In Sudan’s South Kordofan, a history of conflict and underdevelopment means access to basic services is limited. While hostilities have ended, armed group SPLM-N (al-Hilu) retain control over several surrounding areas, with access limitations But, UNDP-supported community development in El Abbasiya – in Government-controlled territory – is creating opportunities for cross-border collaboration, and living condition improvements on both sides Community efforts have seen water access improved for 13,500 people in the area, and access to energy expanded for several communities   “The people here need training and opportunities, youth are energetic but need development projects. As the saying goes: ‘Don’t give me a fish but teach me how to fish’. We prefer development projects over humanitarian assistance because the latter make people dependent.” - Mamoun Salih Babiker, 27, community leader and local development project manager At 27, State Ministry of Health and Social Welfare worker Mamoun Salih Babiker (above left) is passionate about creating opportunities and driving development in his community, addressing the significant needs that exist.     Improvements to limited services are being made – driven by a determined group of young people making up Al Abassiya’s Community Management Committee (above). Describing the situation, Mamoun is frank: “There are opportunities in our area, like agriculture and business, but people need support. As a committee we work to help people. Our parents paid for our education, they need our help now, we are paying back less than they gave us.” Mamoun leads the six-strong committee, one of 68 across Sudan, driving local development and peacebuilding initiatives. They draw on UNDP-provided management and mediation training, as well as agricultural machinery and supplies, including a generator. Uniquely, this committee includes representatives from Al Abassiya – and SPLM-N (al-Hilu) – with both sides using the partnership to improve basic services, and relations between the two areas. “We had existing water pumps in the village, but they had broken down, and increasing gasoline prices meant there was no fuel for the generator and pump and no revenue to cover these expenses,” explains Mamoun. “We offered to solve the problem.” “We raised funds by renting out our tractor and accessories, had the pump fixed by local experts, and kept the tap free for people who couldn’t pay.” “A barrel of water costs money – about 500SDGs – and some people cannot afford this. With the pump providing free water, people are able to use it for drinking water, home use and agriculture, and put that money towards other things.”     The committee also adopted a creative approach to helping young people and others on both sides of the disputed area. Discussing energy access needs in his area, 26-year-old committee member and SPLM-N liaison Abdelbaqi Ahmed Abdelrahim (top image, right) says: “The community has some needs, so we made the generator available to them [in SPLM-N (al-Hilu) areas], they can borrow it for events or to rent out if they need financial support.” The committee decided to make the generator available free of charge, particularly for vulnerable groups like internally displaced people, to those in the SPLM-N (al-Hilu) areas who required it. “The generator helps hundreds of people, anyone can ask for it, it moves back and forth a lot as needed, particularly for the wedding season in December.” Originally from a nearby village, but now relocated to El Abbasiya, Abdelbaqi joined SPLM-N (al-Hilu) while studying at university. He felt compelled to support the committee as, “I stand by the community and youth – I believe in any project that will add value.” Members of El Abbasiya’s Community Management Committee include: Mamoun Salih Babiker (Chairperson, 27), Abdelbaqi Ahmed Abdelrahim (26), Tarig Ahmed Adam, Hassan Mohamed Ebed, Najda Ali Adam (29, head of peacebuilding subcommittee), and Mona Adam Alamin.   Peace and stability are essential for development in Sudan. That makes them UNDP’s top priority. Our approach provides support on the national, state and local levels, combining efforts to address conflicts and their root causes. We aim to improve access to basic services, employment opportunities and fulfilment of essential needs for people all over the country. Additionally, we implement peacebuilding initiatives and provide conflict mediation to address problems when they occur. In 2021, UNDP supported over 1.5 million of Sudan’s most conflict-vulnerable people through stabilization projects.

