators introduce demonstrated that it is never too officials, prison administrators and such international human rights law early to address longer-term issues, the native administration. instruments as the UN Guiding Prin- notably the imperative for a return ciples on Internal Displacement and of the rule of law and respect for Trainees indicated a high level of the Declaration on the Protection human rights. It is possible to do so satisfaction with the training courses of Women and Children in Armed while meeting survival needs such and a strong desire to work towards Conflict. as food, health, water and sanita- translating theory into practice. Par- tion. We hope that this project will ticipants stressed that prompt action Human rights training is not an end positively contribute to the debate on incidents reported by IDPs will in itself. While awareness raising on timely integration of protection help to restore trust in law enforce- sessions are often the most inspir- and human rights within humanitar- ment officials. The programme has ing feature of this programme, they ian assistance. succeeded in providing a neutral must be complemented and rein- space dedicated to the discussion of forced by parallel efforts to ensure In light of obstacles in the field and human rights standards and current protection and build the capacity of the fact that some authorities are realities. The value of this neutral- local rights groups. Darfur has right- occasionally challenging the need ity cannot be overemphasised as ly been dubbed a protection crisis for human rights and protection most participants have never had and displaced Darfurians remain in activities, it would be useful for the an opportunity for such exchanges. dire need of protection. Both inside UN and the Government of Sudan The provocative style of the trainers and outside IDP camps, people con- to reiterate their joint commitment has encouraged debate, but at the tinue to be victims of armed attacks, to human rights training. To all it same time promoted tolerance and sexual assaults and theft of livestock should be clear that humanitarian respect. In several training sessions and other property. Many victims assistance and human rights come as high-ranking participants freely de- have well-founded fears of the a package. bated the use of torture with a level authorities and are unable to report of openness that is rare in Darfur. crimes. The task of restoring trust in Joseph Aguettant is Senior Protec- The sense of relief and excitement at the authorities has only just begun. tion Coordinator for the Internation- such free expression was palpable. al Rescue Committee – Sudan. After participants have left training Email: [email protected]. To Human rights education must be de- courses it is important to provide learn more about IRC’s work in Dar- signed so that everyone involved has ongoing mentoring and monitoring fur, go to www.theIRC.org/darfur a motive for learning. Trainers at- of all stakeholders, in particular po- tempted to understand and explore tential perpetrators of human rights This article is written in a personal the constraints of target groups and abuses. The IRC in partnership with capacity and does not necessarily the ways in which they themselves UNDP and local partners has fol- represent the views of the IRC. may experience a lack of respect lowed up awareness raising sessions for human rights. Instead of taking by identifying key allies within mem- 44 FMR 24 Sudanese women waging peace by Rogaia Abusharaf organised to respond to the needs of Sudanese women are urging the international commu- orphans, street children and others nity and Sudan’s male leaders to do more to promote the in dire economic straits.

inclusion of women in peace building and reconciliation. Support for women’s efforts must be lthough UN Security Council deep ethnic and religious rifts which seen as a vital component of peace

SUDAN Resolution 1325 (2000) spe- make reconciliation and transition to and reconstruction. Sudan urgently Acifically mandates women’s peace difficult. requires a broad, nation-wide, participation in peace processes, awareness-raising campaign about Sudanese women have been consis- Nowhere is this more so than in women’s rights that speaks to men tently sidelined by North-South and Darfur where the Janjaweed militia and women as well as young people. Darfur peace processes. Although have used sexual violence as a strat- Women’s land tenure, title and own- many women’s organisations were egy to dehumanise women and girls ership rights must be clarified and registered observers with the Inter- and humiliate and control entire an enforceable legal framework set governmental Authority on Develop- communities. Abductions, sexual in place that reconciles competing ment (IGAD) and presented technical slavery, rape, torture and forced claims on land and enables women papers to negotiators in the Macha- displacement have been so pervasive and women-headed households to kos talks, they were not formally as to call into question the ability hold and defend ownership. It is involved. When the Government of communities ever to re-establish essential to educate the population of Sudan prevented women from themselves. Louise Arbour, the UN about the diversity of customary boarding a plane to take them to High Commissioner for Human and traditional laws with an eye to- the Naivasha talks in Kenya, women Rights, has noted the absence of wards codification and revisiting of from the South joined northern structures in Darfur to promote jus- customs that discriminate against or women to formally protest their tice and healing and bring perpetra- disadvantage women, such as female exclusion from the peace process. tors to justice. genital mutilation. At Naivasha, women’s organisations were forced to present their papers Addressing the root causes of Plans for the voluntary return, with recommendations to the parties conflict in Sudan must include resettlement and rehabilitation of by pushing them under the closed promotion of women’s economic refugees and IDPs cannot succeed doors of the negotiation room. Suda- empowerment. Women make up the without more being done to involve nese women have played hardly any majority of Sudan’s population and women. Income-generation activi- role in the African Union-sponsored in some conflict-affected areas three ties must be created for women in Darfur peace talks in the Nigerian quarters of the surviving inhabitants refugee and IDP camps and at transit capital, Abuja. are women. Women head house- and entry points for returnees. The holds, yet they do not have legal international community needs to Women comprise the majority of access to land or resources due to facilitate links and communication Sudanese IDPs and refugees. Even discrimination in Sudanese statu- among women leaders and the grass- when housed in refugee and IDP tory and customary law. Sudan – like roots, women returnees in urban and camps, women are not safe from most Arab states – is not among the rural areas and women returnees gender-based violence. Reports 180 nations which have signed the across the country and across con- abound of women being abducted UN Convention on the Elimination of flict lines. Women need to be given and/or raped while collecting all Forms of Discrimination against access to credit and information firewood near camps while little or Women (CEDAW). about local and national markets nothing is done to bring perpetra- so that they can set up small busi- tors to justice. During resettlement, Challenging tradition nesses. women face specific challenges in- Other key demands being made by cluding increased burdens as female Sudanese women are challenging Sudanese women’s organisations heads of household, little access to their traditional status. In Sudan and include: healthcare and education, and few in the diaspora we have established economic opportunities. organisations and networks to raise ■ increasing to 50% the target for awareness about the human costs women’s participation at all levels The Comprehensive Peace Agree- of the conflict and to call for an in all governing and deliberative ment between Khartoum and the inclusive approach to the implemen- bodies in Sudan, including land SPLM does not speak to the full tation of the peace agreement. As commissions, oil commissions, complexity of the ongoing conflict breadwinners and decision makers, party lists and elected and ap- in Sudan as it fails to address the women are starting income gen- pointed bodies in national, local intermittent conflicts throughout eration projects, some in fields as and regional governments, both the country with additional parties, untraditional as carpentry. Women transitional and permanent related human rights abuses and the from the North and South have FMR 24 Sudanese women waging peace 45

■ removing legal impediments to ■ ensuing that disarmament, demo- with the support of the international SUDAN the registration and operation of bilisation and reintegration (DDR) community to train our women to be civil society organisations and efforts include ex-women soldiers leaders.” repealing restrictive laws that in- ■ training and involving women in hibit the freedom of movement so the security sector (women police Muna Khugali, postgraduate student: that women’s NGOs throughout officers, military officers, security “At the local level, we need crimes Sudan can work together officers) against humanity to be documented ■ building capacity of women’s ■ designing a protocol on account- and captured. With this information, organisations, particularly skills ability and transitional justice we can start to create more account- in proposal writing, project plan- mechanisms, especially with ability and prevent history from ning, management and evaluation, regard to gender-based violence repeating itself.” accounting and money manage- ■ establishing an internationally- ment sponsored commission of inquiry Amel Gorani, Director, Sudan Future ■ monitoring to ensure women are and commission for truth and Care: at least half of the beneficiaries of reconciliation “The absence of violence will not cre- all assistance efforts in all sectors ■ ensuring women’s access to re- ate a peaceful Sudan. There should ■ establishing mechanisms to productive healthcare be a truth and reconciliation process clarify and strengthen the roles ■ supporting gender training for because so many people in Sudan and relationships among NGOs, political parties using national have been traumatised.” civil society and government enti- and international experts and ties dedicated to assisting women national women’s organisations. Eiman Seifeld, founder of the Darfur ■ convening periodic national Women’s Relief and Rehabilitation women’s consultations at which Sudanese women are articulating the Agency: female representatives of the need for change: “It is women who are caring for the grassroots, government and family, who remain at home, who non-governmental organisations Agnes Nyoka, Coordinator, Sudanese know the situation on the ground. throughout Sudan, representing Women’s Empowerment for Peace Women will be the ones who are left, all ethnic and faith-based groups, (SuWEP): who must implement the policies can discuss shared priorities and “Dialogue is very important to resolve of the peace talks – if they are not concerns and prevent conflict in Sudan. As included, they will surely fail. Women ■ raising the marriage age to 18 women, decisions are being made are ready for peace and a better ■ ratification and observance of for us. The GoS and SPLM are using future for their children.” CEDAW and the UN Convention arms, and we carry UNSC 1325 as on the Rights of the Child our arms to promote inclusion.” Afaf Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, Woman ■ establishing a ministry and Center for Peace and Development: presidential advisor for Women’s Keziah Layinwa Nicodemus, Head, “This war was created by poverty. Affairs to ensure gender main- SPLM Women and Gender Commis- Poverty perpetuates the cycle of vio- streaming sion: lence and one strategy to eradicate ■ including foreign and Sudanese “We are speaking in one voice today. poverty and violence is to build the women in all missions, negotiat- We are women from all over Sudan capacity of women through training.” ing sessions and needs assess- and we are a voice for peace. We ment teams sent by foreign speak in one language regardless of Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf is a Su- governments and international our divisions … we have been given danese anthropologist focusing on organisations to assist Sudanese 25% seats in southern Sudan’s consti- security, human rights protection peace building tution. But we have to push to make and the cultural strategies adopted ■ including women in UN and Afri- this a reality. Sudan is a country by displaced women coping with vi- can Union peace-keeping units of men and we have to work hard olence and dislocation. Email: Roga- [email protected]

This article draws on the report of a November 2004 event which brought 16 Sudanese women peacebuild- ers for meetings, presentations and events in Washington DC and New York. It was organised by Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace (www.womenwagingpeace.net) whose founder Ambassador Swanee Hunt facilitated the entry of the women into US and UN decision-making circles. The author wishes to thank her compatriots for their tireless work in formulating the recommen- dations included in this article. WFP/Antonia Paradela 46 FMR 24 From Afghanistan to Sudan: how peace risks marginalising women by Lina Abirafeh In Sudan, as in Afghanistan, the international commu- Afghanistan. Despite all the rhetoric used to justify intervention, women

SUDAN nity is hoping to tie aid to an agenda of gender equality. in Afghanistan have been neither ‘liberated’ nor ‘empowered’. Social But have lessons from working with women and gender change and transformation are long- programmes been learned? term processes, working at a deep structural level to address gender he ink on the Sudanese peace that reflect gender biases. Gender inequalities. These are more than agreement is hardly dry. Af- programmes are struggling to take just outcomes; these are non-linear ghanistan is far from recon- gender into account. Both Afghan T processes to be put in place entailing structed. And yet the aid community and Sudanese women are fighting to consciousness raising and women’s prepares for its move from Afghani- reverse perceptions that they have agency. Social change and transfor- stan and other conflict zones to set no agency, that they are victims. mation are not simply introduced by up camp in Sudan. Sudan is currently And both countries are experiencing development interventions. These at the forefront of the international increased levels of violence against must be negotiated at every level and community’s conflict/post-conflict women. on women’s own terms – both in agendas. As donors determine what Afghanistan and Sudan. Such pro- type of aid – and how much – Sudan Transformation and social cesses are contextual and local, rais- will receive, they need to heed sug- change ing doubts as to whether an inter- gestions before launching yet more national aid-imposed social change ill-conceived gender-focused post- Conflict and its aftermath create agenda is really the right approach. conflict interventions. opportunities for gender transforma- tion. Gender identities are in flux, In order to raise the probability of Extensive scholarship has shown offering space for women to access social change and to foster trans- that women are disproportionately new resources and claim new roles. formation for women, an integrated affected by conflict. In 2000 UN In the aftermath, gender-focused gender analysis needs to be applied Resolution 1325 (on Women, Peace international aid can play a role in to all aspects of the post-conflict aid and Security) called for the full helping women achieve such gains. intervention. This must take into inclusion of women in all aspects of Aid interventions themselves do not account the roles and needs of both international peace and security.1 by themselves transform but can women and men in the aftermath Conflict creates space for women by support or hinder women’s potential of conflict. In Afghanistan women bringing new roles but also produces in achieving transformation through emphasised the neglect of men in new vulnerabilities. Gender roles are their policies and programmes. development programming as an in flux during conflict and the af- area of concern. Transforming the termath. Post-conflict situations are Sudanese women in Sudan (and gender order entails a focus on circuitous and often entail a relapse those displaced to neighbouring both women and men. Local gender into violence. countries) are playing a significant ideologies are already on unstable role in strengthening civil society ground in the aftermath of conflict Conflicts in both Afghanistan and and in building local and community – gender interventions notwithstand- Sudan have had a disproportionately capacity. Building upon this energy ing. Gender interventions can further negative impact on women. Long- and action is crucial if the agenda is exacerbate this instability, presenting running conflicts have led to an to foster social change. The Sudanese a challenge to entrenched forms of increase in the number of female- People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) patriarchy. Social change for women headed households and widows. has been openly advocating gender can benefit from lessons learned Afghan and Sudanese women com- equality. While this is a welcome in Afghanistan. A genuine gender prise the majority of refugees and sign, it could also be construed as analysis has the potential to provide the displaced. They suffer painfully a strategy to lure women into the the foundation for sustainable social high maternal mortality rates and national struggle. Only the aftermath change because it takes into account illiteracy rates. It is estimated that of the peace process will reveal the the need to understand both women 85% of Afghan women are illiterate. true intent behind the rhetoric. and men in their social roles. Four fifths of Sudanese women are illiterate, with higher rates among Development, particularly in the The importance of a contextual anal- IDPs who have lost the social capital aftermath of conflict, is often con- ysis cannot be overstated. Absent provided by family, kinship and com- flated with radical social change. from interventions in Afghanistan munity networks. In both countries Visions of Afghan women throw- was the necessary research on local women have borne the brunt of the ing off their burqas in the name definitions of gender. This entails violence and remain subjected to of freedom helped fuel the Bush not only an understanding of the traditions and cultural practices administration’s case for war against social construction of gender roles FMR 24 From Afghanistan to Sudan: how peace risks marginalising women 47

