LocationsWhen does the journey end?
December 15, 2024
Arriving at a site for displaced people is often the beginning of the journey as well as the end.
At that point, families have made it out of immediate danger, often crossing battlefields to do so, but they now find themselves living in the most basic conditions, uprooted from farms and communities, sometimes separated from family members and support networks. They’re unemployed, usually with no savings and no immediate answers for questions like where to find work, where to send their children to school, or even where to feed them.
For some, the answer is humanitarian assistance - immediate cash grants and food. But Sudan is now the word's largest displacement crisis, with around 11m people forced from home, and the humanitarian appeal is only 37% funded. There will never be enough assistance available to help everyone, so it's critical that we empower Sudanese people to help themselves.
One UNDP project is doing just that by offering tools, skills, access to loans and other support to women farmers and entrepreneurs across four states, both in displacement areas and in the communities that host them. Even while the war continues, these women in Kessala, Gedaref, River Nile and Blue Nile, are using that support to grow their own food, set up their own small businesses and keep their children in school with money they earn themselves.
The project, which also provides access to solar power and aims to widen mobile networks, is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Listening comes first
Almost 6m women are girls have been displaced. They’re not all the same, and nor are their local communities, so we hold consultations everywhere we work in order to ask people what they need and what will work in their specific circumstances.
So far, the project has talked to over 3,000 women and community leaders to help design our activities.
In River Nile, many called for help to set up home gardens to grow vegetables. In Gedaref, where there is better access to land, women were more interested in learning how to turn raw farm goods into products that can be sold at higher prices in local markets. In Kassala, we were asked for equipment to bake bread and help to start small businesses.
In each case, the project listened and designed a package of support that would meet these local needs.
“I don’t have to buy vegetables from the market anymore, making it much cheaper to make healthy meals for my family.”- Mashaer Mohammed Abdalla, a woman in River Nile state who was helped to start up her own home garden.
Helping farmers improve nutrition and make extra money
The project provides women farmers with tools for preparing the land, high-quality seeds and training on "Good Agricultural Practices" that make the best use of local soils and conditions, including how to retain as much water as possible when growing plants in areas increasingly affected by climate change.
In Gala Anahal, we've distributed 12,000 kg of high-quality sorghum. In River Nile, nearly 1,000 women attended trainings on how to set up home gardens, allowing them to grow vegetables for their families and for sale in nearby markets. We also provided tools, seedlings and organic fertilisers.
In total, more than 3,000 women farmers have received some kind of support for farming.
The World Food Programme estimates that 84% of women in Sudan do not get enough to eat, so programmes that allow women to boost nutritional intake for themselves and their families are key to maintaining health. The food sold in local markets also helps bring in a little extra money for essentials - like simple medicines and school fees, helping some of the estimated 2.5 million girls who are currently missing out on an education.
“My farm is thriving. If the harvest is successful this season, I hope to earn enough to buy a cart, which will make it easier to manage the farm.”- Asia Ismail Mohmed, a mother of eight from Gedaref State, who was supported to farm sorghum.
Setting up new businesses
Many women want to make more money than they can from simple farming, so the project provides tools and training to help turn raw goods into higher value products. This might involve instruction on baking delicacies that meet local tastes (displaced women aren't selling into their home markets and tastes differ hugely across Sudan's vast area). Or it could be training how to make tea, coffee or perfumes.
In some cases, a more significant capital outlay is needed to start a business - such as ovens for baking - but women with no financial backing can't access bank loans. Instead, we help women form financial cooperatives that can pool resources and lend money to themselves. In Gedaref and River Nile states, these Village Savings and Loan Associations now make finance available for some 500 women, including IDPs.
We also provide classes on book-keeping and basic financial skills to help manage things once businesses are up and running.
Safety and solidarity for women
Even when host communities are welcoming, these are impoverished areas and conditions are basic. Toilets are scarce and can be located some distance away. At night, in the dark, this poses risks for women. It's also dangerous for children, who can cut themselves on uneven ground or be bitten by snakes.
In Gedaref, UNDP has provided solar lighting and solar torches for 20,000 displaced people at eight gathering sites, making them safer and allowing communal areas to be used more easily after dark.
In Gedaraf, Kassala and River Nile, we're setting up centres for women, equipped with meeting spaces, computers, areas for agricultural demonstration plots and solar power. These centres allow women from IDP and host communities to learn from each other collaborate on business ideas and provide space for women-led financial cooperatives and small businesses to meet.
The project has been running since December 2023. Originally scheduled to end in 2024, BMZ and GIZ have now provided additional funding to continue our work until February 2025.
In addition to expanding the support outlined above, we are also talking to local energy providers to see if we can increase mobile phone coverage in rural areas. This will make it easier and more cost effective to provide ongoing advice on farming and businesses, as well as additional training courses that can be delivered by text even to basic mobile phones.
The challenges are immense and no single project is going to meet them. In Sudan as a whole, some 26 million people are food insecure. In rural areas, this includes 97% of the communities hosting IDPs. In urban areas, research published by UNDP in November has documented the scale of damage from the war, noting drastic falls in employment, income and access to healthcare.
These are huge numbers. But interventions like this, which empower people to support themselves rather than having to rely on aid, are the most cost effective way to improve food security and help economies recover. They can be done now - and done at scale - so that communities across Sudan can kickstart the process of early recovery and make themselves better prepared for whatever comes next.
Footnotes
The Building Resilience and Stability to Support Women Working in Agriculture and Women Led/Owned Enterprises project is made possible by funding from BMZ with support from GIZ.