The killing of protestors by security services during large-scale demonstrations in Sudan’s capital Khartoum in June underscores the ongoing political tensions in the country. Against this backdrop, the UN is committed to sustain and build peace in Sudan, say UN Resident Coordinator Khardiata Lo Ndiaye, and Elizabeth Spehar, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support. “The military coup of 25 October 2021 plunged Sudan into a political crisis with profound implications for the country’s development and peacebuilding prospects. It also presented donors with a difficult question: how do we uphold our commitment to supporting Sudan’s most vulnerable without legitimizing an unconstitutional change? While political crises clearly present challenges for international donors, the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) is working to respond to such crises in a targeted and strategic way to ensure that essential support continues to reach those who need it most. Peacebuilding projects expand Against a backdrop of political tensions, inter-communal conflicts, large-scale displacement, economic crises, deepening inequalities, rising unemployment, devastating floods and popular protests for democratic reforms, the PBF has remained active in Sudan.  The PBF has the advantage of being an agile, adaptable and demand driven fund, enabling it to provide desperately needed funding even in high-risk environments like Sudan. Since the coup, the PBF's active portfolio and project pipeline has grown to cover twelve states, demonstrating that when crises strike, its commitment does not falter - it strengthens. Alongside other projects – including its flagship programme which works to strengthen the rule of law and support local peacebuilding across the five Darfur states – the PBF added six new projects to the portfolio in 2021, with four more in the pipeline.  These pipeline projects include a new initiative in the disputed territory of Abyei and a USD 10 million investment in East Sudan, both of which adopt an area-based approach to stabilizing conflict-affected communities and enhancing their resilience to future crisis.  Based on an assessment of conflict hotspots and key conflict drivers for each area, the projects leverage the expertise of four UN agencies - UNICEF, UNDP, IOM and FAO to help restore access to basic services, including water and sanitation, roll out livelihoods support and job creation schemes, and strengthen community-level conflict resolution and natural resource management bodies. Empowering local communities So how do we navigate the complex political landscape to ensure support reaches those who need it most?  Part of the answer lies in the PBF’s community-based approach, which empowers local communities, promotes inclusive participation and strengthens the capacities of local governance and other community structures. In addition, this approach helps to improve relationships between different actors; fosters local ownership; directs funding to community-based organizations by expanding partnerships with CSOs; and foregrounds women and youth as agents of peaceful change and inclusive development. With Sudan’s peacebuilding trajectory remaining fragile and uncertain, support from the international community - at the right time and in a targeted way - is critical. The question, then, is not whether development and peacebuilding partners should remain engaged, but how to remain engaged. Through its investments, the PBF is empowering local stakeholders to respond to the rapidly evolving situation on the ground in Sudan and ensuring relevant and reliable support to those who need it most”.  

Reem Abbas Despite several challenges this year, the UNICEF-led school enrolment campaign for children has been very successful in Gedarif State, in eastern Sudan. The campaign was also an opportunity for UNICEF and Ministry of Education to mobilize the communities to send and keep children in schools.  “We engaged all communities, neighbourhood-based communities, women committees and community leaders. And they helped us tremendously with the registration process," says Yahya Adam, a coordinator from the Ministry of Education and Guidance in Gedarif State, who was part of the team that worked on the school enrollment campaign.  But a successful enrolment campaign can also be a burden, as the large number of registered children must be absorbed into the school system. Communities across the state are stepping up to be part of the solution, with some opening Alternative Learning Programme (ALP) classrooms through fundraising with UNICEF to provide learning supplies, training of teachers and learners textbooks.  Improving access to quality education and protection for out-of-school children with a focus on girls  Since 2018, UNICEF has worked with the Federal Ministry of General Education to implement its Education Sector Strategic Plan (2018–2023) towards achieving education for all and realizing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4 and 5. This specific project – Improving access to quality education and protection for out-of-school children with a focus on girls – aims to increase access to learning and life skill opportunities and realize the protection for at least 16,000 children aged 6 to 14 in Eastern Sudan.  The project targets sixty disadvantaged communities across all three states of Eastern Sudan, Kassala, Red Sea and Gedarif, considering their low school enrolment and high dropout rates.  The project has so far targeted 30 schools with functioning ALP centres in some of the most vulnerable communities, using a whole child approach. This approach leverages UNICEF experience across different programmes to provide children and their communities with integrated services across education, water and sanitation and child protection.    Ninety (90) ALP facilitators were trained on ALP curriculum delivery and another 40 teachers on child-centred teaching methodologies. The trainings built the capacity of participants in classroom management, COVID-19 safety and prevention measures for children and participatory teaching methodologies.    