but also an historical understanding perpetrated acts of gender-based national women’s organisations SUDAN of how these roles have fluctuated. violence. ■ ensure that women constitute A contextual analysis recognises at least 30% of all those hold- that things happened before the An engendered agenda for ing positions in all transitional international community arrived and Sudan institutions established under the that people exist in certain contexts Comprehensive Peace Agreement that change over time. Understand- In both of these vast ethnically ■ establish a Ministry of Women ing these crucial details contributes diverse countries, building a sustain- and Gender Equality to better-formed interventions by able peace must be broad-based ■ establish a Women’s Fund within knowing what is important to the and inclusive. Whatever ‘peace’ is the Multi-Donor Trust Fund communities supported and what sought must be locally owned, not (MDTF) for women-specific pro- they want to see changed. A contex- internationally imposed. If the goal grammes tual analysis reveals that women in is to improve women’s lives, women ■ guarantee women’s property both Afghanistan and Sudan do have must be the ones to decide how this rights agency – a long history of acting on improvement is to take place and ■ provide vocational training op- their behalf and achieving gains. An what kind of international support portunities for adult learners, understanding of women’s agency might be needed to bring it to frui- targeting women in particular entails letting the women take the tion. Local women’s organisations ■ set up confidential reporting lead – and believing that they can should take the lead in articulating mechanisms and legislation that do it. Allowing people to participate women’s needs and interests. For is enforced in order to bring in development interventions is not the international community, they perpetrators of gender-based sufficient. They must own the pro- would do well to talk less and listen violence to justice cess – and the outcome. more. In so doing, there is a chance ■ provide more psychosocial sup- to foster genuine dialogue and for all port for both women and men Unintended outcomes can emerge parties involved to talk with instead ■ collect data on the impact of from gender-focused interventions of talk to. gender-based violence on women when they fail to address gender and girls, including as a result of issues, focusing only on women and Genuine dialogue entails not only armed conflict stoking men’s resentment. They also that with the international com- ■ host an inclusive Sudanese occur when development agendas munity but also dialogue between Women’s Conference to define a advocate social change and trans- Sudanese women and men. This coherent, long-term agenda and formation but fail to meet women’s dialogue should start with women’s strategy for accelerating women’s expectations or give them an active genuine participation in the peace empowerment and gender equal- role in their own transformation. The process. Afghanistan’s own peace ity/equity. perception that change is externally process demonstrates that quotas imposed can result in a backlash for women are not enough to achieve Donors need to back up their rheto- against women. Throughout mod- veritable participation. Quotas serve ric and demonstrate commitment ern Afghan history there have been only to please donors by quantify- to Sudanese women by increasing periods where women’s rights have ing what remains beyond figures women’s capacities and promoting been highly contested as they have – engaging women in a meaningful gender equality and equity. Other- been thought to be part of Western way in the processes that determine wise, the Sudanese reconstruction modernisation agendas. their lives. Sudan can boast many process runs the risk of further champion women whose voices are marginalising women. Not unlike In both Afghanistan and Sudan, being heard, and whose voices still Afghanistan. women’s victimisation has been need to be heard. To listen to these publicised and nearly fetishised. voices, the international community Lina Abirafeh is the Senior Gender The international media focuses on must look beyond the usual suspects Focal Point and Head of the Gender so-called ‘cultural’ forms of violence to those who are not in the limelight. Unit at the Joint Electoral Manage- against women – such as rape as a ment Body Secretariat, Kabul.3 She weapon of war, stoning and other The Government of Norway, the is the former Country Director of abuses. When these forms of vio- Norwegian Institute of International Women for Women International, lence appear to have subsided, the Affairs (NUPI) and the United Na- Afghanistan and is completing media is less interested in women tions Development Fund for Women a PhD at the London School of and in documenting and reporting (UNIFEM) led a consultative process Economics assessing the impact of on their realities, whether violent or which led to Sudanese women ex- gender-focused international aid not. pressing their priorities and recom- in Afghanistan. She is the author mendations to delegates to the Oslo of ‘Burqa politics: the plights of 4 As in Afghanistan US policy in Sudan Donors’ Conference on Sudan in women in Afghanistan’. Email: is driven by determination to combat April 2005.2 Sudanese women are [email protected] alleged terrorist links and Islamic calling on the Sudanese authorities, fundamentalism. US sanctions are 1. www.un.org/events/res_1325e.pdf the UN, IGAD and the donor com- 2. www.womenwarpeace.org/sudan/docs/oslos- still in place and the US is only reluc- munity to: tatement.pdf tantly engaged. There is nevertheless 3. www.jemb.org a risk that the arrival of international 4. www.chronogram.com/issue/2004/10/news/ ■ emphasise that violence against burqa.php peacekeepers will impel the US, as it women will not be condoned and has done in Afghanistan, to recruit that its prevention is a priority warlords – many of whom have ■ build the capacity of local and 48 FMR 24 Sudanese women’s role in peacemaking by Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda and Grace Okonji ■ a minimum representation of 30% As news of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace for women in decision-making Agreement (CPA) reached Sudan, women’s ululations positions at all levels, including transitional institutions, review SUDAN filled the air in celebration as war-weary communities processes and commissions es- breathed in the sweet scent of peace and renewed hope. tablished under the Comprehen- sive Peace Agreement (CPA) However, much needs to be done to ensure women are ■ establishing a Ministry of Women the heart of the post-conflict reconstruction agenda. and Gender Equality – as provided for in the CPA – and gender divi- or years Sudanese women have aspect of establishing law and order sions in all other ministries been involved in community and ensuring adequate protection ■ establishing a women’s fund Fpeace building and advocacy of women in the country. Violence within the Multi-Donor Trust for inclusion in the formal peace against women and other forms of Fund for women-specific pro- negotiations. Yet despite Sudan’s abuse must be recognised as matters grammes and ensuring a formal commitment to the Beijing Platform for public policy and judicial systems. role for women’s organisations for Action, policy recommendations Training of police on how to address in the management and disburse- of the Intergovernmental Author- these issues sensitively is paramount.” ment of funds ity on Development (IGAD) and the Amal Kunna Khairy, Gender Centre ■ setting up women’s resource clause in the SPLM’s constitution for Research and Studies centres for refugees, internally promoting affirmative action, women displaced women and returnees at were not admitted to the main peace Gender equality in funding state, provincial and district levels negotiating table. ■ formulating pro-poor economic Sudanese women have voiced the policies and poverty eradication The Joint Assessment Mission for need for opportunities, empower- and wealth creation strategies Sudan (JAM) offered the opportunity ment, participation and inclusion of that adequately address the needs for greater participation. Consul- women in the establishment of legis- and rights of women and girls tations took place with Sudanese lative and constitutional systems ■ reducing gender disparities in women, policy makers, NGOs and education enrolment and drop- donors to bring the voices of women The gender symposium held on the out rates for primary, secondary, to planning and resource allocation eve of the Oslo Donors Conference in tertiary and post-graduate levels, processes. The JAM consultations April 2005 brought together some 50 with priority given to war-affected sought to identify those structures, Sudanese women from North, South and marginalised areas policies and practices which help and Darfur to evolve a common ■ recognising the importance of perpetuate patterns of disadvantages set of priorities and recommenda- HIV/AIDS in relation to human se- and inequalities for women and tions for peace, reconstruction and curity and the need for adequate men. UNIFEM provided the lead in healing.1 Following meetings with education and awareness raising, mainstreaming gender issues into international donors, the Sudanese prevention and treatment the JAM process. Gender analysis, as women made a number of specific ■ enforcement and/or enactment a methodology for the JAM, began recommendations aimed at main- of laws to eradicate all harmful at the level of the household by streaming gender equality principles traditional practices that have an considering the ways in which women in all funding and programme impact on the health of women and men participate differently in mechanisms. The Sudanese women and girls the household economy and society. set a new global threshold, with cri- ■ provision of free comprehensive It also sought to identify structures teria for gender-responsive budget- reproductive health services. (institutional, political and social), ing to ensure an 80% accountability policies and practices which act to to women, young people and poor Gender training and capacity build- perpetuate patterns of women’s and war-affected and marginalised com- ing are of vital importance. Gender- men’s disadvantages and inequalities. munities. The best way to measure responsive and pro-poor budgeting commitment to women is to follow principles and approaches must “The ability of women from all seg- the money and to make sure that the be integrated in both principle and ments of society in the Sudan to ac- money works. Gender-responsive practice. Training and skills building cess systems of justice is central.” budgeting can be put in place to programmes must have a conscious Sarah Nugdalla, UMMA party guide Sudan’s reconstruction. focus on women’s inclusion as well as integration of gender content. “The development of gender-aware In Oslo Sudanese women also called This must be supplemented by a police forces, with the involvement for: strong investment in supporting of women in the forces, is a critical FMR 24 Sudanese women’s role in peacemaking 49

community and women’s groups, commitments will become a reality Abuk Payiti, Director, Gender Peace SUDAN networks and associations. in communities. Desk, SPLM

The tragic death of John Garang de Only five of the 74 members of Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda is a Mabior must not darken Sudan’s the Government of National Unity human rights lawyer and Regional march towards a gender-equitable announced in September 2005 are Programme Director for UNIFEM peace. As his widow, Rebecca, told women. The odds remain stacked in East and Horn of Africa (www. mourners: “Dr John wanted you to against them but Sudanese women unifem-easternafrica.org). Email: be united. I will not miss my husband continue to organise, to advocate nyaradzai.gumbonzvanda@undp. as long as you, the people of Sudan, and to initiate action. They demand org are the watchdogs of the CPA. … The our continued technical and financial Grace Okonji is an economist cur- legacy of Dr Garang was to fight for support. They need our solidarity rently working with UNIFEM as a the rights of women and the children. and our commitment to making Programme Specialist on Feminisa- If they are mistreated, I will be a progress towards achieving the Mil- tion of Poverty in Africa. She was lioness.” lennium Development Goals for all the gender expert for north Sudan sectors of Sudanese society. Their during the JAM. Email: grace. Women know the cost of war and courage and persistence deserve our [email protected] destruction. Many women and support, just as Sudan deserves its Participants at the Sudanese Women their families are displaced, living peace. This article draws on Towards and the Peace in extreme poverty without access Achieving the MDGs in Sudan: Cen- Process conference, to clean water, energy, sanitation, “This has been a culmination of trality of Women’s Leadership and Oslo, January a means of livelihood and educa- many years of challenges for us, in Gender Equality compiled by Iselin L 2005, including tion. After 40 years of suffering, mobilising for peace, many years Danbolt, Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda representatives of peace brings new hope. But this of our voices rising, pushing to be and Kari Karamè. Publication was Bahr al Ghazal, peace is fragile. It has to be carefully heard. We are getting there, my facilitated by the Government of Equatoria, Nuba nurtured and invested in. A new sisters. Let us organise ourselves Norway, UNIFEM and the Norwegian Mountains and Sudan, a Sudan without war, needs even more now and pull together.” Institute of International Affairs. Upper Nile; NGO women as leaders and as full and Rebecca Okwachi, Sudan Radio Published in 2005 by UNIFEM East & representatives; the SPLM/A equal citizens. Women are central journalist Horn of Africa Regional Office. 57pp. Commissioner of the to the enormous tasks ahead and Available online at www.unifem. Women, Gender can accelerate the building of peace, “The Oslo priorities and recommen- org/attachments/products/Toward- and Child Welfare security and prosperity. It is through dations are for all women of Sudan. sAchievingMDGsInSudan_eng.pdf secretariat; and women’s leadership and gender ...We shall continue to disseminate the Director of the equality promotion that progress them to all the women of Sudan to 1. www.sudansupport.no/genderconf_05_oslo/ SPLM/A Gender doc_index.html towards achieving the Millennium know our reconstruction priorities.” Peace Desk. Nagwa Konda Nagwa 50 FMR 24 Endangering peace by ignoring

women by Nada Mustafa M Ali e want our New Su- absence of men and basic services: with international and UN agencies. “ dan women to be well in the war-affected areas, in the Women’s participation in the peace Winformed about politics. displaced camps in Khartoum, in negotiations started in 1997 when They are the majority of the popula- refugee camps in Kenya and other two women joined the SPLM negoti- tion … but because of ignorance, they neighbouring countries, and in exile ating team. Throughout the Macha-

SUDAN are trodden upon, kept in the kitchen in Europe, Australia and North kos and Naivasha meetings, southern and made to procreate…. But time America. They have also played key women such as Jemma Kumba, Anne has come for us to equally dance roles in inter-tribal reconciliation ef- Itto, Awut Deng, Agnes Lasuba, with our men in the political arena. forts across southern Sudan. Christine Lino, Abuk Payiti, Susan No man is born a politician and no Jambo, Lona Lowilla and Cecilia Oba woman is born a cook!” Women in the SPLM and formulated a clear plan to tackle Pamphlet, New Sudan Women’s As- Nairobi-based women’s obstacles preventing proper integra- sociation, March 1999 organisations tion of women’s specific needs into the peace process. The activism of “A major problem with this peace Women started to take an active part the Nairobi-based organisations agreement is that it is an agreement in the SPLM/A in 1984 when a ‘girls’ developed around a very strong and negotiated without the participation battalion’ was established. In 1985 critical discourse, which demanded of other political parties or civil- the New Sudan Women’s Federation representation in the peace talks. society organisations in which more (NSWF) was established. From initial However, in the end, although civil women are represented.” focus on organising women to assist society organisations associated with Sonia Aziz Malik, lecturer, Ahfad the wounded and feed the army, the SPLM/A attended briefings and University for Women, Omdurman NSWF moved on to provide hu- consultations, they – including wom- manitarian assistance to women and en’s organisations – were excluded Unresolved conflicts and exclusions children in refugee camps and com- from the formal peace negotiations. seriously undermine the implemen- menced literacy classes for women. tation of the Comprehensive Peace In 1986 the first women joined the In accordance with the resolutions of Agreement (CPA) signed in January SPLM’s ‘political school’ and in 1989 the Oslo women’s conference, held 2005. The CPA testifies to the strug- the movement established the posi- in April 2005, at least 30% of seats in gle of the people of southern Sudan tion of director of Women’s Affairs. all political institutions should be al- and the Nuba Mountains. It may have Women participated in the process located to women. Resolutions of the largely settled the contradictions of preparation for the SPLM/A’s first conference covered women’s roles between the political North and the convention in 1994, where 23 women and their access to power, resources South but injustice in other parts of were appointed to the movement’s and services in different spheres. the country, particularly Darfur, has National Liberation Council. However, focus on women’s repre- instigated fierce violence. Govern- sentation without attention to the ment-sponsored militias have used Throughout the 1990s southern gender component of the CPA and of rape as a tool to subjugate whole Sudanese women’s organisations other political processes might result communities. Conflict could also built a movement that worked in col- in male-gendered and untransformed escalate in the East, where women laboration with UN agencies, donors patriarchal politics, albeit with token are most affected by decades of and local communities in Nairobi female participation. It is important socio-economic, political and cultural as well as in non-government-held to ensure that the whole CPA and marginalisation. The process leading areas. Members were continuously the constitution are engendered, to the CPA and formation of the trying to create a space for women which means that issues of redistri- ‘Government of National Unity’ in within various political institutions. bution of power and wealth are also September 2005 has been dominated To better coordinate their activi- considered in relation to the posi- by the SPLM and the ruling National ties they worked with community tion of women and men in society, Congress Party and has excluded organisations to set up the New including women’s land ownership most other political forces as well as Sudan Indigenous Organisations and women’s active participation in civil society organisations, including (NESI) network. Groups engaged in decision making. We must not forget women’s groups. advocacy and service delivery in the that the CPA has been negotiated non-government-held areas in south- with a regime whose rigid ideol- It is important to remember not only ern Sudan. NSWF established centres ogy actively discriminates against that women’s bodies have been used that provided legal advice to women women. Given that the CPA allows as tools of ethnic cleansing – in the affected by domestic violence. The for implementation of shari’a law in South, Nuba Mountains and Darfur Sudanese Women’s Voice for Peace the North, state-led discrimination – but also that women have been (SWVP) ran training courses on seems set to continue at least in the actively engaged in peace promotion. conflict resolution, peace monitoring North. A sensitive gender approach Women have been responsible for and leadership skills in collaboration can be a tool for bringing about running whole communities in the genuine transformation through FMR 24 Endangering peace by ignoring women 51

challenging this ideology. It is also argues that this is not enough. “We the role of women as peace builders SUDAN time to rethink the role of women still need more representation in and active participants in post-con- as bearers of culture and markers all aspects of decision making and flict reconstruction. If left unad- of ethnic boundaries, expressed, for there is need to build the capacity of dressed, this risks endangering, and example, in the restrictions posed on women leaders.”1 not engendering, Sudan’s recovery intermarriage between various com- and reconstruction. munities in Sudan. Apart from the Joint Assessment Mission’s report, which started Nada Mustafa M Ali, a Sudanese Only five of the 74 positions in by formulating a gender strategy, academic and activist, is director Sudan’s new government are held mainstream peace and peace related of African Health for Empower- by women. The new minister of processes have failed to look at the ment and Development (www. health, Tabita Shokai – a nurse and specific way in which conflict, peace africanhealth.org.uk). Email: long-time Nuba activist formerly building and post-conflict recon- [email protected] or based in the UK – welcomes the struction have affected women and [email protected]. fact that there are 60 women in the men in a gender-specific way. They 274- member National Assembly but have not given due consideration to 1. www.nationmedia.com/EastAfrican/Current/ Magazine/Magazine031020053.htm Stemming the spread of HIV/

