Sudan experienced a severe drought and food crisis, particularly in western regions, early this year. Although the international donor response to the problem was slow and late, Save the Children with other partners solicited resources in the form of food aid and projects to improve water supplies, feeding programmes and emergency health services. Ongoing fighting and displacement in the Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal regions continues to threaten many more children's lives as they face poverty and violence as well as the steady deterioration of basic health, education and welfare services.

Key issues affecting children

Save the Children's response

• leading agency with demobilised child soldiers in northern Bahr el Ghazal
• securing 7,000 metric tonnes of food aid for Darfur
• stocking village grain banks in North Darfur
• feeding programme targeting 20,000 children in North Darfur
• distributing seeds and tools in S Darfur, Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile
• drilling bore holes, capping wells and providing hand pumps in Darfur and Bahr el Ghazal and maintaining a clean water supply in nine internally displaced peoples' (IDPs) sites in South Darfur
• supporting communities to maintain over 300 hand pumps in Bahr el Ghazal
• distributing portable fishing equipment in Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile to enhance access to high quality food for children from IDP and other vulnerable communities · supporting people's livelihoods and children's access to milk and meat through community-based livestock work in Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile
• working with separated and abducted children
• providing education to 25,000 displaced and local children in north and south Sudan
• distributing food with the WFP
• carrying out a nutritional screening of under-fives in West Darfur.
• supporting health services for the IDPs and providing emergency health services for the drought affected population in Darfur including measles vaccination.

Drought and food security
Of the 3 million people facing on-going food insecurity in Sudan because of civil war, displacement and the current drought up to 600,000 of the most vulnerable children have been reported to be at immediate risk of starvation.

Drought has hit both northern and southern parts of Sudan, particularly northern Darfur and Kordofan regions as well as Eastern Equatoria and northern Bahr el Ghazal. In the latter two areas, the drought situation has been exacerbated by continued fighting. Fighting around the oilfields has exacerbated the uprooting of people from their homes and in the oilfields in southern Unity State alone an estimated 36,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) now also require food assistance.

Late and erratic rainfall affecting the whole of the Horn of Africa region has led to poor harvests especially of sorghum, the staple food in southern Sudan. Only 30-40 per cent of the funding necessary to provide for people's basic needs has been pledged by international donors. A joint report (produced last year) from Save the Children and WFP stated that 62,000 metric tonnes of food aid are urgently required in southern Sudan to save just under two million people from starvation. It looks as though problems are likely to persist in Darfur through the winter and on into next year. The harvest will fail in some parts of North Darfur, and poor households will have difficulty meeting their needs. In the north WFP, working closely with the government and NGOs, has stepped up food deliveries through food for work activities and school feeding programmes.

West Sudan emergency
A Save the Children pre-harvest assessment was conducted in October and data analysis is now being carried out. Although indications are that the harvest in most parts of Darfur will be substantially better than last year (2001), shortfalls are anticipated in parts of North Darfur. Early indications are that there is likely to be a requirement for some relief distribution.

Southern Sudan has seen increased displacements resulting from intensified fighting with SPDF, SPLA and GoS-sponsored militia and commanders vying for control of the area. In Western Upper Nile there has been an upsurge in conflict over oil fields, leading to displacement, food insecurity and a loss of assets. The total number of IDPs in Bahr el Gahzal is approximately 100,000. The total number of IDPS in the environs of Khartoum and Omudurman is between 1.5 and 2 million.

Child soldiers
A UNICEF initiative in March 2001 resulted in 3,536 child soldiers and children associated with fighting forces being evacuated from Bahr el Ghazal and taken to Rumbek where they were cared for in interim transit care centres. In August they returned to their communities. Save the Children and other NGOs, alongside UNICEF, have expanded support for service provision (health, water, education, grinding mills, and child protection) in the reintegration areas. We are also working with a SPLM task force to plan for future demobilisations, which will not involve camps or evacuations.

Save the Children, through the provision of a separated children's database, will focus on reunification and reintegration activities with children from our areas of operation in Bahr el Ghazal. The database is currently being field-tested, and is in the final stages of development. It will be used in south Sudan.

