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SUDAN
>> AFR Regional Overview >> Sudan Overview
Development Challenge Summary Tables
Program Summary
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Introduction
For the past 18 years Sudan has been embroiled in a complicated civil war that has directly and indirectly caused massive destruction and loss of life. An estimated two million Sudanese have died of war-related injuries, disease or starvation. Compounded by frequent droughts, the war has created a long-term humanitarian crisis, requiring enormous amounts of humanitarian assistance from the international community. The United States alone has provided $1.2 billion in humanitarian assistance over the past ten years. Attempts to negotiate an end to the civil war between the North and the South of Sudan are hindered by the fact that the Government of Sudan (GOS) is known both for the human rights violations inflicted on its own populations and for its support for international terrorism.
Sudan has the potential either to further destabilize the Horn of Africa or to serve as an important platform for growth in the region. An end to the problems presented by Sudan are key to U.S. interests in the region. Conclusion of the civil war and an end to their human rights violations and support for terrorism would be significant contributions to international stability in this important but volatile part of the world. Importantly as well, it would mean a reduction in the need for the massive amounts of humanitarian assistance that are annually provided by the U.S. and other donors.
In spite of the civil war, its support for terrorism and continued human rights violations, the GOS has made progress in the past year in rehabilitating its international image. As one of the newest and fastest growing oil producers, Sudan has recently become commercially important to Canada and a number of Asian and European countries and its economy is now growing rapidly. It is a member of several important regional organizations, including the Arab League, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Common Market of East and Southern Africa (COMESA).
In the absence of an end to the Sudanese civil war, gross human rights violations and support of terrorism, the USG continues to provide humanitarian assistance to war-affected populations throughout Sudan. Further, in the southern and eastern regions of the country (those areas outside the control of the GOS), USAID is providing coordinated humanitarian and developmental assistance that focuses on building local capacities for self-reliance in conflict reduction, food security and primary health care.
Until this year, all Development Assistance (DA) funds for Sudan were requested through and notified under the Strategic Objective for the Greater Horn of Africa Initiative (GHAI) in the strategy for the Regional Economic Development Services Office for East and Southern Africa (REDSO/ESA). The results sought and reported were not specific to Sudan. This year, USAID is requesting funds for and notifying the Sudan program separately from the broader GHAI and the REDSO/ESA strategy. With this change, it will become easier to understand and track what USAID implements and proposes to fund with DA in Sudan. In this transition year, however, Sudan-specific performance measures and targets are still being finalized for the Sudan-specific objectives.
The Development Challenge
Conflict and related human rights abuses are the primary development challenges for USAID in southern and eastern Sudan. These problems create not only a situation of continuous humanitarian need but also seriously complicate USAID efforts to provide assistance. Further exacerbating these efforts are conditions that make the logistics of assistance delivery both difficult and costly: the vast territory over which assistance must be provided; grossly insufficient infrastructure; and the enormous physical challenges-everything from swamp to desert-like conditions.
Sudanese institutions in areas outside of GOS control (southern and eastern Sudan) lack the ability to manage relief, rehabilitation, development and/or economic growth. This is the combined result of historical underdevelopment in southern Sudan and the lack of education, investment and ability to focus on development that are the result of 18 years of war. Further, the civil war has meant a near-total disruption of health care services in areas outside of GOS control. Polio, malaria, Guinea worm, river blindness and other diseases are prevalent. HIV/AIDS is a significant threat to all of Sudan, whether in GOS-controlled areas or opposition-held areas in the south and east.
One important component of USAID activities is the focus on improving local management capabilities in opposition-held areas of Sudan. These USAID efforts improve both local conflict-reduction and governance abilities, and economic rehabilitation and growth opportunities. USAID also addresses the rehabilitation of local health, education and rule of law facilities and services, but could also do significantly more to improve and expand on these current efforts. Within the constraints imposed by varying levels of insecurity in southern and eastern Sudan, USAID is able to support and encourage local development. USAID's successes are demonstrating to Sudanese and other donors that activities to improve the self-reliance of the Sudanese people and improve their livelihoods can work even under very adverse conditions.
With greater stability, USAID can do significantly more to expand economic growth, including increasing and improving market links within Sudan and with neighboring countries. In addition to its oil and Nile water resources, Sudan has significant potential for agricultural growth. Irrigated and rain-fed mechanized agricultural schemes in northern Sudan already regularly produce surplus cereal crops for export. In the south, there is significant potential for agro-forestry growth as well as increased food crop and livestock productivity, for domestic consumption and export. With a peaceful resolution to the civil war, local control over resources, and oil revenues invested productively in the agricultural sector and related infrastructure, the country as a whole could serve as a regional engine of economic growth.
