USAID/OTI Sudan Field Report
September 2005
Program Description
The overall goal of the USAID/OTI Sudan program is to strengthen Sudanese confidence and capacity to address the causes and consequences of political marginalization, violence and instability. The Office of Transition Initiatives is pursuing this goal within the framework of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The five main objectives of the OTI Sudan program are to: promote the emergence of responsive and effective civil authorities; provide opportunities for peaceful dialogue within and among communities; promote the emergence of an active civil society; increase availability of reliable, independent information; and protect vulnerable populations from grave human rights violations and related abuses.
OTI's implementing partners are PACT, the Educational Development Center, Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), and Internews Network. PACT manages the Southern Sudan Transition Initiative, a small-grants program focused on mitigating conflict at the local level. The Education Development Center has established the Sudan Radio Service, a short-wave radio station transmitting six hours of programming daily on current events, civic education, health and culture in 10 local Sudanese languages. DAI is implementing a small-grants program that focuses on meeting critical transition needs in response to the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Government of Sudan. OTI funds Internews Network to develop media programming targeted at refugees from Darfur who have fled to eastern Chad.
Country Situation
Sudan's unity government sworn in - Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan Ahmed el-Bashir, announced a new power-sharing cabinet on Sept. 21, as called for in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. There were tense negotiations in the weeks leading up to the formation of the Government of National Unity, as the northern National Congress Party (NCP) and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) wrangled over appointments to key ministries. Of the more important ministries, including defense, energy and mining, interior and justice, most went to the NCP; only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs went to a southerner, Lam Akol. A total of 16 ministerial portfolios were allocated to the NCP and nine to the SPLM.
Southern Sudan parliament inaugurated in Juba - Southern Sudan’s new legislature was sworn in at Juba. The multi-party legislature is composed of 170 members, 127 from the SPLM and the rest from the NCP and southern opposition groups. The first order of business for the parliament was to review and ratify a post-war constitution.
Halting progress toward peace in Darfur - As preparations were being made for the Sept. 15 resumption of talks between the Sudanese government and rebel groups in Darfur, in the western part of the country, increasing lawlessness, including armed attacks on relief convoys, put humanitarian aid workers at grave risk. Shortly after the sixth round of negotiations resumed in Abuja, Nigeria, sporadic violence in Darfur and a rift between factions in the Sudanese Liberation Movement, one of the two main rebel groups in Darfur, threatened the outcome. At the end of the month, Sudanese Vice President Salva Kiir announced that the SPLM would send representatives to join the Sudanese government delegation in the talks.
Ugandan rebels step up attacks in southern Sudan - Ugandan rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) raided several villages and ambushed a school bus in southern Sudan, killing 14 people, mostly women and children. The attacks, which took place in an area between Juba and Yei, marked the first time the LRA has crossed west of the White Nile. Vice-President Salva Kiir had demanded several weeks before that LRA forces quit southern Sudan.
USAID/OTI Highlights
A. Narrative Summary
In the month after the unforeseen death of Vice President John Garang, the SPLM accelerated its move to Juba. For many within the former southern rebel movement, the burial of their leader in Juba made it necessary for the SPLM to set up a government there. The former garrison town has seen an increase in both population and the number of international organizations with headquarters there.
The Office of Transition Initiatives took part in USAID assessments in Juba, which highlighted several areas requiring immediate attention, including water, health, electricity and sanitation. Given a possible doubling of the population over the next year, support to the nascent authorities can go a long way toward sustaining confidence in the peace process. OTI’s implementing partner DAI took steps to open an office in the town, and in late September, OTI staff traveled there to meet with local authorities and identify initial program activities.
There are lingering tensions in Juba following the riots that targeted northern merchants and left dozens of people dead in the wake of Garang’s death. An OTI grant through implementing-partner PACT will facilitate a conference bringing together representatives of the merchants and Christian and Muslim religious leaders to discuss issues feeding mistrust and fear.
The devastating impact of Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army attacks is evident not only in loss of life but also in the disruption to trade and movement along the main southern supply corridor to Juba. An OTI grant to the Diocese of Torit will bring together religious and civil society leaders from areas along both sides of the border between Sudan and Uganda to strengthen social and economic ties. The group will also develop action plans for tracing abducted children and monitoring human-rights abuses. Another peace-related grant was awarded to an eastern Equatorian community organization to send a rapid-response team to restore peace and stability in Hiyala Payam after an outbreak of inter-clan conflict.
Sudan Radio Service’s senior producers attended a roundtable discussion, the third, on media in southern Sudan, which was held in Rumbek under the auspices of Norwegian People’s Aid. Laws regulating media and policy were discussed; recommendations developed will be submitted to the Government of Southern Sudan.
As part of its efforts to afford greater protection to Sudan’s vulnerable citizens, particularly amid the continuing violence in the Darfur region, OTI underwrote the costs of a three-day conference for human-rights lawyers from across the region, hosted by the Legal Aid Foundation of Geneina. The conference was a first step in building a network of lawyers in the region dedicated to seeking redress in the Sudanese courts for human-rights violations.
Another grant to the Bakheta Charitable Organization for Women’s Development and Child Care will cover the costs of computer-skills training for 15 young people whose schooling was disrupted after they were forced to flee their homes, and will provide courses in sewing and handicrafts for 60 women now widowed, all of them residing in the Kalma camp on the outskirts of Nyala in South Darfur.
B. Grants Activity Summary
| Promote emergence of responsive, effective and inclusive civil authorities. |
1 |
$10,045 |
61 |
$2,453,330 |
| Provide opportunities for peaceful dialogue within and among communities. |
4 |
$70,280 |
105 |
$2,885,639 |
| Promote the emergence of an empowered and an active civil society. |
2 |
$16,450 |
96 |
$1,525,740 |
| Increase availability of quality, independent information. |
1 |
$24,580 |
53 |
$4,435,308 |
| Protect vulnerable populations from abuse. |
0 |
0 |
4 |
$1,497,122 |
| TOTAL |
8 |
$121,355 |
319 |
$12,797,139 |
NEXT STEPS/IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES
- Putting into operation the new implementation plan.
- Travel of the OTI staff to Washington, D.C., for an annual retreat.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Victoria Rames, Sudan Program Manager, vrames@usaid.gov, 202-712-4899
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