The ALP is an alternative venue of learning for children and adolescents who missed the opportunity to join schooling or have left the official school system at some point, including children affected by emergencies and conflict.  Sudan has increased the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for basic education from 71.1 to 73.5 per cent between 2009 and 2018, with UNICEF and partners increasing efforts to achieve and sustain Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Education for All (EFA).  “The GER in basic education has been stagnant around 73% for several years due to structural issues in Sudan.The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing economic crisis have made progress difficult, but we understand the challenges and design the programmes factoring them in,” said Abdel Rahman El Rehiema El Dood, an Education Specialist at UNICEF Sudan.   The project is designed to get children into school or ALP and keep them learning. This is achieved through several ways.  “We invest in the school environment, community empowerment and in training teachers to make the school a better learning environment. We also invest in students by providing them with education supplies and school uniforms,” said Abdel Rahman.  Education supplies are crucial to lessening the burden of families facing a deteriorating economic situation. In addition to education supplies, UNICEF works with the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide nutritious meals for students.  In Eastern Sudan, the number of students starts decreasing from upper grades of 6,7 and 8, as boys drop out to support their families through employment and girls due to child marriage.  The project addresses these barriers impacting girls by raising awareness on the importance of education and advocating against child marriage through school activities.   “Engaging directly with the community is important because it gives us data on child marriage and this allows us to tailor our interventions to be specific to their challenges,” says Yahya.  Through this project, UNICEF reached 6,000 children in Eastern Sudan with essential supplies. UNICEF has so far provided 300 education kits to students and 60 kits to teachers as well as 60 recreation kits and 3,000 school uniforms. This in addition to 1,750 dignity kits which includes buckets, soap and menstrual hygiene management items including multi-purpose cloth and pads, for girls. Changed with below.  Through this project, 2,681 out of school children (54% girls) were enabled to access education in schools and ALP.  By the end of the two-year project, 16,000 vulnerable out-of-school children in Gedaref, Kassala, and Red Sea states, especially girls, will have increased access to quality education and life skill opportunities in child-friendly, protective environments in regular basic schools and ALP centres.  The improving access to quality education and protection for out-of-school children with a focus on girls project is only possible thanks to a generous contribution from the Government of Canada.  

Khartoum Abdulrahman Al Duma spent much of November harvesting sesame and peanuts on her farm in the Darfur region in Sudan. In Darfur, land can be hard to sow, parts are semi-arid and prone to droughts, which are becoming worse amid the climate crisis. The region has been beset by conflict for the past two decades, compounding the challenges for its inhabitants. But Al Duma's crop turned out to be a bumper one. That's thanks in part to training she received under an initiative led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Called the Wadi El Ku Catchment Management Project, it trained Al Duma and dozens of other women on how to harvest, store and market their produce. For women in the region, many of whom have been widowed due to the conflict, peanuts and sesame flowers are an important source of income. We believe knowledge is our weapon to fight climate change. Mariam Abubakr, Wadi El Ku project team "After selling our products and getting the money we have many things to do, including sending our children to school and starting a small business," said Al Duma. The training she received was part of a larger UNEP effort to create economic opportunities in Darfur, especially for women, and to help the region cope with a fast-changing climate. Perched on the southern reaches of the Sahara Desert, in a region known as the Sahel, Darfur has seen rainfall dwindle in recent years. The Wadi El Ku project, which is concentrated in a river valley near the city of El Fasher, has also supported the construction of weirs to conserve and regulate rainwater. In existence since 2014, the project has won plaudits for supporting local livelihoods and reducing conflict between nomadic livestock herders and farmers. "Women are able to make a difference in several fields, including agriculture. But they need support and empowerment," said Mariam Abubakr, part of the Wadi El Ku project team. "We believe knowledge is our weapon to fight climate change and harvesting season proves that. I'm glad to see these women reap the fruits of their effort." In 2020, more than 60,000 native seedlings were planted in the region to act as a buffer against the desert. Project teams also helped residents build weirs, or low dams, to conserve rainwater and protect against flooding. More recently, teams worked in the villages of Ed-Elbaida, Bahr-Omdurman, Sag-Elnaam, Wad-Kuta and Wada to train women in modern farming techniques. The women are working a 30-acre plot of land donated by local sheikhs. The project helped get the farms up and running, preparing land, providing ploughs, and donating groundnut, sesame and sorghum seeds. That support helped the women-led farms weather a dry growing season better than many in their area. "We have acquired new agricultural skills and practices through the season, and we are committed to train other women during the next season," said Abdelrahman The Wadi El Ku Catchment Management Project is funded by the European Union and implemented by UNEP in partnership with the Government of Sudan and the non-governmental organization Practical Action.