Prospects for Peace and Stability in Darfur

I come from a country that has been facing internal war for more than half a century. And I am part of a generation branded as “children of conflict”. I try not to forget those times now that I am a Project Officer at the British Embassy Khartoum in charge of delivering “Conflict Prevention Programmes”. Having once been at the receiving end of these programmes, I recognise the importance and value of ensuring that beneficiaries and other national stakeholders fully understand the meaning and purpose of conflict prevention activities.

I was thinking about this last week whilst flying towards Nyala to visit some projects which the UK and other donors have financed through the Darfur Community Peace and Stability Fund (DCPSF). The DCPSF is a programme which sits within our wider UK objective to contribute to an end to conflict within Sudan and it aims to restore trust and confidence between communities at risk.

As this was my first visit to Darfur, I was very excited to share face to face the inputs and thoughts from the communities about the project. I wanted also to ensure that the messages that we delivered to the beneficiaries would allow them to understand that these were, foremost, their projects. My first lesson on this side was that being able to understand and respond to Sudanese greetings, or just sharing information about our own children, was a warm way of encouraging community leaders to share their views. Also being able to understand some of the subtleties of language gave me an insight into community dynamics and how best to engage and facilitate change.

As conversations about the project activities began I was surprised to see how community interpretation of conflict prevention was even more insightful than I expected. For example, building a school may be traditionally associated with development more than with conflict prevention. Nonetheless the male and female community leaders explained how the school they had built had become the main area for nomads and farmers of all ages to meet, for the young children to be raised together, and to have a space where community gatherings could happen.

School parent gatherings may not be the ultimate way in which conflicts are solved, but it is a start. Reaching agreements about school times, sharing school duties with children of other backgrounds and tribes, or sharing responsibilities as parents, helps to create an environment where community leaders, mothers, fathers and young people get adjusted to living together. As donors, we may wish to see that participation, documentation and engagement is consolidated in other ways, and that more is done to empower women, but in the end those mechanisms are the mechanisms which communities have found and our mission is to strengthen them, so they lead to a more inclusive society.

The DCPSF is an effective and efficient mechanism for addressing these conflict-related challenges. The fund is managed by UNDP who also provide the technical secretariat. Leveraging financing from multiple donors, the DCPSF scales up the support that can be offered to communities while reducing administrative burdens for donors. Since the DCPSF began in 2008, $65 million has been disbursed to stabilise communities, restore trust and confidence between them, and pave the way for early recovery.

Dozens of projects have been financed in this way across all five state of Darfur and hundreds of community-based conflict resolution mechanisms (CBRMs) and peace committees have been established to tackle disputes over water, pasture, migration routes, livelihoods and so forth. Currently some 178,000 people are reached by DCPSF supported activities.

But, as always, challenges remain. There is still a lot that needs to be done to create a link between these conflict resolution mechanisms at the community level with the wider and higher peace fora. As communities struggle to create and sustain mechanisms for dialogue and peaceful coexistence between themselves, a way must also be found to enable all sides to be represented in over-arching national dialogue and peace processes.

An additional challenge is improving women’s and youth participation in CBRMs and livelihood activities and improving trust between communities and implementers working in the most sensitive areas. On the plus side, this is an area where support from state governments is highly appreciated, and so far has been positive. This may also be an area for innovative ideas. So … any ideas? Participation and creativity are always necessary first steps towards conflict prevention!