Former Finance Minister: Donors’ Pledges Weakly Fulfilled

Sudan Events – Report by Rehab Abdullah

The former Minister of Finance in Sudan, and senior advisor to the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Dr. Bashir Omer, acknowledged the weak percentage of actual implementation of the international community’s pledges during donor conferences for Sudan.
He said in an exclusive interview with “Sudan Events” that the implementation of pledges has hardly exceeded 30-40% in the best circumstances, pointing out that some of these countries are just making announcement of their pledges just to address the media-nothing more- seeking to win the love of the people of those countries, who often believe that what was announced would actually be implemented.
He confirmed that organizations working in the field of humanitarian aid may end up being accused by the people, without justification, of having embezzled or misused the money generously donated by the international community.
Bashir acknowledged that they know about the looting of relief and humanitarian aid originally directed to the affected and needy segments, and he considered it a common thing by totalitarian and dictatorial governments, as happened now under the current government in Sudan.
He argued that there a need to remember that international conditions in general and the performance of the global economy, wars and conflicts, the Ukraine war, the Gaza war, the Moroccan earthquake, the Pakistan earthquake, the Libyan floods, the Syrian war, the Yemen war, and others have increased the intensity of competition for the limited resources allocated by states, regional and international institutions, and voluntary organizations for relief work and humanitarian aid.
However, Dr. Bashir believes that the basic and decisive factors in obtaining a sufficient amount of aid at the level of pledges and at the level of actual withdrawals and implementation lie in the fact that the responsible official body of relief and humanitarian aid whether a ministry, commission, or other, must have staff that enjoys the highest levels of competence, honesty, transparency, prudence, and justice among the beneficiaries of the aid, and possess the ability to communicate with foreign aid officials with a degree of respect, to speak on behalf of the entire nation.
He said another precondition is that those staffers must have professional knowledge to submit requests for humanitarian aid according to the work models required by each aid donor.
Still, Dr. Bashir’s reference to talking now about relief and Sudan’s urgent need for it, particularly in the medical and food fields, has insisted that “We are a country that is supposed to produce not only the food for its people need and have a sufficient balance of food security, but to be the world’s food basket for the Arab world or even the whole world”.
He added, “Curse this war that is ongoing now, which has brought us to this state of refuge, and these days we are facing a strange situation that is about to lead to a complete famine that may strike the country.”