AIDS in Sudan by Shannon Egan International and Sudanese organisations working to Military authorites are instructing soldiers in the use of condoms. prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS fear an increase in infection rates as a result of large return movements of In 2003 President Omar al-Bashir shook hands with HIV/AIDS-infected refugees and IDPs. people in front of an audience of over 1,000 Sudanese citizens in ith 1.5 million IDPs ex- the time refugees have spent in the order to spread the message that pected to return home by camp. In addition, the increased risk those living with HIV/AIDS would be the end of 2006 and the of HIV infection in a time of conflict W supported by the nation. During this imminent return of refugees from could be offset by a decreased risk assembly, the president also made neighbouring countries whose rates as refugees’ mobility is reduced and a commitment to support and fund of HIV/AIDS prevalence greatly ex- their level of HIV/AIDS awareness projects dedicated to eradicating the ceed Sudan’s estimated 2.6%, the im- raised through educational pro- spread of HIV/AIDS. pact of the pandemic could spread. grammes in refugee camps.1 Abu Bakr A Waziri, HIV/AIDS project UNAIDS, UNFPA and UNHCR have manager of UNFPA, warns that “…the Rather than perceiving the return made a commitment to support, situation will be very grim if the nec- of Sudanese refugees as a potential fund and collaborate with one essary measures are not taken from risk for increased HIV infections another’s HIV/AIDS-related projects. now, as the returnees coming from in southern Sudan, Spiegel prefers These focus on motivating commu- these infected areas will intermingle to see the return of refugees as an nity leaders to speak out in public with the people in their new area.” opportunity. Those who have been about HIV/AIDS issues, enabling educated in camps about HIV/AIDS more people to access treatment, The head of UNHCR’s HIV/AIDS pro- and who have been trained as health educating displaced people in camps gramme, Paul Spiegel, acknowledges workers or nurses can in turn edu- and rural areas so that they can in the potential risks of an increase in cate and assist the communities with turn educate their communities once HIV infections but urges people not which and to which they will return. they return home, and involving Su- to jump to conclusions with regard danese people living with HIV/AIDS to HIV prevalence among returnees. Response in informing, educating and counsel- “While it is true that conflict- ling others. affected populations and refugees Government institutions have be- are at greater risk of HIV infection come increasingly aware of the situa- HIV/AIDS-infected people – because of sexual violence and tion and have initiated HIV/AIDS pre- disruption of health services – this vention programmes throughout the join the fight doesn’t necessarily translate into country. Education authorities have The Sudanese People Living with HIV/ higher infection rates,” Spiegel said. introduced teaching about the risks AIDS Care Association (SPLWHACA) “Actual infection rates are highly of unprotected sex in both primary was established in 2003 in Khartoum context specific.” Key factors include and secondary school curricula. The by local HIV/AIDS-infected persons the HIV prevalence in the area of Ministry of Religion is encouraging to provide support to the more than origin, infection rates of the popula- Muslim and Christian communities 600,000 people with HIV/AIDS in tion surrounding refugee camps and to discuss preventive measures. 52 Stemming the spread of HIV/AIDS in Sudan FMR 24

Sudan. The organisation provides AIDS transmission with sexual inter- informing and educating the people counselling to help people to live a course outside of marriage, an act of Sudan about HIV/AIDS. She has normal life and to play a key role in condemned by the country’s Islamic appeared on numerous television educating their communities about shari’a law. As Ochilla explains, “The programmes and has become a key methods of HIV/AIDS contraction people in Sudan want to keep those speaker in many HIV/AIDS-related and prevention as well as in fighting who are positive in a fenced area so workshops throughout Sudan. the stigma surrounding the disease. as not to disturb the community. But According to Joseph Jenoro Ochilla, they don’t understand that those of For Ochilla, the reward of working SPLWHACA’s head, “The purpose of us who are aware that we are posi- with SPLWHACA is in seeing those the counselling is, yes, to provide tive are less dangerous than those infected with HIV/AIDS begin to support but also to instil confidence who are positive but do not know believe in a happier future and in in the HIV/AIDS-infected person so they are positive.” watching communities gradually SUDAN that they can go out into the commu- open up to the messages spread by nity and make people aware of the Asha Ebrahim, SPLWHACA informa- SPLWHACA members. “In the end it issue by saying, ‘I am HIV positive tion counsellor, became involved is not easy but we are dedicated to and that is okay.’” with the network when she learnt the work because we believe that it that she was HIV positive as a result is important and that in time we can The 250 members of the SPLWHACA of a blood transfusion. The most make a difference in the spread of work around the clock on a volun- difficult thing about living with HIV/AIDS in Sudan.” tary basis to provide support and HIV/AIDS in Sudan, she says, is the Shannon Egan is a freelance to educate communities in seven harsh treatment by her peers due to journalist in Sudan. Email: of Sudan’s 18 states. Their work is the stigma surrounding the disease. [email protected]. Among beset by obstacles. Due to lack of “As soon as the man who owns the others she writes for IRIN: www. funding, they have no office. When house I am renting learns that I am irinnews.org. they try to educate Sudanese about positive, I am kicked out. Teachers in HIV/AIDS, they are often ridiculed, the school tell my children that there 1. See Paul Spiegel and Alia Nankoe, ‘UNHCR’s work with refugees and HIV/AIDS: lessons even thrown out by communities, is no place for them.” Despite these learned’, FMR17, www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/ largely due to the correlation of HIV/ difficulties, Asha is dedicated to FMR19/FMR1909.pdf Separated children in south

Sudan by Una McCauley Huge numbers of young people in south Sudan are neighbouring countries raises con- cern about children who may be left growing up away from their parents. Research findings behind, or become separated prior to suggest many would rather live outside unsupportive departure or while returning, as well as the impact that high numbers of family structures and that they are increasingly more returnees may have on family coping dependent on each other for support and comfort than on mechanisms. adults. There is a pressing need to better understand separation: who are they, ar has skewed the demo- linkages between family separa- how or why do they become sepa- graphic balance in south tion, voluntary or involuntary, and rated, what are their choices, what WSudan where children make vulnerability to recruitment, abduc- coping mechanisms do children, up 53% of the population. Due to the tion, sexual exploitation and other their families, carers and communi- large number of men who have ei- horrors which characterise the lives ties employ and how do they per- ther been killed or forced to migrate of many young people in southern ceive separation. UNICEF, Save the in search of work, females comprise Sudan. Children who are separated Children UK and Save the Children 55% of the population. Women have from their original primary carers Sweden sought to answer these ques- had to take on a wide range of re- are more likely to leave subsequent tions by talking to a small sample sponsibilities that they did not have carers due to ill-treatment and of children and adults in southern before the war, challenging family perceived lack of love and support. Sudan affected directly or indirectly dynamics in a hierarchical male- Concerns about the encroaching by family separation. dominated society. impact that HIV/AIDS will have on household structures have led to an How children get separated As child-focused agencies in south increased interest in separated chil- Sudan have moved towards viewing dren and children without primary There are many reasons why and the protection of vulnerable children care givers. The potential move- how so many southern children more holistically it has become clear ment of large numbers of IDPs and have become separated from their that there are significant cyclical refugees from the North and from families. Sometimes they are forced FMR 24 Separated children in south Sudan 53

to leave their homes due to fighting; provided a safe and secure place for tribes that early male separation SUDAN at other times it is an informed deci- separated children with no-one else from the family is part of the pro- sion on the part of the child and/or to care for them. Of some 16,000 cess of growing up. Neither the adult the family. There is anecdotal evi- children who were formally demo- nor the child respondents in the dence that large numbers of children bilised from the SPLA between 2001 research found the actual process have become separated from their and the end of 2003, more than two of boys leaving home alarming. families due to attacks and other thirds were living away from their Young males have left home to look acts of war, military recruitment and families. While their return has been for a better education or life in the labour migration but little in the way relatively easy, this is not the case cash economy or refugee camps in of documentation of family separa- with other armed forces in the South, neighbouring countries, voluntarily tion. The International Committee particularly GoS-backed militia who separating themselves from their of the Red Cross has done some recruited children by force or prom- families at a relatively early age. A limited registration of war-separated ises of cash rewards. UNICEF study of street children in children – mostly of those who fled Khartoum found that most were in panic from aerial bombardments Another high-profile group are young male southerners, many – but there has never been a system- children abducted, along with of whom had opted to leave their atic family tracing and reunification women and livestock, during raids families in the south in the hope of programme in south Sudan. This is by northerners or, less frequently, in bettering themselves. in part due to cultural understanding the course of South-South inter-tribal and definitions of family separation raiding between the Dinka and Nuer Among the different tribal groups of and to whom children belong and and the Merle and the Nuer. Because south Sudan, responsibility for car- the extent to which separated chil- much tribal raiding takes place in ing for orphaned children or those dren are seen as economic assets to inaccessible areas there is no real who have lost their primary carers be absorbed into new families. Many understanding of the extent of the usually falls within the extended communities do not consider that a problem. family, often to maternal relatives. child living within the extended fam- However, after such protracted ily support system can be ‘separated’ Labour migration has also caused conflict and damage to livelihoods, as customary care practices allow significant separation. Within south- families and communities are unable a wide range of family and clan ern communities there is a reluc- to cope with the increasing numbers members to have responsibility for tance to acknowledge movement to of orphaned and separated children. the child. Khartoum or other areas controlled Most adult respondents indicated by the GoS. However, most families that caring for separated children is Military recruitment has been a have relatives who have gone ‘North’ an unwelcome burden, the weight significant cause of separation as all and the relationship between the of which falls almost entirely on protagonists have used children in ‘North’ and ‘South’ is a lot more fluid women. combat and support roles. Children than most people in the south care reported that their decision to enlist to admit. The children who took What young people say was often voluntary – that they part in the study who had been left decided to escape difficult and abu- behind when parents migrated were The overall situation for children sive domestic situations or to seek cared for in the extended family or is bleak and the fact that so many revenge for the killing of loved ones. clan. children are becoming separated due The SPLM used to recruit children to adverse conditions in their house- and separate them from their fami- Separation is also often the result of holds and communities raises con- lies but also claims that their army the traditional belief among Nilotic cerns about ‘quick-fix’ solutions to family separation. While many of the causes of separation are the same for children who become separated for the first time, the inadequate treatment of separated children in many instances leads to re-separa- tion (or children leaving home to seek a better existence).

Voluntary separation is seen as an attractive option by very many young people. Children in all research com- munities highlighted the fact that separated children living within fam- ily units (be they extended family or foster families) are subject to abuse, discrimination and neglect by their carers, the community and other children. The majority of separated children interviewed said that they did not want to be re-unified with their families and argued that they had left home because their lives had IRIN 54 Separated children in south Sudan FMR 24

been worse. Unless improvements side the home, some women are no There is a clear sense of grievance could be made at the household level longer able to take care of their own among many children about the way they could see no reason to return. children and end up leaving home. they have been treated at home: denied education, used for work and, Girls face worse conditions, espe- Children are concerned about alco- importantly, denied love and care. cially in Northern Bahr El Ghazal hol. The issue of parental alcohol The children seemed to have a very and Western Upper Nile, where the abuse was mentioned by children in clear idea of what they wanted from option to leave is denied them and all communities as a major factor their parents and they consistently they are trapped in exploitative and contributing to domestic abuse and asserted in interviews that it was abusive situations. Many report be- neglect. “Alcoholism leads to mis- their right to receive love and emo- ing sexually abused by members of treatment of children, especially girls tional care from their parents as well their extended families and lacking sexually, which frustrates children as having their physical needs taken

SUDAN anybody to turn to. Early marriage and forces them to flee their homes,” care of. If these rights were not being is not uncommon in many parts of reported an adolescent girl in West- addressed then it was a good enough southern Sudan but separated girls ern Equatoria. Separated children reason to leave home. face the danger of being forced into living in market towns or as child marriage at an even younger age as soldiers turn to alcohol for solace. Researchers were surprised by the this is a way for carer families to Adults and children have noted an strength of opinion expressed by access the dowry and relieve them- increase in the use of marijuana the children when interviewed about selves of the burden of caring for the among boys and girls. the impact an unhappy home has on child. their lives. Many children attribute A child in Northern Bahr el Ghazal separation to how badly children are Being denied food is a major is- reported that “separated children treated in the family and how little sue for separated children. Child are abused and overworked. They love and affection they feel they re- interviewees gave details as to how are left to look for their own food ceive. Girls described a ‘good home’ separated children’s carers would even when the father is still alive.” as one in which regularly deny them food and give Affection traditionally comes from preferential treatment to biological mothers and not from fathers. While ■ there is love children. One chief in Western Upper a child who still has a father may ■ there is food, in which each child Nile told of how people caring for not be defined as a separated child gets an equal share separated children would often pre- it seems that many of them share ■ no one insults you tend that the child had “just eaten” the same feeling of being uncared ■ you look forward to being there when the child had not been fed for for. Adult and child respondents at the end of the day days. stressed that a child whose mother ■ people do things together had died was as badly off as a child ■ there is no discrimination be- All children expressed a strong belief with both parents dead. Widowed tween children that education was the only way that fathers have very little to do with a ■ nobody talks about who is an they could improve their situation. child’s upbringing. In many cases, orphan and who is not Many feel that adults put up barriers fathers meet their own food needs ■ you are allowed to go to school. to their educational achievement. by going to a neighbour or relative’s More boys leave home to look for house but often do not provide Refocusing child protection education than girls. Having left cooked food for their own children home they often arrive at their desti- and this is considered acceptable In recent years much of the attention nation only to be barred from attend- behaviour by adults. of international agencies working ing classes because they cannot pay in child protection has centred on the fees. Girls are less likely to leave Separated children often form small activities with high-profile groups of to seek education as it is not consid- child-headed households. Children children – for example, the demobili- ered a priority by them or by their living in market towns in Northern sation of children associated with carers. And they are rarely given the Bahr El Ghazal described how they the fighting forces and the return opportunity to attend school anyway, rely on each other for emotional and of abducted children and women even if a school is available. physical support. “Children help from Government of Sudan (GoS) each other by sharing food, older areas. The child protection sector in All those interviewed mentioned boys protecting younger boys and southern Sudan is small and under- domestic violence, gender-based girls from other boys who might resourced and more must be done to violence and sexual harassment as harm them. They help each other address the protection needs of the causes of separation. Women re- with work like pounding sorghum, most vulnerable children, whoever ported that that men disempowered washing clothes and taking care of and wherever they are. by the war had lost status, had be- cattle.” come brutalised by military life and It is important to: returned to bully and harass their Young people have a clear idea about ■ abandon romantic notions of the wives. Children said fathers were what is good for them and they are ever elastic and welcoming nature often so violent that their mothers able to make intelligent decisions of extended families and host left the home, leaving them alone about their lives. The decision of communities with their fathers who would not many separated children not to ■ recognise the legitimacy of take care of them and so they in turn return to their homes unless there children’s anger at the way they would also be anxious to leave. In are significant improvements has to have been treated at home, denied the aftermath of sexual violence out- be recognised. FMR 24 Separated children in south Sudan 55

