The Returns on Aid Money to Sudan Must Be Increased

Abdallah Al Dardari

After two years of war, Sudan remains home to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. 25 million people are struggling to get enough nutrition, and more than 12 million have been displaced from their homes. Every Sudanese has a horror story to tell, either their own or that of a family member or a friend.

This situation in Sudan is perilous; food supplies are dwindling and health facilities are closing. While some families had depended on emergency kitchens providing basic meals to feed their children until last week, today they find the doors of those kitchens closed. Even the few local clinics that remain open (nearly 75 percent of health facilities are out of service) are being held back by severe shortages of essential medicines used to treat serious but curable diseases, such as tuberculosis and diarrhea.

Accordingly, we must urgently find ways to ease this suffering by making the most of humanitarian aid. This includes helping the Sudanese people help themselves beyond aid and using humanitarian funding to strengthen and expand the private sector’s role in responding to the crisis.

These two points were at the top of the list of civil society and business leaders’ demands during my recent visit to Sudan. Their words echoed the thoughts that crossed my mind when war broke out in my own country, Syria, around fifteen years ago. Like the Sudanese, and like everyone in similar circumstances, we did not want to live off aid. What we wanted was to safeguard our capacity to support ourselves, which we saw as the best way to prepare for the “day after” the war.

Today, the military situation on the ground in Sudan remains volatile. In many areas, however, we are seeing some improvements in security. We are starting to see people return to their homes- crammed into small buses, carrying their belongings across hundreds of kilometers brimming with destruction.

More often than not, it is women who lead the journey back home. In Sudan, as in most countries plagued by conflict, women have borne the brunt of war. The journey, under such circumstances, often inspires both anxiety and hope. Those returning wonder: What’s left of my home and my farm? Was my shop looted? Were my tools stolen? To many, the joy of return clashes with cruel realities: empty shelves and the struggle to resume their lives without tools, seeds, or goods.

Nonetheless, farmers could be empowered to reclaim their livelihoods relatively easily. The provision of basic tools, drought-resistant seeds, and cost-effective solutions like solar-powered water pumps could allow them to cultivate their land again and work despite power outages.

The United Nations Development Program has successfully piloted this approach in the states of Kassala, Gedaref, and River Nile. We have helped farmers boost their crop yields and set up home gardens on previously unused land. This has helped feed families, increased food supply, and strengthened the local economy, as profits were reinvested to expand production, allowing us to move forward and support other local communities.

Another equally important approach is leveraging foreign aid funding to strengthen the private sector’s involvement in the crisis response. I saw this during my time working in Afghanistan, where the United Nations Development Program used $2 million in funding to partner with the national private sector and provide $20 million in loans to small businesses. Thanks to these loans, farmers and entrepreneurs were able to grow their operations, and over time, increased profits allowed them to repay their loans and reduced their reliance on foreign aid.

In Sudan, we recently launched a similar pilot program. We will be providing $5 million in loans to individuals typically excluded from financial services. As their businesses grow, local communities become more capable of purchasing food, medicine, and other necessities.

These two approaches entail a change in mindset with regard to crisis management and recovery, allowing sustainable development to go hand in hand with emergency assistance.

While we all hope for a swift and lasting peace in Sudan, we take heart in seeing people return to their homes. It is a sign of people’s trust in their country’s future. However, we must remain realistic and fully aware that even if peace were declared today, the road to repairing the damage wrought by war would be long.

Thus, it is essential to support families and communities, ensuring that they can withstand current shocks and become fully prepared to seize the opportunities that peace will bring when it arrives.