Ongoing conflict
Sudan has had only 11 years of peace since independence in 1956; civil war has raged for much of the rest of the time. Since 1983 rebels from the mainly animist and Christian south have been fighting for greater autonomy from the mainly Muslim north. The war is primarily between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and Sudanese Government. However, over recent years government troops have been aided by militias, and the southern forces have factionalised into a number of groups. The greatest emphasis is on the militias and the Murahaleen, who are less tribal levies and more Government of Sudan (GoS) supported bandits. Northerners have formed the support base of the succession of unstable governments since independence. The current government, led by President Omar el-Bashir came to power in June 1989. The President was re-elected in December 2000 and parliamentary elections were held in the New Year. Under the president's rule, there has been an increase in military power and ex-military leaders close to the president, concurrent with a loss in some of the power of Islamic fundamentalists.

One important focus of the conflict lies in oil exploration areas with the most severe fighting in the Upper Nile region and in the southern Unity State. Bahr El Ghazal has seen localised fighting.

Peace talks under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have continued for many years but prospects for a permanent settlement remain poor. The Egyptian / Libyan peace initiative has also made little progress. It is estimated that since 1983 more than two million people have died in the war. As the government becomes more confident politically, it may be ready to take more risks for peace.

The SPLA and the government have, for several years, agreed temporary ceasefires in some areas of the conflict zone to allow the passage of food aid. Food aid has been delivered primarily by the World Food Programme (WFP) under the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) - an existing agreement on the delivery of humanitarian aid between the UN agencies, major international agencies (INGOs), the Government of Sudan (GoS) and rebel groups.

Economy and food security
Sudan's economy is dominated by agriculture and livestock, which accounts for one-third of its GDP and 95 per cent of exports. The main crops are sorghum, millet, groundnuts, sesame, sugar, gum Arabic and cotton. The civil war and chronic political instability, as well as adverse weather conditions, poor infrastructure and a large foreign debt, all affect food production.

In 1999/2000 oil from the south has been extracted and pumped north to the Red Sea for export by the GoS. Oil revenues have become an increasingly important source of income for the government and are likely to continue in coming years. They are also a potential source of conflict - much of the fighting in Western Upper Nile is linked to control of oil resources. The economy grew by 8.3 per cent in 2000 and inflation halved to 8 per cent. While military spending has increased significantly, there has also been increased spending on infrastructure and social services. However, according to the IMF, 90 per cent of the population still lives below the poverty line, and oil revenues do not percolate through to the majority of the population.

International relations
The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Sudan in May 1996. These were lifted in September 2001 by the General Assembly of the UN . Since 11 September, the Government of Sudan has tried to align itself with the US without compromising itself too much. Events have made very little impact on the security situation. Independently of the war on terrorism, the appointment of Senator Danforth as President's Bush representative to Sudan may offer a new opportunity to encourage the peace process.

There are increasing signs that several larger donors, notably the EU and USAID/OFDA are shifting their positions towards ones of greater sympathy for more 'developmental' approaches. Relations with the EU have improved recently, though EU funding remains very low. However, the risk remains that future resources might be diverted to aid Afghanistan.

Internally displaced people
Many IDPs have been driven north. The UN has put them high on the agenda. Most would like to return home, but this is unlikely to happen unless there is peace and significant investment in the southern economy infrastructure and services. It is still unclear as to whether IDPs will be integrated into the northern population, or will eventually return to the south. International protection is difficult in the 'transitional zones' such as the Nuba mountains, the Blue Nile, and other parts of the Northern Provinces.

Current emergency
Growing population pressure and the droughts of recent years have undermined the sustainability of traditional rural lifestyles. Conflict also makes cultivation and harvest difficult - families may be forced to abandon their fields when harvests are good, or be prevented from planting new crops. The combination of conflict, climate and economics threatens the very survival of many children, with some 90 per cent of Sudanese children living below the official 'poverty line'. Difficulties in rural areas are leading to increasing migration to urban areas and across conflict lines.

Severe food and water shortages are leading to increasing child malnutrition. Screening of children in El Fasher showed 26 per cent of children below 80 per cent of their normal weight for height during the worst of the crisis in 2001.

Ongoing conflict
Children have been the most severely affected by conflict in Sudan with estimates of up to four million being displaced. Displacement, physical injury and distress are all consequences of the conflict. Many children are separated from their families either in flight or as a result of abduction. Children have also been recruited into armed militias and paramilitary groups supported by both sides.

Even more children are indirectly affected by conflict as limited resources are diverted to the war effort, reducing the amount spent on development and social services. Military spending in 2000 was estimated at about $336 million by GoS, while social expenditure was estimated as at $236 million.

