SUDAN Q USAID MONITORING TRIP TO SOUTHERN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KHARTOUM 001814

SIPDIS

AIDAC
SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/SPG, PRM, AND ALSO PASS USAID/W
USAID FOR DCHA SUDAN TEAM, AFR/SP
NAIROBI FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA, USAID/REDSO, FAS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID PREF PGOV PHUM SOCI KAWC SU
SUBJECT: SUDAN Q USAID MONITORING TRIP TO SOUTHERN
KORDOFAN, NORTHERN KORDOFAN, AND WHITE NILE

KHARTOUM 00001814 001.2 OF 003


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Summary
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1. From July 5 to 9, three USAID Office of U.S. Foreign
Disaster Assistance (OFDA) officials traveled to the
Nuba Mountains in Southern Kordofan, El Obeid in
Northern Kordofan, and Kosti in White Nile to monitor
four projects funded by USAID/OFDA. In Southern
Kordofan, the team visited Lagawa and Dilling localities
in western Nuba Mountains to monitor International
Rescue Committee (IRC) and Save the Children/US (SC/US)
projects. In Northern Kordofan, the team observed the
construction of two water reservoirs being dug by
community labor through a program managed by CARE. In
Kosti in White Nile, the team visited an ADRA project
assisting internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning
to Southern Sudan after years of living in urban centers
in Northern Sudan. All projects were found to be well-
managed and provide important services to war and
drought-affected communities. End summary.


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Southern Kordofan: Strong Programs, but Greater Needs
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2. USAID/OFDA Division Director for Disaster Response
and Mitigation Antoinette Ferrara, USAID/Khartoum Acting
Senior Humanitarian Advisor John Marks, and
USAID/Khartoum Health Specialist Dr. Haidar abu Ahmed
traveled to the Nuba Mountains in Southern Kordofan, El
Obeid in Northern Kordofan, and Kosti in White Nile from
July 5 to 9. In Southern Kordofan, the team spent three
days visiting project sites with IRC in Lagawa and SC/US
in Dilling in the western Nuba Mountains. The team
found that both IRC and SC/US are operating strong
health, water, and community recovery programs in this
area heavily affected by the North-South war.


3. The Nuba Mountains has a special significance for
USAID because it was the key that opened the door to the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the
North-South war. During the mid and late 1990s, the
Nuba Mountains was in humanitarian crisis because the
civil war created dire needs, but the Government of
Sudan (GOS) refused to allow humanitarian assistance to
reach this area. In July 2001, at a time when the GOS-
Sudan PeopleQs Liberation Movement (SPLM) peace talks
were stalled, USAID asked both the GOS and the SPLM to
agree to a two-day military stand-down to permit one
relief flight to deliver eight tons of U.S. wheat to a
location in the SPLM zone. The parties agreed, and the
flight took place August 30, 2001. USAID then requested
a 30-day military stand-down to allow the U.N. World
Food Program (WFP) to deliver 2,000 tons of food
assistance to the entire SPLM region in the Nuba
Mountains, in parallel to a distribution already planned
for GOS areas. The parties also agreed to this, and
2,000 tons of food were delivered in November 2001. At
the same time, U.S. diplomatic leadership in the peace
process, through Special Envoy John Danforth, led to GOS
and the SPLM signing the Nuba Mountains Cease-Fire
Agreement in Switzerland in January 2002. Six months
later, the two parties signed the Machakos Protocol in
Kenya, which led directly to the CPA.


4. A second reason for the special importance of the
Nuba Mountains to USAID relates to the CPA negotiations
in 2004. When the peace talks in Kenya stalled over the
political protocol for the Nuba Mountains and Southern
Blue Nile, the international community, including the
U.S. Government (USG),urged the SPLM to compromise on
the political aspects in these two areas so that the
overall talks could move ahead. The SPLM wanted a
referendum with the option of secession for all areas
that it controlled. The GOS agreed to the referendum in
Southern Sudan and Abyei, but opposed it in Southern
Kordofan and Southern Blue Nile. The USAID
Administrator told the SPLM that USAID would give
special consideration to the people of these two areas
if the SPLM compromised. The SPLM compromised, the
peace talks moved to conclusion, and USAID remains
committed to prioritizing assistance to these two
areas.