education, used for work and dardised models of follow up and adults recognise the dangers of SUDAN denied love and care community monitoring to assess inter-generational conflict and ■ prioritise support to girls how well protected separated and resentment. ■ realise that a tradition of leav- reunified children are and ad- ing home may be normal and not dress their immediate protection Una McCauley is a UNICEF Protec- try to impose family norms and concerns tion Officer, south Sudan. standards which are unacceptable ■ support community-based social Email: [email protected]. to male teenagers work to find mechanisms to UNICEF in Sudan: www.uniicef. ■ establish community-based fam- listen to what children and young org/infobycountry/sudan.html ily tracing activities and stan- people are saying and to help Gender, education and peace in southern Sudan by Jackie Kirk Expanding access to education for boys and girls is a despite becoming more aware of girls’ needs and perspectives, lack critical Millennium Development Goal and peace- information and tools to transform their teaching practices accordingly. building challenge. In southern Sudan, as in other Schools and training institutions are post-conflict societies, many girls remain excluded from requesting more input and sup- port, including teacher training and schooling opportunities which could help develop the capacity building, to facilitate, for knowledge, skills and attitudes to build a peaceful society. example, more gender-responsive and democratic teaching methods in he SPLM’s Secretariat of Educa- ‘comfort kit’ including sanitary pads, the classroom and increased status tion (SoE) has explicitly linked underwear and soap. for women teachers. Tgender, education and peace within the Directorate of Gender An initial assessment indicates that Curriculum and learning materi- Equity and Social Change. This the GESP is contributing to increased als are important forces for gender forward-looking move recognises the enrolment, reduced drop-out rates, equality. They should enable both potential of education to enhance a lower absenteeism and improve- boys and girls to succeed in school, to gender-just peace. The SoE now has ments in the conditions in which the assert their rights and to enable them the challenge of addressing very high girls study and live. Comfort kits are to actively participate in development expectations for education in ways enabling girls to spend longer in the and reconstruction processes. In the which are regionally, ethnically and classroom and to no longer absent absence of a common curriculum, gender equitable. Regional dispari- themselves during menstruation. secondary schools use Ugandan or ties are significant: girls in Bahr El Their distribution has opened up dis- Kenyan curricula, teaching and learn- Ghazal, Upper Nile, Nuba Mountains cussion of a previously un-addressed ing materials or a combination of and Southern Blue Nile face consid- subject and raised awareness among both. The development of a new cur- erable and practical challenges in male teachers of girls’ specific needs. riculum and examinations system for accessing education as there are so a new state is a critical opportunity to few schools in these areas. Peace building in southern Sudan re- rethink what children learn in schools quires a shift from authoritarianism and to reorient the content and pro- The Gender Equity Support Pro- and patriarchy towards more demo- cesses of schooling to promote equity gramme (GESP) of the SoE/Sudan cratic and participatory approaches. and peace. Basic Education Programme (SBEP)1 Schools are a critical site for this provides scholarship support to over transformation, not only because To do so requires rethinking not 2,000 girls and women in secondary the students in the schools today only primary and secondary school schools and teacher training institu- are potential future leaders but also curricula but also what – and how tions. Designed to address barriers because schools are key institutions – trainee teachers learn. With support to girls’ education, it provides funds in communities with the potential from the SBEP, a unified teacher edu- to secondary schools and teacher to model new ways of working. The cation curriculum is being developed training institutions based on the GESP has potential to make the expe- with an emphasis on student-cen- number of girls and women enrolled. rience of schooling for boys and girls tred methodologies and democratic This includes a fixed fee subsidy for more gender-responsive, participa- approaches in the classroom. There girls. Decisions about how to use tory and student-centred. is a new focus on teachers’ roles as the rest of the money are made by ‘agents of change’ in schools, commu- the schools through a participatory However, the institutional capacity to nities and the nation. Teachers need process involving male and female understand and implement new and to be actively engaged in creating and students as well as teachers and complex concepts such as student sustaining gender-responsive – and school board of governor representa- participation and gender-responsive especially girl-friendly – schools and tives. In addition, each girl receives a teaching is limited. Male teachers, classrooms. 56 Gender, education and peace in southern Sudan FMR 24

Educational reconstruction and in southern Sudan. Gender-based tent in women’s as well as men’s transformation in post-conflict con- violence – or the fear of it – can limit experiences and perspectives texts require input from both men girls’/women’s participation in edu- ■ designing training specific to the and women. However, in southern cation. Parents may keep daughters needs of women teachers: these Sudan there are few women teachers away from school for fear of attack should not be considered as ‘re- and even fewer women in education on the way to and from school. medial’ but as opportunities for management roles. Increased num- Women in fear of beatings from their women to share experiences, dis- bers of women teachers in schools husbands are unlikely to become cuss gender issues and develop could improve educational oppor- teachers and community agents of capacity for leadership and peace tunities and experiences for girls. change. Teacher training and student building Increased girls’ enrolment and reten- workshops are important venues to ■ assisting female teachers to take tion may then lead to a larger pool address GBV. Teachers can also be up positions in educational man-

SUDAN of women ready and interested in an important part of the necessary agement and administration teacher education and, ultimately to reporting and response mechanisms ■ empowering women and men larger numbers of women teachers. through which those affected by GBV teachers to be agents of protec- may access help – but should follow tion against GBV. As more women come into teaching, a very clear code of conduct and vio- attention must be given to ensuring lation response procedures. Setting Jackie Kirk is a Research Associate that women teachers are considered such reporting mechanisms in place at the McGill Centre for Research full members of the school team is a challenge when there is so little and Teaching on Women (MCRTW), with the same status and expecta- of the educational infrastructure in Montreal, and a consultant working tions as male teachers, and not only place. with the Sudan Basic Education Pro- associated with helping girls cope gram. This article has been greatly with menstruation and avoiding Recommendations informed by other members of the early pregnancy. Attention to these SBEP team, including Joy du Ples- issues should include training for all Education for gender equity and sis, Cathy Beacham, Kaima Ruiga, Sudanese teachers, as well as communications peace in southern Sudan will require: Christine Jada and Gemma Helen returnee teenage materials such as posters and radio Pita, and the support of many south pupils at Yei Girls announcements to recruit and retain ■ establishment of transparent and Sudanese women and girls. Email: secondary school. women in teaching. democratic systems of education [email protected] UNHCR plans management and administration 1. www.ineesite.org/standards/sbep1.asp; www. to replace it with As a recent USAID report has ■ new strategies to recruit more careusa.org/careswork/projects/SDN093.asp a boarding school highlighted2, gender-based violence women teachers 2. www.womenwarpeace.org/sudan/docs/usaid- outside Yei. (GBV) is a very real issue for women ■ grounding teacher training con- gbv.doc UNHCR/M Pearson FMR 24 57 Education crisis in south Sudan SUDAN by Tim Brown Education flourished in refugee camps but young people address issues such as HIV/AIDS awareness, life skills and peace repatriating to south Sudan are frustrated by a serious education, particularly for out-of- school youth shortage of educational opportunities, particularly in ■ donors support the re-establish- secondary education. ment of the university in Juba, to attract diaspora southern Suda- ohn Garang spoke of his ambi- two shifts. The teachers – who have nese and help develop a skilled tion to ensure universal primary not been paid for two months – have workforce Jeducation in south Sudan within taken on an extra afternoon shift ■ literacy programmes be targeted six years. However, the legacy of 21 without extra pay and in late July at adults who missed out on edu- years of conflict and underfunding went on strike for adequate com- cation to make them aware of its is daunting. Fewer than 200 of the pensation. As the authorities have value and why they should send 1,600 schools in southern Sudan stopped further enrolment there is a their children, including girls, to 1 have permanent buildings. Most growing mass of frustrated returnee school classrooms have only a board and students. There are similar problems ■ girls and women be given priority chalk. According to UNICEF just one at the only English-pattern govern- for further education and teach- in five children of primary school ment primary school in Juba, Buluk ing opportunities. age is enrolled,2 dropout rates are ‘A’ Basic, where some classes now high – especially for girls – and only have 180 pupils. Secondary education (including tech- one schoolchild in eight continues nical and vocational education) is of past grade four. Half of the region’s Despite the desperate situation, paramount importance. It enhances teachers have received no profes- there are seeds of hope. Students are protection, provides opportunities sional training and most have moving freely between SPLM areas for girls, discourages early marriage, themselves completed only about and former Khartoum-controlled keeps youth out of trouble and pro- four years of primary education. Ac- areas in search of better education. duces skilled workers. Donors must cording to the USAID-funded Sudan Returning students and teachers can not neglect secondary and other 3 Basic Education Programme, a mere bring much needed skills, attitudes forms of post-primary education in 2,500 children – in a region larger and positive female role models. this critical transitional period. than most countries in the world Returning refugees have generally re- and with a population estimated to ceived a better education than those Tim Brown taught at Juba Univer- be 7.5 million – complete primary who stayed behind. Returnee stu- sity in the 1980s and is currently school each year. Only 1% of girls dents are said to be better behaved UNHCR Education Officer in Yei, complete primary education and and both returnee teachers and south Sudan. Email: brownt@unhcr. only one schoolchild in four is a girl. students speak better English, while org. This article is written in a per- The lack of female teachers – just the stayees speak better Arabic. They sonal capacity and does not neces- 6% of the teaching force – reinforces have much to learn from each other. sarily reflect the views of the UN. this gender imbalance. Ninety per cent of women are estimated to be The education system in south 1. The south Sudan statistics quoted in this para- illiterate. Sudan needs enormous help. It is graph do not cover the garrison towns formerly recommended that: controlled by Khartoum. 2. www.womenwarpeace.org/sudan/docs/base- Since the signing of the Comprehen- line.pdf sive Peace Agreement, the town of ■ ‘returnee’ schools be given imme- 3. www.careusa.org/careswork/projects/SDN093. Juba – former and new capital of the diate assistance, according to the asp south – has become a magnet for priorities set by school manage- returning students at both primary ments and education authorities and secondary levels. Students com- ■ agencies support schools outside ing back from asylum countries and Juba to relieve the congestion in from SPLM-controlled areas of Sudan Juba town and provide board- are desperate to receive free educa- ing facilities to attract female tion in a government school. students ■ agencies work with education The vast majority of returnee stu- authorities to establish policies to dents are English-speaking. Before address quality and huge gender the war most secondary schools in gaps in enrolment and attainment Juba used English as the medium ■ assistance be given to provide of instruction but now there is only south Sudan with much needed one ‘English pattern’ government teachers and teacher training secondary school in the whole of ■ support be provided to develop the south – Juba Day school. As all and procure English-language returnee secondary students are sent textbooks and provide intensive to enrol there, Juba Day has doubled language training in student numbers and is at satura- ■ non-formal education pro- tion point. The school operates in grammes be developed to Tim Brown Tim 58 FMR 24 A local approach to peace in Torit,

south Sudan by Jeannie Annan and Christine Pagen While the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is the foun- for tuition, room and board but only a third of the families can afford dation on which Sudan can grow as a peaceful nation, this fee. Many of the students are there is an urgent need to complement institutional orphans or unaccompanied minors.

SUDAN reforms with sustainable bottom-up approaches to peace. St Kizito school does not necessarily provide a formula to be replicated A school in eastern Equatoria is showing the way. but is showing how a group of deter- lthough education for peace why we stay together when we are mined people can work together to is now integrated into post- enemies. People can only change provide education for their children Aemergency programming1, their minds about this through and work for slow but meaningful some initiatives have been criticised education.” change in the community. The chal- for being superficial, Western-based lenges they face show that this and and failing to engage with the Sister Paskwina describes how one other grassroots initiatives in south- participants’ specific environment. ethnic group was planning to raid ern Sudan require sustained inter- Education is more likely to help de- the cattle of another but aborted the national assistance in order to forge velop attitudes and skills that make attack on realising that both they supportive partnerships for peace. In a lasting contribution to a culture of and their intended victims had re- the words of a student: “We study in peace when the impetus comes from cently started sending their children the middle of war and still do as well local initiatives. to live together at St Kizito. Despite as those who study in peace. Tell this success, however, mistrust of people we need their support. We St Kizito Primary School, a boarding northern Sudanese and other ethnic would really like to go to university school run by the Catholic Diocese of groups, cattle raiding and violence after all this struggle.” Torit, is an anomaly in southern Su- are still endemic. Tackling the dan. Not only does the school seek to region’s chronic insecurity will take Jeannie Annan, a consultant educate all children in the surround- time and will require law enforce- with Association of Volunteers in ing area but it also has a vision be- ment and economic growth. International Service (AVSI)2, is a yond mere literacy and numeracy. As PhD candidate at Indiana Univer- Sister Paskwina, a Sudanese Catholic Despite increased media awareness sity. Email: [email protected]. nun who founded the school in 2000, of Sudan’s needs, donor support for Christine Pagen is completing a explains: schools in southern Sudan has di- PhD at Columbia University. Email: minished recently. Concerned about [email protected] “We wanted to start a school where sustainability, many will not fund For more information about St children came from different areas, salaries or training. St Kizito and Kizito Primary School, or to offer different ethnic groups. We have had other schools have to work tirelessly support, email: communication. problems in this region with fighting to raise external support for basic [email protected] among ourselves and we wanted operating costs. This year teachers children to come together and learn have gone six months without sala- 1. See: ‘Peace education: why and how?’ by Pame- la Baxter and Vick Ikobwa, FMR22 www.fmreview. how to live together in peace. We ries. Lack of food threatened to pre- org/FMRpdfs/FMR22/FMR2213.pdf started with nothing. Now we have maturely end the school term. The 1,500 children.” school charges a mere $15 per year 2. www.avsi-usa.org

Bullet holes St Kizito and the other diocese riddle the schools do not have a specific peace façade of this school in south curriculum or run conflict resolu- Sudan. tion clubs. Their intuitive approach is based on the principle, familiar to social psychologists, that trust can be built among groups who collaborate and work together and that stereotypes can be changed by prolonged contact with members from another group.

“There are 24 different ethnic groups in the school and we get along to- gether. We go home with each other for holidays. We dance each other’s traditional dances. People ask us UNHCR/M Pearson Sept 2005 UNHCR/M Pearson FMR 24 59 The Sudanese peace process SUDAN and the media by David Campbell and Kate Lloyd Morgan Enabling the media to give Sudanese citizens a voice bilharzia and mother and child health issues. and help them access information required for sustain- Strategies to foster a vibrant in- able livelihoods will require a regulatory paradigm shift dependent media will need to be and investment in infrastructure and human capacity. tailored to the different situations in North and South. While northerners udan has a state-owned of direct state control and provide enjoy better access to radio, televi- broadcaster which owns all access to the transmission infra- sion and satellite broadcasts there is transmission networks and structure (masts and aerials) on fair, S a need to invest in updated facilities a censored press. Nearly all media reasonable and non-discriminatory and improve programming quality. originates from the North with only terms. Funds received for use of University journalism courses need a small amount of local radio con- the infrastructure could be used to to start, including journalistic ethics tent available in the South. Fear of fund the public services. It should be and standards. The South requires persecution under emergency laws possible for any commercial body to massive investment in physical infra- has led to significant self-censorship. build their own transmitters. structure and human resources. JAM Private transmission networks are recommends: not permitted and new independent It is essential that all Sudanese understand the peace process, licensed radio services are obliged ■ establishing a regional media its impact on their lives, and the to use the state network. Sudan’s training facility: it is particularly pledges made by the authorities. only news agency, the Sudan Media important to train female journal- They need reliable information about Corporation, is controlled by the ists in order to ensure that issues their rights and obligations from security authorities. Newspaper com- of concern to women are included sources which they can trust. JAM panies are barred from owning their ■ setting up a number of FM radio recommends that national and local own distribution networks. stations and providing training in radio should: production, radio journalism and Khartoum’s 13 daily newspapers ■ cover and support the peace financial management have a combined circulation of only process and return of 168,000. They are required to pay IDPs and refugees all Sudanese … need reliable information an initial and annual license fee and ■ ensure that IDPs in demonstrate that a requisite number about their rights and obligations from sources and around Khar- of experienced journalists are em- toum are provided which they can trust ployed. Individual journalists also with accurate infor- have to be licensed, to be university ■ expanding capacity to print mation to inform their decisions graduates and to prove fluency in school books and other materi- whether to stay or to return to Arabic. In the South enormous physi- als: the Government of South the South cal difficulties impede distribution Sudan should not set up its own ■ help the public understand gover- of newspapers. The only regularly printing facility – there are hardly nance issues distributed publication, the Sudan any examples in the world where ■ respond to demand for pro- Mirror, is printed in Nairobi and cir- this has worked – but work to grammes in local languages culated in main towns with support encourage commercial printers to ■ provide information on develop- from NGOs. set up and deliver materials for ment successes and challenges government, commercial and civil ■ promote literacy and adult edu- The Media Cluster of the Joint society clients cation Assessment Mission (JAM) recom- ■ developing a satellite-based ICT ■ encourage wider understanding mended the creation of independent system to support local govern- of Sudan’s history media regulators for the North and ment, enhance security and dis- ■ provide support to primary edu- South and public broadcast boards. seminate information to facilitate cation Regulators will be responsible the return of IDPs. ■ work closely with civil society for frequency planning, award- ■ publicise Sudan’s poverty reduc- David Campbell and Kate Lloyd ing licences and guaranteeing tion strategy and encourage Morgan are co-directors of Mediae, press freedoms. The boards will transparency and public par- an NGO dedicated to enabling use be responsible for promoting the ticipation in its preparation and of the media by poor people in concepts and principles of public monitoring Africa (www.mediae.org). David service broadcasting. The govern- ■ provide marketing and other Campbell was the Media Focal ment can use and be part of the livelihoods-related information Point for the Governance and Rule individual management boards, ■ promote preventative health of Law Cluster of JAM, Sudan. along with other stakeholders. The and knowledge of malaria, AIDS, Email: [email protected] transmission network should be free 60 FMR 24 Critical juncture for peace, democracy and the environment by Peter Bosshard and Nick Hildyard them are only being given compensa- In Sudan, large projects, pipelines and agricultural tion equivalent to the value of four schemes have created social and ethnic tensions and years’ production.

