Mobilizing Opportunities for Peace in Sudan
The humanitarian crisis resulting from the conflict in Darfur that began in 2003 has led to forced displacement, a breakdown in security, and significantly reduced access to basic services and necessities. These sources of tension can inhibit peaceful coexistence among communities that are still grappling with the impact of the conflict.
Together with UNDP,?UNHCR, UNICEF and FAO, the PBF-funded?project helps address conflict drivers and achieve durable solutions for IDPs and refugees in East Darfur’s Assalaya-Sheiria-Yassin Triangle. The peacebuilding initiative made significant achievements towards durable solutions that has ensured the safe return of IDPs and refugees, resolved land disputes, improved natural resource management and generated livelihood opportunities.
Hawa Adam, 30, forced to flee her hometown for South Darfur as a child due to inter-communal violence is one of 117,751 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had to leave their homes due to the conflict in East Darfur. She now lives in the Um Alkhairat return area in East Darfur’s Yassin locality with her blind mother, a sick father, and six siblings.
For Hawa, the challenges of displacement have been further compounded by her unique physical mobility needs, the result of childhood polio. The disease left Hawa unable to walk, and as a result her parents were unable to register her for school. After the family fled to the Abuja IDP camp in Gereida, she remained out of school and never learned to read or write. Ten years after leaving their hometown, Hawa and her family decided to go back to Um Alkhairat during a voluntary return exercise in 2013.
The family was forced to start over, and they soon built a new home and resumed farming the land. Hawa earned money by making henna paste and painting decorative designs for other women in the village, especially for weddings and special occasions. She also began to sell saaf - handicrafts made from dried palm leaves such as bags, baskets, sleeping mats, and hats.
In mid-2021, UNHCR’s implementing partner ALIGHT, an INGO, launched an initiative to identify and support people with special mobility needs in East Darfur and selected Hawa and 12 other men and women to receive assistance.
The money Hawa received through the cash-based intervention allowed her parents to build an extra room in their house and buy goats to start a livestock business.
The benefits of projects that increase access to opportunity reverberate far beyond individual participants like Hawa. Around 105,000 community members benefitted from the building of community support projects that include police posts, water yards, schools and health facilities. Some 3,585 people – approximately 50 percent women - received awareness sessions on gender-based violence and issues such as early marriage, female genital mutilation and school enrollment, delivered by six community-based protection networks established through the project. Around 209 disputes were resolved by four community reconciliation committees, reducing the chance of escalation into violent conflict. A durable solutions locality action plan was agreed between community members and the authorities in order to address internal displacement in the three localities in East Darfur.
The project is part of the recently completed PBF-funded Darfur Programme. Comprised of five projects and the flagship of the PBF portfolio in Sudan, the Darfur Programme focused on durable solutions for displacement, rule of law, and local peacebuilding capacities to address drivers of conflict across Darfur’s five states.
