Aid in Action

Title II Programs in Southern Sudan Continue to Face Challenges

Communities focusing on self-defense at the expense of farming activities

 | Thursday, March 29, 2007

In March 2007, Pam Fessenden (FFP/ Sudan), Jamie Fisher (FFP/D.C.) and David Rinck (FFP/East Africa) met with WFP and the PVO Title II implementing partners in Khartoum and visited their project sites across Southern Sudan to monitor the progress of Food for Peace Emergency Relief and Recovery programs underway there. Although over two years have passed since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ended Sudan’s protracted civil war, Title II programs in Southern Sudan continue to grapple with enormous challenges to achieving food security.

Following the signing of the CPA, Title II implementers expected quick returns of IDPs, and prepared themselves to support this progress. However, in fact the return process is moving very slowly due to apprehension about the availability of adequate educational and health facilities, as well as employment opportunities in former communities. Only two years old, the Government of Southern Sudan still has very limited capacity to provide the services the population requires. The FFP team learned that continuing insecurity is also a key factor hindering rehabilitation efforts.

Many Southern Sudanese have spent their entire lives outside of the country, and therefore are barely prepared for the challenges of eking out a living in this vast, remote area. FFP staff visited farmer training centers prepared by World Vision in Warrap State and by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) in Jonglei State, with Title II assistance through Food For Work, where farmers will learn about new crops and techniques for enhancing incomes and nutrition. However, despite the end of the war, the entire zone is still rife with inter-communal conflicts that undermine communities efforts at implementing the training they gain in these centers. For example, in Jonglei State the disarmament of Dinka agro-pastoralists has left them vulnerable to raids on cattle and children by their armed Murle neighbors.

Title II partners Catholic Relief Services and Norwegian People's Aid explained to the FFP team that agriculture has suffered as communities are forced to focus attention on self-defense, rather than on land preparation activities that should be getting underway. NPA staff showed the FFP team cattle that the community was forced to defend from raids, at the expense of their farming activities. In Warrap State, World Vision showed the team a Farmer Training Center that had been looted by a neighboring community that was competing for riverine resources, necessitating the temporary evacuation of staff. Likewise, in the fertile “Greenbelt” zone, especially Western Equatoria the potential breadbasket of the zone, looting by LRA troops has likewise disrupted the renewal of agricultural activities.

Despite the challenges, encouraging signs are emerging, and some are optimistic. Recent reports by the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) and a joint FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission (CFSAM) Special Report in February suggest that last year’s rainfall and pasturage conditions were good, resulting in a record cereal harvest of 6.4 million MT. Some of the optimism has reached the general population as well. In Padiet village in Duk Country community leaders told FFP staff that “all we require is training and inputs for agriculture, and within a short time we will be able to stand on our own.”