Against the odds in Darfur

A report from Mohamed Siddiq, Practical Action's team leader for reducing vulnerability in Sudan, June 2009

Mohammed Siddiq continues to co-ordinate Practical Action’s work – promoting long term, sustainable development in war torn Darfur. Like all of Practical Action’s staff in Sudan he comes from the country and is himself a Darfurian. This gives him a greater understanding of local context, but also means that when other international NGOs were asked to leave the region by the Sudanese Government, Practical Action was able to work on. Here he writes about the latest situation and its background.

The changing climate

Practical Action’s current work in Darfur focuses on increasing people’s access to a secure food supply. This is in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments, adjacent to the desert. Rainfall has always been a problem but has substantially declined over the last two decades. The most well known drought took place in 1984. Between 2000 and 2004 there were five consecutive years of drought. In this period there was no water, people lost their animals and had to move to find water. This was also the period when the war started.

Since 1990 North Darfur has had a food gap – last year in terms of total quantity this was a 45% gap. More than 455,000 people received emergency food aid. There are displaced people scattered over 12 camps in North Darfur; a quarter of the North Darfur population. Other infrastructure is also very weak – health, education and water. Water is still a huge need for the community - that can’t be emphasised enough. It has become an even bigger need because of the conflict as most water sources have been damaged or destroyed. We’ve lost most of our trees due to drought and because people desperately need wood for cooking.

In some ways it is fair to say that the underlying cause of the war is drought. Pastoralists settled in what used to be a traditional farming area, an area with water, seeking water and pasture for their animals. Before these droughts they would have been nomadic for at least seven months of each year.  At first in 2002-2003 the war was between Arab and non-Arab, and between pastoralists and farmers. Mainly it was between two main tribes. But if you go back in to the history, since Independence there have been 37 tribal conflicts in greater Darfur.

Practical Action in Darfur

“Practical Action first started working in Darfur in 1988. Initially we worked with other agencies including UNDP, Save the Children and Oxfam. By 1989 we were largely specialising in providing technical support to Oxfam projects, working in partnership. As part of this we developed approaches in promoting the participation of beneficiaries. After trials and prototypes in 1994 we developed our successful donkey plough. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s we also started our work on water harvesting, contour lines and small terraces that can be created using the plough.

In 1997 we established the Practical Action office in Darfur. I was there from the beginning, newly graduated when I joined. In 1997 the lottery-funded project – Darfur Livelihoods programme – started. This included water harvesting, animal traction and dams. This project was actually an integrated project on agricultural processing and included the seed and tool bank.

Between 1999 and 2004 food security projects represented the base of Practical Action’s work. There were more than 40 activities including disaster preparedness, community grain banks, establishing community centres, hand pumps and pottery making.

The European Union funded food security project had an excellent evaluation and we received a letter of appreciation from the EU. They viewed it as one of the most outstanding and exceptional projects of the last 20 years – even more exceptional because it was implemented in the context of war. However, on the down side, 2004 was a year of problems. Two of our vehicles were hijacked and only one recovered. Our staff member Dr. Abdul Azzim was kidnapped and held for 3 weeks.

Before 2005 we used to travel, often into areas others didn’t, we knew people and were known and therefore were relatively secure. In 2005 because of newcomers we found much more trouble. We started to reduce staff movement and to use hired vehicles. The very strong community linkages and networks we had built meant that our work was able to continue but our role changed. In 2006 the project finished after a one year extension and we struggled to keep small amounts of other work going in the region.

Between 2004 and 2010 we also worked in partnership with Kids for Kids, an agency which aims to improve the health and welfare of children in the region through building livelihood options, particularly by lending goats to poor families. The project used a combination of intiatives including the provision of water, livelihood training, animal husbandry, farming techniques and tree planting to make a big difference to the long term future of communities.

Since November 2007 access has improved and we are able to visit 80% of our field sites although when we plan a trip we have to carefully monitor the situation. Security remains unclear and there is still fighting. The SLA is fragmented into between 33 and 36 factions. 450,000 people have been displaced, about 30% of the North Darfur population but 70% are still in the villages and towns. These people have been neglected, the government do not work, the SLA has no money or interest, and the humanitarian agencies are very much confined to IDP camps. There are only a few agencies working outside of the camps and Practical Action is one of the major ones.

Plans for the future.

We are just starting an exciting new project, Greening Darfur, to rehabilitate and develop natural resources and natural resource based livelihoods in Darfur, covering 43 communities around El Fashir. Conflict and drought have severely degraded this fragile area, causing devastation for both people and the environment. As livelihoods are dependent upon these natural resources, the project will take a multi-sector approach to provide communities with access to a variety of sustainable interventions that suit their needs.

Further reading

Read more about Practical Action's work in Sudan, including:

Improved cooking stoves These simple clay stoves use one third of the amount of firewood as a traditional fire, saving time and reducing the risks to women gathering wood. Using sand and gravel to filter polluted water We are using Sudan’s sand to alleviate drought. Simple sand and gravel filters can protect traditional reservoirs from contamination and silting.

Ceramic fridges The zeer pot uses evaporation to keep food fresh in the heat of Sudan. One earthenware pot is set inside another, with a layer of wet sand in between. Animal-drawn carts A simple donkey cart allows a Sudanese farmer to transport all his produce to market in one trip, saving packing costs and journey times.

Or read about our the work of Practical Action Sudan in detail on the Practical Action Sudan website