5. The SC/US program in Southern Kordofan started in

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1994, under USAID/OFDA funding, and now covers most of
the Nuba Mountains with its western Nuba sub-office in
Dilling. IRCQs newer and smaller program started in
2002 with co-funding from USAID/OFDA, and operates in
western Nuba only from its base in Lagawa. Both
programs are building new health centers, with SC/US
doing a better job of linking to other resources, such
as the Ministry of Health for salaries and the U.N.
ChildrenQs Fund (UNICEF) for a supply of drugs. Both
programs are increasing the supply of clean water,
drilling new boreholes, and repairing broken pumps at
existing boreholes. IRC is conducting small-scale
community improvement projects, and SC/US is providing
agricultural assistance through tractor hire and the
distribution of seeds. The USAID team observed that
tractors hired by SC/US to plow and plant sorghum
allowed farmers to boost their production threefold,
from 200 to 600 kilograms for the average farmer, enough
for household needs and to sell in markets. The team
was told that the land is fertile, the rainfall
adequate, and the people hard-working. Tractor plowing
gives villagers a jump-start to get back on their feet
quickly. Many people in this war-affected region were
displaced during the war and have recently returned from
urban centers in Northern Sudan.


6. Both IRC and SC/US work in former GOS and former
SPLM areas. The USAID team observed that most
communities located in former GOS areas were less
affected by the war and were in much better condition
than villages in the SPLM zone where the war was fought.
In the SPLM zone, the infrastructure and services are
poorest, and most IDPs are returning home. The
imbalance between the two zones is stark. One village
visited by the team in the GOS zone has 12 boreholes
drilled a few years ago by UNICEF; most villages in the
SPLM zone have no boreholes. Neither NGO is working in
the parts of Julud most affected by the war, although
SC/US, under its current USAID/OFDA award, will extend
its child vaccination program to all of Julud this year.
In meetings, both in the field and in Khartoum,
USAID/OFDA advised IRC and SC/US that USAID/OFDAQs main
interest is areas of high returns. Two activities with
the greatest immediate impact in these impoverished
areas are water and agricultural recovery through
tractor hire.

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Northern Kordofan: Water Reservoirs Near El Obeid
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7. In Northern Kordofan, the USAID team observed the
construction of two rain reservoirs being dug by
community labor through a program managed by CARE. One
reservoir, funded by USAID/OFDA and the USAID Office of
Food for Peace (FFP),was recently finished; the other
is still being constructed with funding from the
European Commission. These are massive public works
projects involving hundreds of laborers from several
nearby communities who spend weeks digging and carrying
25,000 cubic meters of dirt, while concrete structures
are built at inlets and outlets. The laborers are paid
food for their work, which they need due to the poor
harvests last year. An added benefit is that the
project keeps wage earners in the villages where they
can take advantage of early rains to plant their fields.
Without this employment, most people would seek work in
urban areas.


8. At the USAID/OFDA-funded reservoir, villagers stated
that they now bring water by donkey cart from a source 5
hours away Q meaning a 10 hour trip. When the carts
return with water, all the animals in the village,
including chickens, run to it because they are so
thirsty. These reservoirs are a major improvement in
these rural communities affected by recurring drought.
Their value is reflected in the villagersQ eagerness to
do the massive hard work that is involved in digging
these reservoirs.

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Kosti Wharf on the White Nile: Assisting Returnees
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9. The final project site visited by the USAID team was
the wharf in Kosti on the White Nile River, where IDPs
from the North return to the South via barges. In

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Kosti, USAID/OFDA and USAID/FFP fund ADRA to provide
assistance to returnees waiting at the wharf to travel
South. ADRA has built a way station near the old wharf
in the center of Kosti where shelter, water, latrines,
and washing and medical facilities provide much-needed
services to returnees. ADRA also provides food
assistance and essential household items to returnees,
and coordinates with the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) to count returnees both at the wharf and
at bus stations in and around Kosti. According to ADRA,
the number of returnees passing through the Kosti
wharf/bus stations decreased from 2,100 in May 2006 to
1,152 in June 2006.


10. Traveling south by barge is dangerous because of
the extremely poor conditions on the barges. These
barges are cargo barges that lack adequate floor space,
water, latrines or washing facilities, shelter, and
passenger safety equipment. Returnees recount stories
of children sometimes falling into the river and
drowning. People are willing to make this difficult
journey, and even rush to get on board when a barge
convoy departs, because this is the cheapest transport
option. Flying by air is unaffordable, and people can
take all their possessions on the barges. There is no
reliable road transportation through to Juba. In Kosti,
returnees sometimes wait months for barges making the
journey to Juba. On the barges, ADRA provides minimal
protection services to children, and Fellowship for
African Relief provides some water and minimal medical
services, both funded by UNICEF.


11. The U.N. is not willing to get directly involved in
this passenger movement because it is so far below
international standards. The U.N. is prioritizing
assistance to other theaters of IDP returns: Juba to
Bor on the Nile and Darfur to Bahr el Ghazal by road.
IOM has renovated two passenger barges that are now in
use on the Juba to Bor route. Travel by barge, managed
by the parastatal River Transport Corporation, is likely
to improve soon. The Government of Germany has funded
the renovation of 16 pushers (tug boats),and the first
two of these boats should be ready in weeks. The
Government of the Netherlands is funding the
construction of 50 new barges to be based in Kosti, and
10 should be ready before the end of the year.

STEINFELD