SUDAN fuelled conflicts contributing to humanitarian disasters. Tensions are high. At the end of May 2005 Sudan’s energy minister As the peace process triggers expectations of new said he would support the release of infrastructure investment, will human rights and the democratically-elected community members held in detention following environment be considered? a peaceful December 2004 protest if n a country of some 40 million The total cost of the Merowe Project they accepted the project’s terms of people only 700,000 are electric- is currently estimated at $1.2bn. In resettlement. This indicates that the Iity users and 70% of electricity addition to the Sudanese govern- detainees are innocent, and were be- is used in the Khartoum area. The ment, the main funders of the dam ing kept hostage to put pressure on Joint Assessment Mission’s cluster include China, the Arab Fund for those they represent. On 30 June, on on infrastructure called for massive Economic and Social Development the 16th anniversary of the coup that investment to dramatically increase and the governments of Saudi Ara- brought the current government to Sudan’s generation capacity. The bia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Oman. power, the detainees were released. JAM’s electrification master plan Since many problems of the project The Merowe/Hamadab Dam remains centres on four major hydropower have not yet been resolved, it is im- a litmus test of whether the basic projects in south Sudan. Of the possible to gauge the project’s final rights of affected people and the $506m investment, JAM proposes cost. China’s export credit agency, environment will be safeguarded in that only 5% be allocated to mini and the China Exim Bank, has a record of future infrastructure projects. The micro hydropower plants and solar funding socially and environmentally international community’s support installations to provide power for destructive projects. The environ- for Sudan’s reconstruction is wel- water pumps, health posts, schools mental impacts of the project have come but donors must ensure that and other community facilities. Ac- never been properly assessed, and social and environmental standards cording to the JAM, a framework will an environmental impact assess- are respected. Instead of the JAM be put in place to “ensure the effec- ment has yet to be approved by the priorities much more should be in- tive application of the World Bank’s Ministry of the Environment – a clear vested in off-grid rural electrification safeguard policies” but JAM is silent violation of Sudanese law. schemes. Decentralised infrastruc- on which institution will prepare the ture development would not only framework and how civil society can Resettlement for the dam project reduce poverty but also help keep participate. has only just started but already the peace. Large centralised electricity, poverty rate in the affected com- petroleum and irrigation schemes The manner in which the Merowe/ munities is soaring. Those forced to are controlled by the government Hamadab Dam Project in northern relocate to the bleak resettlement and have massive negative social and Sudan – the largest hydropower site at El Multaga were promised free environmental impacts. Deciding project under development in Africa water, electricity and fertilisers for on Sudan’s development priorities – is now being implemented casts a two-year transition period but free should not be left to the government doubts on the commitment of the access to most of these services has and Western donors. Sudan’s civil so- authorities or international investors not been provided. Soils are too thin ciety must be allowed to play a role. to international norms. As noted in to enable re-settlers to grow produce FMR211, the dam is likely to rapidly for the market, thus weakening the Peter Bosshard is policy director of fill with sediment washed down river financial independence of women the US-based International Riv- by erosion in Ethiopia, to become cultivators. Their health is suffering ers Network (www.irn.org). Email: infested with water hyacinths, to as they are no longer able to grow [email protected]. Nick Hildyard is cause significant daily fluctuations vegetables. Farmers are left in a bind, director of The Corner House of downstream water levels (with many relying on remittances from (www.thecornerhouse.org.uk), a major impacts on small farmers) and family members or spending the UK-based NGO focusing on environ- to spread waterborne diseases. More compensation money that they have mental justice and human rights. than 50,000 people living along the received to make ends meet. The Email: [email protected]; Nile will be displaced. The 174-kilo- project authorities are trying to mini- [email protected] . See metre-long reservoir will inundate mise the number of affected people report at: www.irn.org/programs/ an area rich in history and antiqui- who are entitled to receive compen- merowe/pdf/050428merowe.pdf ties dating back 5,000 years to the sation and rehabilitation support. ancient Nubian civilisation. Date palms remain productive for 1. www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR21/FMR2123. pdf a century, but those who have lost FMR 24 61 Sudan: world’s greatest humanit- SUDAN

arian transport challenge by Rob McConnell The Fleet Forum, a group of more than 40 aid agencies, to advocate replication of this collab- orative method of vehicle provision is working to slash by 25% the annual $800 million in the future. The Fleet Forum is the first attempt to globally address the cost of running some 60,000 vehicles. Darfur has shown issue of humanitarian transport in the need to work together to achieve more cost-efficient order to foster a more professional approach to humanitarian fleet man- and safe humanitarian transport. agement. We are working: he UN Office for the Coordina- an integral component of relief and ■ to develop common benchmarks tion of Humanitarian Affairs development operations. Procure- for procurement and operating (OCHA) reports that there are ment of vehicles is conducted in an T costs in order to quantify poten- currently 1,100 vehicles used by the ad hoc manner with only limited tial savings 81 agencies meeting the needs of regard to the standardisation of ■ with TNT to identify key ele- over two million displaced people specifications and opportunities to ments of vehicle operating costs in Darfur. Are the vehicles the right leverage reduced pricing and serv- and best practices in fleet man- type to do the job as safely and ices from suppliers. agement reliably as possible? How should ■ with Volvo road safety experts they be maintained in a place where The Fleet Forum is an initiative to analyse data provided by a there are no garages or mechanics launched by the International Fed- number of organisations on the trained to service imported high- eration of the Red Cross, the World circumstances and consequences tech trucks? Do drivers understand Food Programme, World Vision Inter- of vehicle crashes in order to how to use their vehicles in the very national and TNT, an international identify ways to minimise risk insecure environment along roads transport/logistics company. It is ■ to give individual aid agencies – if they exist at all – that are among working with partners to develop hu- more muscle when dealing with the worst in the world? If more manitarian transport standards that governments: Oxfam GB faced attention were paid to the procure- will improve capabilities through massive customs duties when it ment, management and maintenance the professionalisation of vehicle shipped 25 Indian-made four- of vehicle fleets, could agencies use fleet management. The Fleet Forum wheel drive vehicles to Sri Lanka fewer vehicles and ensure they are Meeting is now an annual event and after the Asian tsunami, due to not worn out after two years – the a permanent Secretariat in Geneva failing to win exemption from estimated life-span of trucks used in provides support and information to the Sri Lanka’s 324% vehicle the rigorous Darfur conditions? an increasing number of participant organisations, commercial partners import duty After staff salaries, transport is the and other interested parties. ■ to raise awareness of safety and largest budget item for humanitar- security of transport staff ian agencies. Much of the money At the start of the Darfur response, ■ to increase the use of environ- is wasted through inconsistent Sudanese bureaucracy put many mentally-friendly vehicles. procurement policies, shoddy main- obstacles in the way of NGO impor- tenance, negligence, road accidents tation of vehicles. The few vehicles While Darfur continues to be one of and bureaucratic headaches. Few aid available on the rental market were the worst humanitarian disasters organisations utilise a computerised expensive, unreliable and lacking in ever, development work in south fleet management system. Few, if basic communications equipment. Sudan is just getting started. In any, consistently implement driver To help overcome this problem, a region where the few roads are training programmes. Road safety is- OCHA used European Union fund- blocked by seasonal rains, transport sues are generally not considered as ing to procure and import 75 light access to assist the millions plan- vehicles ning to go home is a monumental which were challenge. Roads must be built and donated to repaired and facilities for vehicle ser- 37 NGOs vicing and repair built almost from operating scratch. The Fleet Forum hopes to in remote work with humanitarian agencies to locations. make significant savings and avoid The Fleet the number of deaths and injuries Forum has which have happened in Darfur. initiated a project Rob McConnell is the coordina- to capture tor of the Fleet Forum (www. the lessons fleetforum.org). Email: rob. learnt in [email protected] Sudan and Fleet Forum 62 FMR 24 Beja sidelined by peace process by Suliman Salih Dirar ike the people of Darfur, the On all aspects of human develop- resources. Their protest was met Beja are non-Arab Muslims. ment the Beja suffer more than the with brutal force and 40 demon- LLike Darfurians, they have been South, yet their needs are ignored by strators were killed. The Sudanese systematically marginalised, their the UN and Western governments. government justified the killings by grazing lands taken by outsiders and The region has the highest rate of falsely claiming that the Beja were their plight ignored by the interna- infant mortality in Sudan. Fewer than threatening oil exports. Amnesty tional community. 10% of Beja children attend school. International’s calls for the govern- SUDAN Malnutrition is chronic. Tuberculosis ment to set up an independent The Beja, the Cushitic original is widespread and left untreated. commission of inquiry and to release inhabitants of eastern Sudan, are a Beja Congress representatives have traditionally nomadic group with Conditions are dire for the 160,000 gone unheeded. While the UN inves- some three million members living in people living in the area near the tigates atrocities in Darfur and the southern Egypt, northeastern Sudan Eritrean border controlled by the death of Lebanon’s president, they and northern Eritrea. Believed to be Beja Congress in the late 1990s. In do nothing to bring perpetrators of the first to domesticate the camel, an attempt to starve the area into anti-Beja violence to justice. the Beja live in a harsh and arid submission Khartoum has blocked semi-desert, their survival depend- medical supplies and food. People The Beja have suffered from the sim- ent on unpredictable annual rainfall. cure whooping cough by crow soup plistic depiction of Sudan’s problem Beja ethnic identity is on the rise as or donkey urine in the third millen- as one of northern Arab Muslims ver- the urban population has grown as nium! Anaemic women die during sus southern Christians and pagans, a result of conflict, marginalisation pregnancy. There is a chronic short- and were denied a role in the peace and drought. age of food and medicines, doctors, talks in Kenya. At the Oslo Donors nurses, schools and hospitals. People Conference nobody mentioned the Although a significant proportion live in misery, illiteracy and disease half a million Beja displaced by con- of Sudan’s population, the Beja have in a land full of landmines. The Inter- flict. The UN has provided facilities few representatives in the central national Rescue Committee is one to Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees government. They have been impov- of only two NGOs able to access the in our region but ignored our plight. erished by State policies. Exclusion area. “It is the most under-served, We need urgent medical assistance, from power dates from Turkish and most remote area that I have ever mobile schools and veterinary ser- British colonialism and has been sig- worked in, with huge humanitarian vices. Our culture is threatened with nificantly worsened by the in-move- needs,” says Fergus Thomas, IRC extinction and we require help to A Beja man in the programme coordinator for north- ment of riverain Sudanese, employed preserve and develop our language. rebel-controlled area east Sudan. of eastern Sudan, by post-independence governments by the border with as civil servants, soldiers and police. The Beja have been the victims of Eritrea. Loans from state banks have allowed The Beja region has been devastated decades of racist and discriminatory riverain Sudanese to take over Beja by spillover effects from the North- policies. Ongoing human rights viola- land. Beja pastoralists South conflict and the presence of tions by the Sudanese authorities in have lost the goats refugees from Eritrea and Ethiopia. eastern Sudan are fuelling tensions and camels Over a quarter of a million southern- and discontent. If the parties to upon which they ers moved into the area to escape the so-called Comprehensive Peace depend. fighting, cutting down trees and Agreement really want to build a over-exploiting water resources. nation in which indigenous groups When the SPLM opened a second are not marginalised then the Beja front against the Khartoum regime Congress must be recognised as a in eastern Sudan, over 300,000 Beja peace partner and our grievances ad- were displaced as fighting flared and dressed. It is time that we shared in now live in urban shanties in Port decision making, instead of just hav- Sudan and Kassala. ing to put up with the consequences of bad decisions made about us. In January 2005 Beja Suliman Salih Dirar is director of demonstrators the Beja Educational and Cultural in Port Sudan Trust. Email: bejawino1@hotmail. presented the com. governor of Red Sea State For further information, see with a list of www.sudan-margins.org/plight_of_ demands for the_beja_people_in_eas.htm an equal share of power, wealth and IRIN FMR 24 63 Encounter with a fighter SUDAN by Ellen Lammers Amidst the routine of life back in Amsterdam, I remem- I look at Jacob and Rose and wonder: how many people in their home ber Jacob and our last meeting as he wheeled himself country are affected by this disease? HIV/AIDS has rarely been talked through the jam-packed ward of a Kampala hospital. about in the Sudanese context; the It had been four years since we last saw each other. focus has always been on the war. With no health facilities in southern e talk about Sudan and size of my wrists, and a fuzzy down Sudan to speak of, the likely answer the peace deal signed two covers his head. But he has the same is that nobody knows. Wweeks ago. Jacob is excited, captivating smile and his voice is un- yet – like most Sudanese I talk to altered. In his reduced face I see the UNHCR pays Jacob’s hospital bills – sceptical. “Those big people broker- traces of a young boy. I suddenly re- but has stopped providing for his ing the peace received six hundred call what he spoke of years ago: the family. His wife and the children live US dollars per day in attendance fees things he did as a youthful recruit, in one room, without electricity or but our people continue to suffer.” emboldened by his newly acquired windows and with only one mattress. He shares the fear of many that the power – the AK47 he was instructed When Rose complains, the social Equatorians and Dinkas will soon was “his father, his mother, his food, worker suggests the family move to start fighting each other: “We may his everything”. At the time he had one of Uganda’s rural refugee settle- have peace with our enemies but do only vaguely understood what he ments. A nonsensical idea because, we have peace among ourselves?” was fighting for and why. They were even if his TB and anaemia improve, And he doubts whether John Garang things he later regretted. both Jacob and she need monthly will manage to satisfy his hundreds check-ups to determine when they of commanders. They will all want to Statistics of HIV/AIDS in Africa are should start taking antiretrovirals, if get something out of this deal: mon- shocking but do not have the same they are lucky enough to have access ey, land, and positions of authority impact as seeing a person one knows to them. in the interim government. They affected by the disease. Jacob’s wife need to feed their wives, educate Rose visits every day. If she has “I’m no longer with the military, no their children. What will the move- something to eat she brings it. If not, longer with politics, but I will stand ment do for them? It has no reputa- she takes part of his daily ration of for my people. You know, Ellen, I tion for taking care of its fighters. Ja- posho and beans provided by the haven’t given up hope. If I’m still cob is left dying in hospital – no-one hospital back home to the children. here in, say, October, I will go back has come to inquire after him. Yet She cleans Jacob’s cubicle, empties to Sudan and help my community. before his imprisonment (following the plastic container under his bed. We are only four from our com- a fall-out with a senior commander) On days that I’m there before her, I munity who are educated. But you and his eventual flight to Kam- sit on the bed so as not to have to know what the problem is? There are pala, Jacob had served long years in look under it. I feel silly and pathetic so many guns in southern Sudan.” Garang’s headquarters. He remains but cannot bear to see that reddish, Jacob smiles and jokes, “There, you indignant about the SPLA’s human turbid liquid. Rose appears strong don’t need to go looking for guns. rights abuses but will not extricate but looks down when I tell her so They come and look for you.” himself from the movement’s cause. and says, “I just worry about the He spent half his life engaged with children.” Jacob tells me he prays I gave Jacob a dictaphone into which Africa’s longest-running war. God will give him a few more years: he recorded his thoughts in a quiet “Just so that the boys are a bit big- corner he discovered in the over- Jacob used to be twice my size, his ger, and able to distinguish between crowded hospital. On my last visit upper arms muscular and massive. what is right and wrong.” He says he handed me two tapes and made Now his fingers are lean, his legs the Rose had a tough time in Sudan. The me promise to keep them well. “So village women at the many children in Sudan don’t know public water tap would anything about their parents. Some- move away when she times I wish I could send my sons approached, saying, back into the womb of their mother “That one, let her go but I can’t. I want them to at least first, or her husband remember my voice.” will come and disturb us!” Both fear their chil- Ellen Lammers, a researcher at the dren will be ostracised University of Amsterdam, is prepar- or become the objects ing a thesis based on three years’ of revenge once they research among young men in are not longer alive to Kampala who fled conflict in Sudan protect them. and other war-torn states. Email: [email protected] Sudan Mirror 64 FMR 24 The Mexico Plan of Action: protecting refugees through international solidarity by William Spindler The Plan of Action proposes con- Although challenges remain, the Mexico Plan of Action crete actions that include working has made significant progress in addressing refugee and to achieve self-sufficiency and local integration in the cities (the ‘Cities of IDP protection needs in Latin America. solidarity’ programme), stimulating social and economic development in n the 1980s, Central America was Set against this grim background and border areas to benefit refugees and one of the main battlegrounds building upon the earlier Cartagena the local population (the ‘Borders of of the Cold War. What began Declaration, the endorsement in No- I solidarity’ programme) and estab- essentially as social conflicts over vember 2004 by 20 Latin American lishing a programme of resettlement the lack of land for poor peasants, countries of the Mexico Declaration in Latin America as a way to ease unequal distribution of wealth and and Plan of Action2 was a genuine pressure on those countries receiv- restricted enjoyment of civil and milestone. ing large numbers of refugees (the political rights became proxy wars ‘Resettlement in solidarity’ pro- over ideology and geopolitics as the Action-oriented plan gramme). United States and the Soviet Union supported opposite sides in Nicara- More than a simple declaration of The Plan, which is also designed gua, El Salvador and Guatemala. As good intentions, the Mexico Plan to address the humanitarian needs a result of these wars, over 2 million of Action set out concrete steps to of people fleeing violence in Co- people were forced to abandon their address the main challenges to the lombia, includes a comprehensive homes and became refugees or dis- protection of refugees and internally programme to assess the needs of placed within their own countries. displaced people (IDPs) in Latin refugees and of local host communi- America. In particular, the action- ties, especially in border areas of Faced with this pressing humanitar- oriented plan aims to further the neighbouring countries, allowing for ian crisis, UNHCR and a number of development of asylum systems and complementary humanitarian and government experts and eminent protection capacity of governments development-oriented activities. jurists from Latin America came and NGOs. up with an innovative and creative “The spirit of solidarity between response which drew upon the “The Mexico Plan of Action focuses neighbours is the best guarantee for generous Latin American tradition of on solidarity and on partnership,” refugees,” UN High Commissioner asylum: the Cartagena Declaration.1 explains Philippe Lavanchy, Director for Refugees António Guterres told a of UNHCR’s Bureau for the Americas. group of ambassadors and govern- The Declaration took its name from “Only by working together can we ment delegates meeting in Geneva the historic city of Cartagena de hope to better protect refugees and in October 2005 to review the Plan’s Indias in Colombia, where it was ad- displaced people while looking for progress. “The plan makes a crucial opted in November 1984. The Carta- solutions to their plight.” gena Declaration is best known for Working with widening the definition of refugees traumatised IDP to include those who have fled their children, Carepa, countries because their lives, safety Uraba, Colombia or freedom have been threatened by generalised violence, foreign ag- gression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order.