Abduction
The abduction of women and children from the southern Dinka tribe by the Arab Baggara tribes of the north is an age-old practice in Sudan. It has, however, increased significantly since the civil war began, with pro-government militia being involved in abduction raids. Abducted women and children are used by families as domestic and farm labourers. Although some are treated relatively well, others are beaten, abused and neglected.

Save the Children's work focuses on child protection, health, education and food security.

Drought and food security
Drought and desertification are growing in Darfur. People survive through cultivation, consuming wild foods, selling livestock migration, and by raising income through wood and grass collection. This year USAID became a significant contributor to drought relief in northern Sudan. As a result of a change in policy, food aid will now be allocated to any part of the country, on the basis of need.

Save the Children works with GoS Humanitarian Aid Commission, State governments and WFP with particular focus on food distribution and water availability. Concentrating on North and West Darfur, Save the Children has established the Early Warning System (EWS) - a system that warns of food shortages - and to ensure the most vulnerable parts of North and West Darfur are covered. We have completed an assessment of the nutritional and health status of under-fives in the drought-affected areas of West Darfur. The global nutritional rate was 21.6 per cent with 3.9 per cent severe malnutrition. In South Darfur, the global rate was 14.7 per cent with 2 per cent severe malnutrition. We have also been working to improve assessment of the nutritional situation of displaced people in South Darfur

Save the Children is now the lead agency in local EWS information and co-ordination. During 2000, using the Household Economy Analysis[1] (HEA) methodology, Save the Children provided information, which formed the basis of much of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and WFP reporting as well as reporting within GoS systems. In November 2000 Save the Children produced and circulated its own detailed and influential report for Darfur, thus ensuring that WFP, FAO and INGOs are all working from common baseline figures. Furthermore, Save the Children's advocacy and lobbying role with the GoS helped to ensure that the UN recently launched an amended Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal (CAP) for food aid and has hopefully convinced donors to respond to the increasingly critical situation.

Save the Children is running a supplementary feeding programme in ten rural councils in Darfur. 23,400 malnourished children and 15,400 pregnant women in North Darfur have been targeted. The feeding programme is funded by both DFID (six rural councils) and USAID (four rural councils). We also distributed 7,000 mt of food in Darfur as a general ration.

In 2000, Save the Children, along with others, began raising the alarm about the serious situation arising in the water sector. For example, in North Darfur alone approximately 443,500 people are either directly affected by or in immediate danger of acute water shortage. Save the Children has mobilised its own resources to install handpumps and rehabilitate 50 non-functioning water pumps in collaboration with the Drinking Water Corporation and UNICEF.

Measles vaccination and targeted primary health care were provided for the drought affected population in Darfur. The health activities were funded by OFDA and Government of Netherlands. In the south, where Household Economy Analysis provides the framework for food security analysis, Save the Children continues to second staff to support the Technical Support Unit (TSU) of WFP. The TSU plays a vital role in the analysis of needs and coordination of responses, the targeting of food aid, and the identification of other appropriate food security interventions.

With support from DfID AND USAID, two substantial supplementary nutrition projects are now in progress in ten rural councils of North Darfur. Save the Children will target approximately 19,900 malnourished chidren. We are concurrently working to improve the capacity of the Aweil hospital to handle severe malnutrition cases as part of our ongoing health work. WFP will continue to deliver food up until the harvest, and in some parts of North Darfur, beyond it. This, combined with supplementary nutrition projects, should ensure a lessening of suffering by the end of the year.

Upper Nile/Bahr el Ghazal
The agricultural season in northern Bahr el Ghazal looked promising overall, although there were pockets where dry spells followed by flooding have damaged harvest prospects. While food insecurity is rife, communities in Bahr el Ghazal appear to be coping through fishing and collecting wild foods through the hungry season.

The lack of seeds and tools is people's major worry after food needs. Over the past six months Save the Children has distributed seeds and tools to villagers and IDPs in Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile. Save the Children also participated in WFP's seed for food project exchanging 268 metric tonnes of food for 126 metric tonnes of local seed. Save the Children also purchased 146 mt of local seed in Bahr el Ghazal, and imported 93 mt of seed into the Upper Nile as it was not possible to buy locally.

Save the Children constructed 75 new wells, benefitting 75,000 people. We also supported communities to repair 56 pumps, and aided the formation of 74 new well committees in villages.