Other Donors
Sudan receives substantial assistance, primarily humanitarian, from a variety of sources. Despite international frustration over the continuing civil war, both multilateral and bilateral donors contribute tens of millions of dollars to Sudan annually. In terms of humanitarian assistance, there are two key distinctions that need to be kept in mind. The first is a distinction between humanitarian assistance provided to drought-affected populations and that provided to civilian war-affected populations. The second distinction to keep in mind is that between the assistance provided to people in GOS-controlled areas of the country and the assistance provided to the people in the opposition-controlled areas of the south and east. The U.S. for example, provides only humanitarian assistance in GOS-controlled areas but both development and humanitarian assistance in opposition-controlled areas.
Most humanitarian assistance is provided through Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), which was established in 1989 in response to conflict-related famine. OLS is a tripartite agreement of negotiated access made between the GOS, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) (a main opposition group), and the United Nations (UN). Under this framework, a consortium of UN agencies, including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and more than 40 international and indigenous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provide emergency relief and rehabilitation assistance in both the north (operated out of Khartoum) and the south (operated out of Nairobi and Lokichoggio, Kenya, from operational bases in northern Uganda using road access, and within opposition-controlled southern Sudan). Some NGOs choose not to participate in OLS for greater operational independence (including the ability to work in areas of Sudan not included in the OLS agreement); major non-OLS organizations include Norwegian People's Aid, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Christian Aid, several U.S. faith-based NGOs, and a consortium of Lutheran World Federation, Caritas, and other ecumenical European church groups. In FY 2001, the World Food Program, through OLS, will be providing significant amounts of drought-related food in both the north and south.
In the southern and eastern areas, those outside the control of the GOS, the United States is the only major donor providing development assistance. In the northern areas controlled by the GOS, the European Union and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development are key development donors. In addition, several international oil companies, such as the Canadian firm Talisman, are attempting to provide some elements of "development" assistance. This assistance is limited to areas around the oil fields and is considered an effort to improve many of the negative images associated with these oil companies' activities in Sudan, such as civilian bombing and de-population of broad expanses of potential oil-rich areas of the country by the GOS.
FY 2002 Program
Despite the continuing insecurity, USAID will continue and expand its activities in southern and eastern Sudan with expected resources of DA ($4,500,000) and CSD ($500,000) for FY2002. Activities fall into three broad categories (conflict reduction, food security, and health) which are funded with a combination of Development Assistance (DA), Child Survival and Disease (CSD) and humanitarian assistance. The development assistance-funded activities currently account for less than 10% of total USAID assistance to Sudan. It should be noted that these development assistance activities are better known collectively as the "STAR" (Sudan Transition Assistance and Rehabilitation) program, although they are funded under three separate Strategic Objectives. According to the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Response (BHR) (which coordinates all USG humanitarian assistance to Sudan), based on continuing needs and the on-going civil war, humanitarian assistance levels are not expected to decline and indeed may increase in the event, for example, of protracted drought. As reported in more detail in the BHR Congressional Budget Justification, humanitarian assistance activities in Sudan include provision of shelter, food, water, sanitation, road construction for targeted populations requiring food, animal health services, and public health services.
In order to help the Sudanese to prevent, mitigate or resolve conflict, USAID will continue to focus on developing local capacities for peace-building, for good governance at the local level (non-GOS), and for increased access to information, education and communication. The program works primarily through local communities to support grass-roots decision-making and abilities to resolve conflict, for example, through improved local justice systems. Training is provided to regional and local authorities in civil administration to support more systematic and predictable civil society decision-making.
Enhanced food security is addressed through greater reliance on local resources. Emphasis is placed on increasing local production of food, increased use of markets and trade in meeting local needs, and targeting humanitarian food aid to the most vulnerable populations. Grants to local communities for income-generating and food production activities have helped boost self-sufficiency in selected, stable areas. With additional funding, these activities will be expanded (for example, to geographic areas not currently covered, such as Upper Nile). In addition, USAID will explore the possibility of repairing physical infrastructures, particularly market roads, that will support and encourage expanded trade and market access throughout southern Sudan.
Primary health care is also enhanced through greater reliance on local capacities. USAID supports improved and expanded delivery of services and increased Sudanese participation in health care delivery. Health care delivery to date has been largely humanitarian in nature, e.g., vaccination campaigns; USAID will increasingly address more developmental aspects of health care delivery, e.g., the rehabilitation of permanent health clinics and services in stable areas.
Activity Data Sheets
- 650-001, Enhanced Environment for Conflict Reduction
- 650-002, Enhanced Food Security through Greater Reliance on Local Resources
- 650-003, Enhanced Primary Health Care Through Greater Reliance on Local Capacities
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Last Updated on: May 29, 2002 |