Twenty years after the Cartagena Declaration, another conflict is now threatening the region’s stability. The 40-year old conflict in Colombia has resulted in the forced displace- ment in and outside the country’s borders of over three million men, women and children. UNHCR/P Smith FMR 24 The Mexico Plan of Action 65 link between internally displaced tina and the expansion of refugee In Costa Rica, micro-credit and job people and refugees – protection protection learning programmes placement initiatives have produced and durable solutions for one group for border authorities in various measurable results. In Ecuador, must include the other – and elabo- countries. Discussions continue on UNHCR is promoting development rates practical methods to assist the contents of new draft legislation support for refugee-hosting areas. the internally displaced. This must on asylum and on refugee status In Brazil, UNHCR signed an agree- happen within the UN collaborative determination procedures with the ment with a financial institution approach and will require commit- authorities of Chile, Costa Rica, Ec- specialised in the provision of credit ment, clear thinking, and additional uador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama to the poorest segments of the popu- funding.” and Uruguay. lation to ensure access to credit for production, housing and meeting ur- Achievements and challenges At the same time, there has been gent needs for both refugees and the significant progress in the imple- local population in areas where there Since November 2004, when the Plan mentation of the resettlement com- are many refugees. In Colombia, of Action was adopted in Mexico ponent of the Mexico Plan. Argentina UNHCR continues to work closely City, there has been considerable has now joined Brazil and Chile as with authorities in urban areas to progress in some areas such as legis- emerging resettlement countries for guarantee IDPs’ access to housing, lation, refugee status determination, refugees facing very serious security education, health care and income- resettlement, capacity building and risks in their country of first asylum generation projects and to ensure protection in border areas. Equally and constructive discussions are their property rights are protected. encouraging are the recent examples ongoing with Uruguay and Mexico. of regional cooperation to strength- Although the numbers of refugees If the Mexico Plan of Action is to live en national eligibility practices. benefitting from resettlement are up to its ambitious goals, however, a still relatively small, it is important greater commitment from the inter- However, important challenges to support these emerging resettle- national community will be needed. remain. The implementation of some ment countries in providing regional Solidarity, after all, is not just a programmes has been uneven as a solutions for mostly Colombian regional but a universal principle. result of the practical difficulties to refugees. provide effective protection in some William Spindler has been work- situations, notably in the context of The Plan’s durable solutions compo- ing with UNHCR in Latin America the Colombian conflict, and insuffi- nent also foresees the enhancement for the past three years. Email: cient resources available. of local integration and the promo- [email protected] tion of refugee self-reliance in both Among the specific achievements of urban centres and border areas af- 1. www.acnur.org/index.php?id_pag=2302 the Plan of Action are the adoption 2. full text at www.acnur.org/biblioteca/ fected by the Colombian conflict. of new asylum legislation in Argen- pdf/3016.pdf Statelessness: a forgotten human rights crisis by Bill Frelick and Maureen Lynch Stateless persons do not register on the international and discriminatory treatment, partic- ularly with respect to labour rights, community’s radar screen. Recent research suggests that freedom of movement and property 11 million people lack citizenship or effective national- rights. According to the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of ity. This is a gross violation of Article 15 of the Universal Non-citizens:

Declaration of Human Rights, which holds that every There is a large gap between the person “has a right to a nationality”. rights that international human rights laws guarantee to non-citizens itizenship or nationality is cess, subjected to forced labour or and the realities they must face. In the essential link between returned to a place where they would many countries there are institutional Can individual and the State. be persecuted. International human and endemic problems confronting Establishing and preserving an rights instruments accord to state- non-citizens. The situation, however, individual’s right to nationality is a less persons equal rights to mar- has worsened as several countries necessary prerequisite for the expan- riage, freedom of belief, expression, have detained or otherwise violated sion and enforcement of all other religion and most other economic, the rights of non-citizens in response human rights. Stateless persons social and cultural rights. to fears of terrorism. Continued have an equal right to protection discriminatory treatment of non- before the law, not to be arbitrarily Nevertheless, in practice, stateless- citizens demonstrates the need for arrested, subjected to inhumane ness is often accompanied by the clear, comprehensive standards treatment or torture, denied due pro- deprivation of a host of basic rights governing the rights of non-citizens, 66 Statelessness: a forgotten human rights crisis FMR 24

their implementation by States, and in Nepal; Muslim minorities in Burma ■ the international community more effective monitoring of compli- and Sri Lanka; European Roma who strengthen UNHCR as the lead ance.1 fled conflict in the Balkans; ethnic agency on statelessness issues minorities such as the Batwa ‘Pygmy’ and advocate for the establish- An indication of how little atten- and Banyarwanda of the Great Lakes ment of a dedicated department tion the international community Region of Africa; Rohingya in Bangla- within the agency accords to non-citizens generally, desh; Kurdish populations; persons ■ the Human Rights Commission or stateless persons in particular, is of Haitian ancestry in the Bahamas appoint a Special Rapporteur on that the mandate of the UN Special and elsewhere in the Caribbean Ba- Statelessness Rapporteur on Non-citizens was not sin; some Meskhetian Turks and Zim- ■ donors require and evaluate pro- renewed when it expired in April babweans of Indian descent or with tection of stateless populations 2004, largely because the Special links to Malawi and Mozambique. and provide new funding to sup- Rapporteur had completed his study port UN and NGO work on behalf and renewal of his mandate would The 1954 Convention Relating to the of stateless people. have meant creating a more active, Status of Stateless Persons2 identifies monitoring role. a stateless person as someone who Bill Frelick is the director of Refu- does not have the legal bond of na- gee Programs at Amnesty Interna- States are often reluctant to ac- tionality with any state. Unlike refu- tional USA. Email: bfrelick@aiusa. knowledge the presence of stateless gees and internally displaced people, org. persons on their territories. They are stateless individuals generally do rarely counted in official govern- not benefit from the protection and Maureen Lynch is research director ment statistics as a resident cat- assistance of governments, aid agen- of Refugees International. Email: egory. More often, they are counted cies and the UN, despite its mandate maureen@refugeesinternational. as undifferentiated “aliens”, if their over stateless persons. They are org. She is the author of RI’s report presence is recognised at all. While essentially international orphans. ‘Lives on hold: the human cost of the exact number of stateless people At present, only two staff people statelessness’, available online at: is not known, research by Refugees at the headquarters of UNHCR are www.refugeesinternational.org/con- International (RI) found: employed to focus on this large and tent/publication/detail/5051 growing population. ■ In Bangladesh, more than 250,000 1. David Weissbrodt, ‘Final report on the rights of non-citizens’, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/23 Biharis (also called ‘stranded Statelessness is not an unsolvable (2003), www1.umn.edu/humanrts/demo/nonciti- Pakistanis’) live in 66 squalid problem. Amnesty International USA zenrts2003-add3.html camps established more than and Refugees International recom- 2. www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/o_c_sp.htm 33 years ago: both Pakistan and mend that: Stateless woman in Bangladesh. Bangladesh refuse to offer them citizenship. ■ governments ■ More than 140,000 of the Rus- respect the basic sian-speaking minority residents human right of all left behind when Estonia entered individuals to have the European Union are finding a nationality, adhere it hard to obtain citizenship due to international to difficulties passing stringent standards to protect language requirements. stateless people, ■ In Thailand around two million reduce stateless- people, half the population of ness by facilitat- the so-called ‘hill tribes’, lack ing acquisition of Thai citizenship and are denied nationality, allow the right to vote, buy land, seek non-citizens equal legal employment or travel freely access to rights and – despite having been born in entitlements within Thailand. their borders and ■ Millions of Palestinians are not ensure every child is only refugees but also stateless. registered at birth ■ In Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia ■ the UN and NGOs and the United Arab Emirates define agency man- large numbers of bidoon – pri- dates and outline marily Arabs from neighbouring concrete operational countries or belonging to tribes in objectives, provide dispute with ruling elites but also relief for immediate non-Arabs whose families settled needs of stateless in the Gulf generations ago – are persons and organ- trapped in a system that allows ise a global survey them no protection. to better identify stateless popula- The list goes on. Stateless persons tions are also found among the Bhutanese Thatcher Hullerman Cook Hullerman Thatcher FMR 24 67 Addressing sexual and gender-

based violence by Bill van Esveld and Kirsten Young UNHCR is working to prevent domestic, sexual, physi- experiences of violence. The film will be used as a teaching tool in the cal and emotional violence affecting women in refugee camps.

camps along the border between Thailand and Burma. It is vital to establish clear and ixty thousand Burmese women police and prosecutors have taken simple reporting and referral mecha- are living in nine refugee camps place only after persistent prodding nisms. UNHCR – which is not allowed Sin Thailand.1 Many are sur- by UNHCR and NGOs. to maintain a permanent presence vivors of rape and other forms of in the camps – works with numer- sexual abuse in war-torn Burma and Since 2002 formal programmes to ous stakeholders in responding to continue to face sexual and gender- address sexual and gender-based incidents of sexual and gender-based based violence even after fleeing to violence have been a major feature violence. Standard operating proce- Thailand. Perpetrators include Thai of UNHCR refugee protection in dures are being developed in each soldiers, officials and villagers but Thailand. In collaboration with refu- camp to better coordinate responses. most are fellow refugees. Girls are gee leaders, camp commanders, po- Key elements include: frequent targets as perpetrators feel lice, prosecutors, UNICEF, NGOs and that girls can be scared into silence, refugee women’s groups, UNHCR is ■ assuring the survivor’s right but patriarchal social structures that developing response mechanisms to security, confidentiality and ‘punish the victim’ make it difficult in accordance with international respect for women of any age to report standards. Awareness raising with ■ outlining a ‘road map’ of steps a sexual violence. In many cases, wom- refugees and with Thai authorities survivor can take and ensuring en are not able to divorce violent has led to better reporting and more she is informed of her options husbands. Rape victims are some- referrals to the Thai legal system. ■ defining the responsibilities of times subjected to forced marriage Committees have been established each stakeholder for responding to save their ‘honour’. Women who in the camps to monitor and report to incidents of violence muster the courage to report vio- incidents, and persistent advocacy ■ availability of psychosocial sup- lence find there is often nowhere for with the Thai authorities has led to port them to go. In some camps, refugee increased levels of investigation and ■ provision, when required, of women’s organisations have set up prosecution. UNHCR-funded legal counsel. ‘safe’ houses, but in a closed camp environment where nothing is secret, UNHCR recognises that preventing UNHCR’s efforts have improved the these shelters are far from safe. sexual and gender-based violence in- situation for survivors of sexual volves changing social attitudes and violence, but they have also shown Male refugee leaders are often indif- justice systems and requires long- the daunting scale of the problem. ferent to the problem. When action term commitment. Success depends Greater combined efforts of civil so- is taken, refugee justice procedures on refugee ‘ownership’ of the issue. ciety, refugees, the Thai authorities are arbitrary. If the perpetrator is in- Committees comprised of refugee and UNHCR are needed to meet the fluential he may escape punishment men and women are now respon- protection needs of refugee women. or, at most, have to make a token sible for awareness-raising and for compensation payment to the survi- designating refugee focal persons, Bill van Esveld is attending New vor’s family. By contrast, members who refer survivors to medical and York University School of Law. of ethnic or political minorities can support services and report inci- Email: [email protected]. Kirsten face excessively harsh punishments, dents to UNHCR. The need for such Young is UNHCR Assistant Regional including summary executions. independent reporting and referral Representative (Protection), Re- mechanisms is clear: refugee leaders gional Office for Thailand, Cam- Survivors of sexual and gender- often oppose the new committees bodia, Laos and Vietnam. Email: based violence must surmount and continue to ignore the suffering [email protected]. This article is enormous hurdles to pursue their caused by sexual and gender-based written in a personal capacity and right to a Thai legal remedy. Refugee violence. does not necessarily reflect the leaders generally only allow cases to views of the UN. be referred to the Thai judicial sys- Because the prevention of gender- 1. UNHCR is denied access to a further 200,000 tem when the perpetrator is a Thai based violence is closely related to ethnic Shan in northern Thailand, who should be national. Thai authorities are equally increasing the leadership roles of considered refugees from Burma. Well over one content to leave the administration refugee women, UNHCR is working million Myanmarese nationals are in Thailand as economic migrants; many could have valid of justice in the camps to the refu- to increase women’s representation refugee claims but have not been screened or rec- gee leadership. Thai camp command- on camp committees by training ognized. The Thai government has not signed the ers may ignore cases, hand them to women in leadership and public 1951 Refugee Convention or its Protocols, does not use the terms ‘refugee’ or ‘refugee camps’ the refugee-run camp committees speaking. We are also funding and and has no refugee-specific legislation. or fashion their own remedies. Until coordinating a film project that al- recently, most investigations by Thai lows refugee women to relate their Thatcher Hullerman Cook Hullerman Thatcher 68 FMR 24 North-east India’s forgotten IDPs by Monirul Hussain Misguided policies have displaced millions in the seven on Internal Displacement. states of north-east India. The needs of environmental, Professor Monirul Hussain teaches development and conflict-induced IDPs have been ignored. at the Political Science Department of Gauhati University, Assam. He India lacks a national IDP policy and the government recently completed a SSRC-spon- sored study of development- systematically refers to internally displaced persons as induced displacement of popula- ‘migrants’. tion in north-east India and is the editor of Coming out of violence: lthough the north-east is rich not impossible, for scholars or jour- essays on ethnicity, conflict in natural resources it has nalists to investigate the situation. resolution and peace process in remained under-developed, Most of north-east India continues to A north-east India, Regency Publi- isolated and perpetually vulnerable remain off-limits to foreigners. cations, New Delhi, 2005. Email: to violent ethnic conflicts. Over 30 [email protected] rebel groups are active in a region Some conflict-induced IDPs have which is home to 200 of India’s tribal been living in camps for more than See the Global IDP Project’s India groups. As a result of continuous a decade. Most IDPs receive little Country Report: www.db.idpproject. environmental degradation, floods, medical care and their children have org/Sites/IdpProjectDb/idpSurvey. riverbank erosion and landslides access neither to formal education nsf/wCountriesb/India have become endemic, leading to nor to health services. Though some