The inability of households to retain cattle around their homesteads for much of the year obstructs people's coping capacity. Save the Children will be providing fishermen with fishing equipment and mosquito nets in order to improve household food security. Save the Children distributed 93 metric tonnes of seed in three states in Upper Nile. Following the looting and burning of some seed Save the Children has decided to supply more fishing equipment which is portable and can be taken by families when displaced.Livestock prices are reported to have increased as expected, as fewer people are forced to sell their livestock.

In the Upper Nile region late and erratic rains followed by a prolonged dry spell meant that families were facing food deficits of up to 20 per cent. However, rainfall was high in July and August, and most locations in southern and central Bieh became flooded. Sorghum, sesame ground nuts and maize have had decent harvests this year. Cattle have temporarily moved from the low lying villages to higher ground.

Save the Children carried out assessments of fighting and drought on livestock in South Sudan. As a result of these assessments we have been providing drugs to a veterinary supervisor to help combat livestock diseases. In future, Save the Children plans to include construction of cattle troughs next to human water points thus providing water for both people and livestock particularly important for milking cows (from which children will benefit) and small stock staying around settled camps in the dry season.

Child protection
In Bahr el Ghazal there has been a marked increase in donor interest in supporting an expansion of Save the Children's education and protection work.

Save the Children has worked to eradicate abductions, and to secure the release of children abducted in inter-tribal raiding. Out of a total of 1,733 suspected abduction cases in Kordofan, Khartoum and South Darfur, 778 have been reunified, and 208 are in transit care. Save the Children's involvement in the project began in 1996. It is now run by the government of Sudan with support from Save the Children and UNICEF Since April 1999, the involvement has been through support to the government body CEAWC (Committee for the Eradication of Abduction of Women and Children). Save the Children is responsible for supporting CEAWC and the tribal committees in Ed Daein and Adila Provinces in South Darfur. The project encompasses reuniting children with their families, training community members in family tracing, and funding interim care centres for newly-released children.

Save the Children has promoted women workers in these centres, in particular to support girls who have experienced sexual abuse. Most recently this work has been hindered by insecurity in the Bahr el Ghazal region making reunification across fighting lines through Aweil impossible. Therefore, Save the Children in the north, has concentrated its time and resources on the care of children who are waiting reunification. In the south, Save the Children completed a follow-up study last year, which involved tracing and interviewing returned abductees on their perceptions of the tracing and reunification process. This study highlighted a number of issues that abductees face which affect the reintegration process, including loss of cultural identity and language. Work in child protection is difficult in areas of fighting, where insecurity leads to lack of access to children.

In addition, Save the Children is working in partnership with UNICEF to provide care and protection to children and mothers with children rescued or escaped from the Lords Resistance Army [2] (LRA) and awaiting repatriation to Uganda. The Government of Sudan recently stated that large numbers of LRA escapees would soon flood into Juba. On that basis, capacity of the existing centre was increased, and additional staff were hired to enable it to accommodate an influx of 700 people.

Save the Children is also supporting 28 schools in Bahr el Ghazal which over 1,500 of the 3,556 child soldiers demobilised to date will attend.

Health
Save the Children need to secure funding for its health work with internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Khartoum for a further year. This work involves providing clinics in camps with medicines and training staff. Save the Children believes that cost recovery approaches - being promoted by donors and some NGOs - will not work. For most IDPs, free or near free services are essential if they are to have access to health care.

Health projects for IDPs are also under way in Bahr el Ghazal, Khartoum, and South Darfur. These include Mother and Child health services, the promotion of health and hygiene messages in communities and primary schools. Children participate in this project, delivering health messages to other children. In the Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile regions, Save the Children also distributes essential preventative health and non food items such as mosquito nets, blankets and shelter materials to IDPs and to the host community. There have been dramatic improvements in IDP health and nutrition, particularly in the nine camps in South Darfur, in which we work. We hope to have the capacity to continue our health work in Bahr el Ghazal, North and South Darfur, for another year.

Save the Children is undertaking a mass measles vaccination programme to cover the worst affected rural councils in order to reduce the mortality rate due to measles. Save the Children has also provided drugs and equipment for health facilities in three rural councils in North Darfur.

Water and sanitation projects continue in Darfur and Khartoum and a major effort is planned for North Darfur in response to the drought. Meanwhile, water rehabilitation work for IDPs in South Darfur has come to an end. Sanitation work in selected Save the Children-supported schools continued.

