Searching for peace and prosperity
Sudan, once the biggest and one of the most geographically diverse nations in Africa, split into two countries in July 2011 after the people of the south voted for independence. Before this, and after, Sudan has been beset by conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and millions more have lost their homes and livelihoods.
Hard climate conditions and the mismanagement of natural resources contribute to poverty in Sudan. Malnutrition amongst children is widespread, thus only half the country’s children are in school. Most people are reliant on their farming for their livelihoods, despite the fact that Sudan is one of the most fertile lands in Africa, yet the productivity is low due to rain scarcity, absence of proper irrigation methods, and a lack of knowledge..
Our Sudan HQ is in the country’s capital, Khartoum. From this central position we’re well-placed to work with communities in isolated rural areas across the country. We have field offices in the western Darfur region, the eastern region (Kassala) and the southern region (Blue Nile).
Sudan has the largest number of internally displaced people in the world. A challenging situation that requires a holistic solution.
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Energy that transforms
Over 90% of households in North Darfur, Sudan, depend on firewood and charcoal for cooking. They cook on inefficient stoves or stone fires. We’re introducing cleaner fuels, which is freeing up the time of women and girls, improving people’s health and reducing the burden on the environment. Read more…
Many women in rural Sudan spend hours every day collecting firewood to use for fuel. They then have to cook with this wood, breathing in toxic fumes that are dangerous to their health. The girls in the family often have to help with the wood collection. Their education suffers because they have less time for school and there are no reliable light sources for them to study by later in the day.
The clean cook stoves and briquettes we’re helping to introduce are changing lives. These stoves use less fuel and produce less dangerous smoke. They mean that women are freed from spending half their day collecting wood and can use their time more productively in the home and in business. And the whole family is healthier now that the air is clean and smoke-free.
We’re also supporting entrepreneurs, many of them women, to set up new businesses that support our projects. These include making and selling clean cook stoves and clean fuel briquettes. We’re helping these entrepreneurs get hold of funding to kick-start their new businesses and giving them training in basic business skills, such as budgeting and marketing. In this way, our work is helping advance the local economy, as well as benefiting individuals and the environment.
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Farming that works
About 85% of poor people in Sudan depend on either agriculture or animal husbandry or both. Recurrent drought and flash floods can cause food insecurity for many farmers and pastoralists and their families in Sudan. Limited natural resources also contribute and can lead to conflict at a local level. We’re helping farmers adapt to the new climate reality and improving their resilience. Read more…
Few of Sudan’s farmers have alternative livelihood skills to rely on during bad harvests. Traditional coping mechanisms such as reducing the number of meals eaten in a day, over-grazing and over-cultivation can be harmful to the families and to the environment. The changing climate makes people even more vulnerable. Farmers struggle to cope in the face of severe droughts and other extreme weather events.
We’ve implemented solutions that combine traditional agriculture practices with advances in technology and science. We use innovative approaches that maximise harvests while protecting the soil and other natural resources. This approach is often referred to as ‘agroecology’.
Our work has enabled people to use renewable energy and data about the weather. This allows them to cope better with the changing climate and improve their resilience to droughts and floods.
In the next year, we’ll help make 50,000 farmers and pastoralists more productive. We’ll share our knowledge with local and national Government so that our solutions can have the greatest possible impact.
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Cities fit for people
With limited waste management services in Sudan’s cities and suburbs, disease is rife. Current waste disposal practices include open burning, which has negative consequences on health and the environment. Our holistic, community-focused approach to improving sanitation and waste disposal makes sure that the city’s most vulnerable people benefit. Read more…
Clean drinking water, proper sanitation and adequate sewage disposal are basic human needs. But many millions of Sudanese people still find themselves without these things. In urban slums, lack of household sanitation is a particular issue for women. Pollution and inadequate handwashing facilities make transmission of water-borne diseases such as cholera more likely.
This year, we continued our work with partners in Sudan to get drinking water, sanitation and waste services to people living in slums and other poor urban areas. We focused our efforts on delivering safely-managed sanitation and water, and on improving hygiene behaviour. We encouraged decision-makers to plan and budget for waste management in a way that’s more inclusive of informal waste workers and delivers a better service.
We hope to reach about 160,000 people in North Darfur through a planned approach to sanitation, hygiene promotion and clean water. We’ll collaborate with seven local partners to achieve this transformation by 2021.
Recognition
In partnership with the UN Environment Program, we won the UNCCD’s Land for Life Award in 2017. The winning project saw us work with communities to transform huge swathes of desert into farmland in one of the most challenging environments on Earth.
Funding Partners
Funding partners for our work in Sudan include:
- Department for International Development – UK
- United Nations Development Programme
- European Union
- EcoAct (formerly Carbon Clear)
- USAID
- Swedish Postcode Foundation
Our Local Implementing Partners are listed below:
- Practical Action Kassala office working with main three partners:
- Sudan Vision Organization (SVO)
- Sudanese Organization for Research and Development (SORD)
- Kassala Women Association Development Network (KWDAN)
Practical Action Darfur office partners
- UN Environment Programme
- Rural Development Network (RDN)
- Voluntary Network for Rural Helping and Development (VNRHD)
- Women Development Association Network (WDAN)
- SOS Sahel Sudan.
Spotlight
Darfur, Water Resource Management
This project facilitates working with local governments, technical departments and the communities affected by drought, enabling us to put a series of initiatives in place to provide enough clean water for everyone - establishing an effective Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) system to protect the supply for the future.
Read the full storyPostal address: Practical Action, PO Box 4172, Khartoum 1114, Sudan
Registered office and street address : House #91, Block 71,
Al-Mamoura – Khartoum South
(East Siteen Street & North Madani Street)
Telephone: +249-155662474
+249-155661959
Fax: +249-183-472002
e-mail: info@practicalactionsd.org
Website: www.practicalaction.org/sudan