huge loss of life and population receive food aid, it often arrives 1. www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo022/ displacement. It is estimated that sporadically and is insufficient in fmo022-4.htm at least three million peasants have quantity and nutrition. Within the been displaced in recent years by IDP communities it is women and erosion of prime agricultural land by children who suffer most. IDPs lead FMR Editorial Advisory Board the River Brahmaputra. dehumanised lives in camps in which no intergovernmental or interna- Although the EAB members’ institutional affiliations are listed below, they serve in Dams have displaced massive tional organisations are present. No an individual capacity and do not neces- numbers. The Dumber Hydroelectric effort is made to provide land for sarily represent their institutions. Project in Tripura forced the reloca- those unable to return home. Paula Banerjee tion of about 200,000 tribal people. Calcutta Research Group The Pagladiya Dam Project in Assam, If we look at the IDP issue from the Kine Brodtkorb if implemented, will displace about Impoverishment Risks and Re- Norwegian Refugee Council 105,000 people. Indian government construction model developed by plans to construct 145 more dams in Micheal M Cernea,1 we find that all Stephen Castles Refugee Studies Centre an ecologically fragile region highly the IDPs in the region suffer from vulnerable to earthquakes are be- landlessness, joblessness, home- Mark Cutts ing strongly contested by affected lessness, marginalisation, food OCHA Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division communities. If we combine all the insecurity, increased morbidity and categories of development-induced mortality, loss of access to common Jens-Hagen Eschenbächer displacement with the displacees of property rights, social disarticulation Global IDP Project urbanisation, it is likely to involve a and disintegration. Kemlin Furley further three million people. As in UNHCR the rest of India, most development- Lack of action to redress environ- Erin Mooney induced IDPs are tribal people. mental degradation, building of more Brookings-Bern Project on dams and sharpening of exclusivist Internal Displacement Agendas for resolution of the ethnicity and its resultant violence Bahame Tom Nyanduga region’s conflicts do not consider are likely to increase displacement. Special Rapporteur on Refugees, IDPs IDPs and focus only on measures to Indian civil society and the authori- and Asylum Seekers in Africa provide incentives for insurgents and ties need to look afresh at the whole Nick Roseveare criminal elements to stop fighting. gamut of environmental, develop- Oxfam GB It is difficult to ascertain the exact mental and political issues driving Dan Seymour number of IDPs in the region as the displacement in the north-east. The UNICEF state does not keep proper data. national authorities need to conduct Jeremy Stickings For the state to acknowledge the surveys in conflict-affected areas to DFID existence of IDPs would be to admit document the number of internally ‘state failure’. Due to the inaccessi- displaced and their needs. India ur- Richard Williams ECRE bility of conflict zones and security gently requires a clear-cut IDP regime regulations it is extremely difficult, if based on the UN Guiding Principles FMR 24 69 The Zambia Initiative by Masaki Watabe In rural Zambia refugees and host communities are village planning. The future growth of ZI will depend on: working together to move from relief dependence to self ■ incorporating ZI into Zambia’s reliance. Could UNHCR’s Zambia Initiative (ZI) be a national development plan ■ improving the government’s model for other countries struggling to cope with the pro- implementation capacity: expenditure controls imposed tracted presence of refugees? by Zambia’s Poverty Reduction ambia currently provides durable solutions and equitable Strategy have led to cuts in staff- refuge for around 175,000 sharing of the burden of hosting ing and transport budgets which Zrefugees from Angola, the refugees. ZI is at the heart of emerg- have made it hard to supervise Democratic Republic of Congo and ing good practice and conceptual and monitor sub-projects elsewhere. Despite its poverty, innovations such as Development ■ better coordination between pro- Zambia has been a generous host Assistance for Refugees (DAR) and grammes, particularly to ensure and has not put pressure on those Development through Local Inte- that refugee children are able Angolans who do not wish to repa- gration (DLI) – part of UNHCR’s to remain in school when their triate. In cooperation with UNHCR Convention Plus initiatives. While sponsorship is cut and a range of donors, the govern- DAR emphasises that the nature of ■ greater focus on the special ment launched the ZI development assistance should be developmen- needs of women and children, programme in 2002. ZI is based on tal- rather than relief-focused, DLI the elderly and those affected by recognition that the living conditions is more proactive in showing how HIV/AIDS of some of the host communities in refugees can and should play posi- ■ tackling the legal restraints on western Zambia are poorer than of tive roles in the broader context of refugees’ freedom of movement those they are sheltering and that it local development. ZI is an example and access to the formal labour is vital to promote harmonious co- of how UNHCR is seeking to move market existence between them. beyond purely humanitarian fund- ■ recognition that DAR/DLI pro- ing in refugee-populated areas and grammes, unlike the short-term Addressing the multifaceted aspects to sensitise donors to the need to relief or quick impact projects of poverty in the Western Prov- provide development funding. with which humanitarians are ince, Zambia’s poorest region, ZI familiar, require systematic plan- has boosted crop production and ZI has the support of the Zambian ning, long-term commitment and improved access to health, educa- government and the politicians and development of performance and tion and veterinary facilities. Some traditional leaders who previously impact indicators 400,000 refugees and residents have gave voice to the resent- seen positive benefits. Rural health ment of local people who posts, basic schools, communal perceived that refugees it is the attitudes of the humanitarian grain bins, hand-dug wells, nurs- received a disproportional community… which most need to change eries and feeder roads have been share of international as- sistance. Evidence that Zam- built through local procurement ■ joint UNHCR-host government bians in refugee-affected areas are of materials and labour contribu- advocacy with donors to ensure now receiving additional develop- tions. A credit scheme has expanded stable and predictable long-term ment aid has transformed attitudes access to seeds, fertilisers and financial contributions. agricultural tools. Crop productivity towards refugees. Local communities has increased from 1.5 mt per ha to have been empowered to participate ZI has demonstrated that it is the at- 3.5 mt per ha as a result of ZI inputs in decision making by ZI’s commu- titudes of the humanitarian commu- and improved agricultural extension nity-based implementation mecha- nity, rather than those of refugees services. A total of 120,000 refugees nism. Co-existence with refugees has and their hosts, which most need and locals benefited from credit been incorporated into national and to change. We owe it to refugees loans in 2003-04. Over 500 tons of regional policy discourse. and underprivileged hosting com- maize has been sold to the World munities to make burden sharing a Challenges ahead Food Programme and the proceeds reality. reinvested into expanded maize pro- In 2005, ZI was expanded into Masaki Watabe is an Associate Pro- duction, turning the area’s refugees North-Western Province. In Western gramme Officer with UNHCR in and locals from recipients of food Province, a technical assistance Lusaka, Zambia. Email: watabe@ aid into suppliers of food. programme with the Japan Interna- unhcr.org. The views expressed do tional Cooperation Agency (JICA) not necessarily represent those of ZI is in accordance with UNHCR’s was initiated to strengthen the the UN. Agenda for Protection which calls for management of local development a more comprehensive search for committees through participatory 70 FMR 24 IRIN marks its first decade by Joanne Clark

The Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) Reaching local populations

has come a long way from its initial coverage of three The media offers the most effective countries. A decade later, IRIN is a multimedia news vehicle in crisis-affected countries for reaching thousand of vulnerable service producing daily and analytical reports, news people. However, as thousands of Americans stranded by Hurricane footage and radio broadcasts spanning Africa, Asia and Katrina – in a country endowed with the Middle East. the most advanced technology and resources – can attest, the people any are surprised to learn are many other examples. IRIN also most in need of information during a that IRIN is a UN service. receives regular requests for its pho- crisis are the least likely to be able to Housed within the Office for tos, news footage and documenta- M see, hear or read about it. In develop- the Coordination of Humanitarian ries. The footage is utilised by news ing nations the impact of crises is Affairs (OCHA), IRIN offers editorial- services like BBC, CNN, CBC, TV2 and often worse. ly independent coverage of humani- numerous others. One IRIN docu- tarian situations. Ten years ago the mentary, Our bodies … their battle In many countries served by IRIN, creation of IRIN marked the start of ground, is now part of standard staff there is little access to newspapers, an information revolution that has training packages for numerous television or the internet. Conflict transformed the humanitarian com- NGOs and is also used to sensitise also interrupts media services and munity’s ability to respond to crises, local military and peacekeeping repressive press laws – or the threat improved access to information by personnel. of imprisonment – can result in su- crisis-affected communities and as- perficial, censored or biased report- sisted international media in their re- While the initial service was aimed at ing. IRIN is committed to assisting porting. “Few people back then could informing the humanitarian com- local media and sustaining their envisage how IRIN would evolve into munity, over the years IRIN has also capacity to provide quality reporting the humanitarian news service it is tried to reach affected populations to their populations during these today,” said IRIN coordinator and and more recently audiences in do- critical times. The provision of IRIN founder Pat Banks. nor countries through their respec- news feeds offers them access to re- tive medias. Increased awareness ports and photos they could not af- Humanitarian agencies regularly and use of IRIN services among local ford or access elsewhere. IRIN hires indicate increased interest in their and international media services and local journalists to provide daily work as a direct result of IRIN cover- the general public will be a key focus reporting and, consequently, employ- age and in crisis affected-countries in IRIN’s next decade. ment when local media revenues IRIN reporting IRIN journalist also helps bring in Burundi. urgent needs to the attention of those who can intervene. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society in Kirkuk said it started receiving donations from other NGOs fol- lowing an IRIN story that high- lighted critical medical needs. Four companies contacted the Baghdad AIDS Research Centre and offered assistance, fol- lowing an IRIN story about drug shortages. There IRIN FMR 24 IRIN marks its first decade 71

PlusNews: www.plusnews.org/ IRIN listeners in Burundi.

IRIN also operates IRIN PlusNews, the largest HIV/AIDS news service are at their most scarce. Moreover, in sub-Saharan Africa. IRIN’s international status enables it PlusNews provides a one- to report openly and factually where stop information service articles attributed to local reporters on the struggle against would result in retaliatory action. HIV/AIDS. Its stories are services and TV networks have dra- helping local papers and Furthermore, an IRIN Radio service matically cut their coverage of Africa radio stations inform their com- supports local partner stations in and Central Asia. More and more munities. PlusNews articles are Afghanistan and in a number of journalists and editors are turning to regularly carried by local radio countries in Africa. In Côte d’Ivoire, IRIN reports from which they extract and print services from Gabon for example, IRIN Radio works with stories to share with their reader- to Uganda and are included in local stations to enable information ships. News services such as the BBC, media training manuals and exchange between radio stations Le Monde and the New York Times university curricula. In addition, in both government and rebel-held have all used IRIN as source material. zones, thereby building understand- each week in ‘Hayden’s Diary’, PlusNews journalist Hayden ing between communities. Joanne Clark is IRIN Senior Infor- Horner writes about his experi- mation and Liaison Officer. Visit the ences as a young HIV-positive Reaching international media IRIN website and/or subscribe to South African. The aim is to the free email service at www.IRIN- contribute to the de-stigmatisa- International media services have a news.org. IRIN’s refugee/IDP section finite budget. Over the last decade, is at: www.irinnews.org/frontpage. tion of HIV/AIDS by providing diminishing returns and the high asp?SelectTheme=Refugees_IDPs it with a human face. Testify- cost of reporting on Afghanistan, ing to its success, the dairy is the Iraq war and the Indian Ocean Editors can contact Joanne@irinnews. appearing across the web, in tsunami have led to bureau closures org to find out more about services newspapers and even in school and cutbacks in international media to media. newsletters. coverage. As a result, some wire 72 Brookings Institution-University of Bern Project on Internal Displacement FMR 24