Save the Children distributed community survival kits and preventative health items to IDPs in Wau County to Aweil South county. We distributed preventative health items in Bieh, Leech, Phou, Gogrial, Aweil and the south counties. Overall, we distributed 2,500 individual items to IDPs and other vulnerable households.

Education
Save the Children is one of the few INGOs seriously engaged in the education sector to revive basis education for vulnerable children. Emergency service deliveries for 25,000 IDPs in Khartoum and Bahr el Ghazal continue until the status of IDPs is made clearer by GoS and long-term planning can begin. Refunding is now essential and is under discussion.

Education work with IDPs in Khartoum continues, with over 11,000 children in sixteen schools being supported by SC UK projects. Many IDP children face difficulties in attending government schools and would probably drop out of education if schools supported by Save the Children were not available.

Save the Children also runs education projects for displaced and local children in Wau, Gogrial and Aweil East/South counties in south Sudan. Some 27 schools are supported with supplies, teacher training, children's uniforms and repair kits. On average 10,800 children attend these schools, in primary classes one to five. Save the Children also provides pastoral education to children in Darfur. Save the Children is part of a Country Education Co-ordination Committee that was formed in Aweil East to co-ordinate education activities for the reintegration of demobilised child soldiers.

Save the Children focuses on capacity building of the education authorities through training head teachers and supervisors, and training 30 teachers in accelerated learning for 12-16-year-olds whose education has been interrupted The Upper Nile area has 14 schools supported in a similar fashion.

Emergency preparedness
Save the Children is always in a state of emergency preparedness in Sudan. Save the Children annually prepares proposals to fund the purchase and distribution of preventative health items, and to second staff to WFP's technical support unit. Save the Children's emergency preparedness work has also focused on the north Darfur drought.

Advocacy
Advocacy is implicit in all of Save the Children's programme work. Save the Children's advocacy work has focused on the rights and needs of children in Sudan. We are trying to secure resources for IDP education, and are working with UNICEF to stress the importance of work to prevent child abduction.

Save the Children recently issued a paper entitled 'Oil and Conflict', an advocacy tool detailing specific practical measures that need to be taken in order to begin to address the problem of human rights abuses in the oil concession areas. In Darfur we have had some success in discouraging the Baggara tribes from raiding. We have lobbied EU governments for a response to the drought. Finally, Save the Children has played a key role in co-ordinating humanitarian and UN agencies in the region.

History of the programme
Save the Children (UK) began working in Sudan in 1950, when it responded to a famine in the south. After responding to a subsequent famine in the early 1970s, Save the Children set up a refugee programme in the north in 1979. Since then, Save the Children has continued to work in both northern and southern areas of the country, assisting people affected by the conflict in south Sudan, as well as those who have fled their homes and sought refuge in Khartoum and the transitional zone.

Due to problems of access, Save the Children has two management structures. One based in Khartoum, which co-ordinates programmes in government-held territory, and one based in Nairobi which co-ordinates work in rebel areas. Both structures run emergency relief and development programmes. Save the Children has focused its work on three main areas in the south: Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile and Jonglei. Emergency interventions in Western Upper Nile have taken place in the last nine months as part of the OLS emergency response to the area.

Save the Children UK works alongside Save the Children US, Save the Children New Zealand and Save the Children Sweden in Sudan, and receives funding from Save the Children Denmark and Norway.

Working with Partners
Save the Children UK continues to work with UNICEF in child protection. UNICEF has also been a supportive partner in Save the Children's health and nutrition work, especially in the West. Save the Children and WFP have collaborated throughout the drought. Future collaboration may include a surface water storage project, and village grain banks in Darfur. In south Sudan, SC has good working relationships with FAO, WFP and UNICEF. Save the Children works with local NGOs wherever possible, and always with local communities.

Footnotes

1. The Household Economy Analysis (HEA) aims to illustrate various options/strategies that people employ to secure their access to food and income, how typical "better off", "middle", "poor" and "very poor" households in a particular area hire and interact economically and how households cope when "shocks" occur, either natural or man-made. (back)
2. The Lords Resistance Army (LRA) is a rebel group of Ugandan Acholis from northern Uganda fighting the government of Uganda and operating from Sudan. Children make up 50 per cent of the LRA. (back)

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