Brookings Institution-University of Bern Project on Internal Displacement IDPs in the Balkans - the challenges of sustainable return n June, Walter Kälin, the Repre- immediate evacuation and for the regain access to health care, pension sentative of the UN Secretary- international community and donors entitlements, social security benefits, IGeneral on the Human Rights of to make funds available to allow education and the labour market. Internally Displaced Persons, visited these people to live with dignity. Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and The Representative took note of Serbia and Montenegro including A major challenge throughout the the concerns expressed to him by Kosovo. Throughout the region he region is the sustainability of return, many interlocutors that the massive found that, several years after the in particular of minorities, who face return of former refugees or rejected armed conflicts of the 1990s, much discrimination, harassment and asylum seekers from certain Western has been achieved in addressing the severe poverty. Even when returnees European countries would add to the needs and problems of the displaced have been able to repossess their burden caused by internal displace- population. The number of IDPs has houses, funding for repairs and ment in the different parts of the been significantly reduced as many reconstruction are often unavail- region, particularly if they were not displaced persons have been able able. In some cases, reconnection able to return to their homes. He to return to their original places of to water and electricity has been appealed to the governments con- residence. A large number of prop- unjustifiably delayed. In many com- cerned to implement such returns erty disputes have been resolved and munities, police have been unwilling cautiously and urged them to refrain houses and apartments have been re- to investigate incidents of looting from returning members of particu- possessed by, or at least re-allocated and harassment and the judiciary larly vulnerable persons to situations to, their previous owners. is weak, overburdened and inca- where they would risk remaining in pable of processing cases speedily. internal displacement and be left However, the Representative also Continuing impunity for war crimes without the necessary assistance and concluded that more efforts are and crimes against humanity forces protection of their rights. needed to remove remaining ob- returnees to live side by side with stacles to the IDPs’ full enjoyment of perpetrators of the most serious hu- Finally, whatever the outcomes of their rights. man rights violations. forthcoming political decisions for the region, including the future Of particular concern were the Minority returnees are also dis- status of Kosovo and the continua- abysmal living conditions of the criminated against in their access to tion of the State Union of Serbia and thousands of IDPs in collective cen- employment as well as to education Montenegro, these arrangements tres or irregular settlements, which in their own language. In some locali- must not be allowed to negatively af- often lack sanitation facilities, water ties, the authorities’ provocative use fect the rights of IDPs or create new or electricity. The majority of these of national and religious symbols IDPs or stateless persons. Moreover, IDPs belong to particularly vulner- makes returnees feel at risk, unwel- negotiations on the accession to the able groups, such as the elderly, the come and discriminated against. All European Union of Croatia and of disabled, female-headed households of these factors constitute obstacles Bosnia-Herzegovina provide an op- and severely traumatised individuals. to IDPs from minority groups return- portunity to press for durable solu- There is an urgent need to find du- ing to their homes and have caused tions for returnees and IDPs. rable solutions for these people who many returnees to leave again. will not be able to return or locally Walter Kälin is Representative of integrate on their own. The interna- The Representative urged the the UN Secretary-General on the tional community should provide the responsible authorities to remedy Human Rights of Internally Dis- necessary assistance to the national the above problems as a matter of placed Persons and also Co-Director and local authorities concerned. In priority. The removal of some of of the Brookings-Bern Project. His Kosovo’s Northern Mitrovica, Roma these obstacles requires hardly any full country mission reports will be families have been living for years additional resources. For example, presented to the UN Commission in a camp adjacent to a former mine removing cumbersome adminis- on Human Rights in spring 2006, and their health has been gravely trative procedures and complex available at www.ohchr.org/eng- affected by lead poisoning. The requirements on documentation and lish/bodies/chr/sessions/62/docu- Representative appealed for their registration would enable IDPs to ments. FMR 24 Global IDP Project 73

Training on the Guiding

Principles in Aceh by Christophe Beau he Global IDP Project recently Project’s training is based, also apply population displaced by conflict in took the exceptional decision to the protection of people displaced the province. Tto extend its training support by natural disasters. Indeed, the – usually for people displaced by discussion of the Guiding Principles Participants highlighted the fact conflict and violence – to actors in- during the workshop highlighted that tsunami IDPs in conflict areas volved in the post-tsunami recovery numerous protection problems were neglected and have little access process in Aceh, Indonesia, where facing communities displaced by to humanitarian and rehabilitation some 500,000 people are reported the tsunami. Leaders of displaced programmes. Many of the security still to be living in temporary settle- communities called for a more problems in IDP settlements were ments or with host families. rapid response to their deteriorating also considered to be linked to the housing conditions with the rainy large presence of military forces in Three main reasons were behind the season approaching. Many continue the province, including in the vicinity Project’s decision to hold the two to live in tents or makeshift huts of IDP settlements. The lack of atten- workshops on the Guiding Principles while uncertainty prevails concern- tion to the needs of those displaced on Internal Displacement which took ing the recovery of lost properties. by the conflict was also highlighted, place in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh Access to sources of income and a concern which took on particular in September 2005. support for self-reliance were also significance as a peace agreement articulated as pressing needs among signed in August 2005 entered into First, the sudden and large-scale in- displaced communities. The discus- force on 15 September. Support for ternational operation in response to sion also revealed other, often more the rehabilitation of conflict areas the tsunami in Aceh created a unique hidden, concerns, such as the lack will be critical to the consolidation opportunity to disseminate interna- of security in camps, the limitations of the peace process and the inter- tional human rights and humanitari- to the freedom of movement and national community should work an standards in an area that, plagued the lack of access to public services. actively to extend its operations by violent conflict between the Displaced communities are rarely beyond the tsunami disaster. Indonesian army and the separatist kept informed about follow-up to the GAM rebel group, had been largely numerous assessments visits to their For the workshops’ report, includ- closed to international organisations. settlements. The particular vulner- ing the final recommendations The opportunity had to be seized ability of displaced women was also adopted by the participants (in without delay, as it was feared that stressed with regard to information English and Bahasa), see www.idp- the authorities would drastically and participation, security and liveli- project.org/training/reports/2005/ limit international presence in the hood. Aceh report Sept05.pdf area. The police decision initially not to authorise the workshops in The third motivation for an exten- For more information on Global March 2005 [see FMR tsunami issue, sion of the Project’s training to the IDP Project training, please contact p28] showed how fragile access for tsunami crisis was its overlap with Christophe Beau at christophe. protection-oriented activities was. the displacement crisis caused by the [email protected] conflict. Numerous IDPs have been In order to ensure longer-term displaced first by the conflict, which impact of the training workshops, forced them to move down from the The Global IDP Project is part of the participants were primarily from Norwegian Refugee Council and is an in- mountainous areas to the coast, and ternational non-profit organisation that among those permanently based in then by the tsunami, which forced monitors internal displacement caused Aceh with protection mandate and them to relocate again away from the by conflicts. The IDP Database provides capacity, including civilian authori- public information about internal dis- sea. In addition, many IDP settle- placement in 50 countries. ties, inter-governmental agencies and ments are located in conflict zones, international and local NGOs. The or in communities already hosting www.idpproject.org 65 participants demonstrated strong people displaced by the conflict. At The Global IDP Project interest in protection of IDPs and the the local level, it is the same actors, 7-9, Chemin de Balexert Guiding Principles and many left the in particular local NGOs, who work 1219 Chatelaine, Geneva. workshop with plans to continue the for the protection of both groups. In Switzerland promotion of the Guiding Principles these circumstances, it was consid- Tel: +41 22 799 0700 in their area of activity. ered that training on the Guiding Fax: +41 22 799 0701 Principles would, even indirectly, Email: [email protected] Second, the Guiding Principles on contribute to the protection of the Internal Displacement, on which the 74 Refugee Studies Centre FMR 24

Refugee Studies Centre Department of International Development Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1865 270722 Fax: +44 (0) 1865 270721 www.rsc.ox.ac.uk Email: [email protected] Another talkshop or seeds of an effective southern African IDP policy? by Graeme Rodgers seminar on internal dis- rently impact the developing world on the Human Rights of Internally placement in the Southern so profoundly. Displaced Persons, in describing A African Development Com- Zimbabwe as a “situation of massive munity (SADC) region was held in In general, participants endorsed internal displacement.”1 Gaborone, Botswana, 24-26 August the repeated suggestion that the 2005. Sponsored by UNHCR and the plight of IDPs can only be addressed I wonder to what extent the generally Brookings-Bern Project on Internal through a tightly coordinated positive sentiment of the seminar Displacement, it brought together national, sub-regional, regional and would impact the lives of the masses a wide range of actors, including international response. Participants of landless and socially marginalised representatives of southern African also emphasised the need for the post-colonial and post-apartheid governments, sub-regional, regional international community to support southern Africans. Is it realistic and international organisations, civil states and for states to grant hu- to expect southern African states society organisations, donors and manitarian access to their IDP popu- to take the bold political step of academic researchers. It yielded a lations. National governments were acknowledging their ongoing (and, challenging and thought-provoking recognised as the necessary lynchpin perhaps, historically inevitable) com- discussion, which was, understand- around which an effective response plicity in displacing (as opposed to ably, occasionally heated, given such should be organised and the support ‘resettling’) the most vulnerable sec- diversity of perspective and points of donors, regional and international tions of their constituencies? Is some of departure. But the discussion bodies was acknowledged as crucial. degree of ‘internal displacement’ an also showed promising signs of a The Guidelines on Internal Displace- inevitable cost of development in a cross-fertilisation of ideas, and the ment enjoyed widespread acceptance region like southern Africa, given beginnings of a potentially impor- and repeated endorsement. the institutional weakness of states, tant debate on the specific regional constant struggles over political dynamics of internal displacement in But despite an overall enthusiastic legitimacy and entanglement in the southern Africa. commitment to alleviating the plight strings that will always be attached of IDPs, occasional references to spe- to international support? Amongst other themes, the meet- cific cases revealed significant cracks ing explored problems related to in this apparent consensus. State From the regional perspective, the the identification of the internally representatives were quick to under- seminar has sown the seeds for a displaced, challenges in generating score their sovereign right to govern vibrant and potentially productive reliable information on the scale and the settlement of their populations, debate on the very nature of internal nature of internal displacement and when confronted with suggestions displacement. The extent to which the development of effective mecha- that specific state-sanctioned initia- these will germinate into an effective nisms, at various levels, which might tives had degenerated (or threatened set of responses will, however, de- address current crises and prevent to degenerate) into situations of pend on the ability of those involved, future ones. Predictably, countries internal displacement. They justified particularly governments, to ac- deeply affected by conflict, such as this defensive stance with reference knowledge and confront the politics the Democratic Republic of Congo, to international campaigns to dis- of internal displacement head-on. Angola and Mozambique, received credit their governments or inhibit considerable attention. Presentations their development, pursued either by Graeme Rodgers is a Research Fel- also highlighted those displaced foreign governments or international low at the Refugee Studies Centre. internally though food insecurity NGOs. Their responses exposed an Email: [email protected]. and urban renewal programmes. important, though unspoken, ten- uk However, academics and advocates sion over the politics of recognising also urged participants to think of forcibly resettled populations as ‘in- This is written in a personal capacity the problem of internal displace- ternally displaced’ or not. The stakes and does not reflect the perspectives ment more broadly and to recognise behind such diplomatic silences of the seminar’s organisers or spon- the unresolved massive ‘backlog’ are high. For example, despite the sors. The seminar report will shortly of those who have been inter- government of Zimbabwe’s refusal to be published by the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement at nally displaced through apartheid, recognise those affected by Opera- www.brook.edu/fp/projects/idp/ colonial dispossession, disastrous tion Murambatsvina as ‘internally conferences/contents.htm. post-colonial experiments in social displaced’, a number of critical Afri-

engineering and privatised forms of can voices echoed Walter Kälin, the 1. www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/ large-scale development that cur- Secretary-General’s Representative MIRA-6EU96Y?OpenDocument FMR 24 Publications 75 publications Darfur – Livelihoods under The Economic Life of In December 2004, some of the Siege Refugees music industry’s most illustrious Feinstein International Famine by Karen Jacobsen, Tufts University. artists joined the Royal Philharmonic Center, Tufts University. June 2005. June 2005. 176pp. ISBN 1-56549-204- Concert Orchestra at London’s Royal 212pp. English-Arabic publication. 8. $22.95. Albert Hall for a special concert to Online at: http://nutrition.tufts.edu/ raise funds for the victims of the pdf/research/famine/darfur_liveli- conflict in Darfur. Proceeds of sales hoods_under_seige.pdf of the newly released DVD and CD of the concert will support UNHCR’s work in Darfur and Chad. See www. unhcr.org/voicesdarfur for full details.

The Uprooted: Improving Humanitarian Responses to Forced Migration Institute of the Study of Interna- tional Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown Explores the economic life of refu- University. July 2005. 304pp. ISBN gees in protracted situations in a 0-7391-1083-7. $26.95. variety of settings: camps, urban areas and third countries in the West. Examines how some of the in- Investigates the effects of the cur- novative ideas influencing migration rent conflict and humanitarian crisis theory can be applied to the study on the livelihoods of selected com- of refugees, and how humanitarian munities in Darfur. programmes can support refugees’ efforts to pursue their livelihoods. Published by Kumarian Press: www. Catching Fire: Containing kpbooks.com. Forced Migration in a Volatile World (eds) Nicholas Van Hear & Christo- Voices for Darfur DVD & CD pher McDowell. Dec 2005. 240pp. ISBN 0-7391-1244-9. $29.95.

Presents the findings of a three-year, multi-disciplinary, international Examines the progress and short- collaborative research project on comings of the current humanitarian the causes of displacement, patterns regime. Includes policy-based recom- of flight and settlement, and the mendations to improve international, consequences of conflict resolution regional, national and local respons- and humanitarian assistance. Case es in areas including organisation, studies include Burundi, Georgia, security, funding and durability of Colombia, Timor Leste, Afghanistan response. Published by Lexington and Sri Lanka. Published by Lexing- Books: www.lexingtonbooks.com ton Books: www.lexingtonbooks.com.

Useful Sudan websites Al-Bab SPLM New Sudan United Nations Mission in Sudan www.al-bab.com/arab/countries/ http://splmtoday.com (UNMIS)

sudan.htm www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/ Sudan Embassy (US) unmis Gurtong Peace Project www.sudanembassy.org www.gurtong.com UNDP Sudan Sudan Mirror www.sd.undp.org Humanitarian Information Centre www.sudanmirror.com Darfur UN Sudan Information Gateway Sudan Tribune www.humanitarianinfo.org/darfur www.unsudanig.org www.sudantribune.com A musician plays a traditional trumpet during the inauguration ceremony of the late Dr Garang, 9 July 2005.

New ways of promoting peace in south Sudan House of Nationalities www.houseofnationalities.orwww.houseofnationalities.org outh Sudan has around 60 ethnic com- is left of traditional legitimate institutions, form for an open and public dialogue with munities and a legacy of violent con- and to rehabilitate and adapt them to the traditional leaders. Sflicts along ethnic lines. Both modern new political environment. and traditional institutions have been severe- In the absence of institutional protection, ly weakened by the civil war. Many southern Drawing on its own federalist traditions, the cultural diversity will remain vulnerable to Sudanese remain ignorant of the culture of Government of Switzerland supports the manipulation by political actors. When ne- their neighbours. To redress these problems House of Nationalities and establishment of glected or met with contempt, cultures tend a group of intellectuals came together in a forum to enable representatives of all eth- to turn defensive, aggressive and reaction- 2000 to establish the Sudan House of Na- nic communities to meet and consult each ary. In creating awareness of cultural diver- tionalities. It is dedicated to uniting southern other on a regular basis. Rehabilitation of sity, the House of Nationalities is paving the Sudanese while maintaining, and celebrating, traditional authorities is not in conflict with way for a culture of change. their ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic modernisation. In fact, through a number of diversity. It regards culture as a precious but workshops, women and youth have emerged To learn more, email: info@sudanhouseofn vulnerable asset needing respect and protec- as the most active supporters of the House ationalities.org or [email protected] tion. The initiative seeks to rescue whatever of Nationalities since it gives them a plat-

Gurtong Peace Project www.gurtong.org

he Gurtong Peace Project is an Inter- ‘Gurtong’ is derived from two words: a verb moving its sharp edges against a stone until net-based attempt to establish a south ‘gur’ and a noun ‘tong’. ‘Gur’ means ‘to grind’ blunt. TSudanese diaspora coalition for the or ‘to blunt’ and ‘tong’ means ‘spear’. ‘Gur- promotion of peace and stability among tong’ therefore means ‘to blunt the spear’ by For more information, contact Napoleon southern Sudanese abroad as well as in Su- grinding the sharp edges of the spear against Adok Gai, Coordinator, Gurtong Diaspora dan itself. The website provides a wealth of something hard until it is blunt. The words Project, Longonot Place, Hurry Thuku information on cultural, social, political, hu- and the phrase have their origins in most Road, PO Box 11756-00100, GPO, Nairobi, manitarian and development issues and aims Nilotic languages: Acholi, Jieng, Nath, Chollo, Kenya. Email: [email protected] to link members of the diaspora in a spirit of Pari and Anyuak. However, its symbolic reconciliation and love for their homeland. It meaning associated with peacemaking is contains a comprehensive database of NGOs commonly used by the Anyuak in settling and community groups, forum for exchange serious disputes among members of the eth- of divergent opinion, latest news, weblinks nic community and between themselves and and maps. Gurtong also receives Swiss gov- others. ‘Gur-tong’ to them means to perform … bringing the Southern Sudanese Diaspora together ernment assistance. a ritual in which a spear is unsharpened by www.gurtong.net

Sudan Mirror