Food Security in Sudan

Jane Kinninmont sent this across to us:

Recently Published Special Issue of Disasters
In Sudan, the full panoply of global change processes is veraciously being played out, to cause crisis or offer potential opportunity. Which way the pendulum swings depends on how the main actors on the ground choose to react. Famine, food insecurity and the supply of international food aid have been a constant part of the Sudan picture since the late 1960s but does it have to be that way?

This special issue of Disasters contains a selection of the bes! t papers presented at a unique forum, organised by the World Food Programme and the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, and held in Khartoum in June 2006. The forum encouraged WFP-Sudan to think outside the box, to imagine alternative roles to the emergency-driven food-aid distribution which had come to dominate their Sudan operations in 2005/6.

WFP, along with the government of Sudan, is positioned to set an international example of what can be done with the tools at their disposal, to seize this opportunity and build a 21st century approach to the alleviation of food insecurity – to save lives and livelihoods. The papers in this special issue examine why such an approach is desperately needed and how it might be achieved.
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Table of contents:
Editorial: the future of WFP programming in Sudan Kirsten Gelsdorf, Peter Walker and Daniel Maxwell
Conflict, trade and the medium-term future of food security in Sudan David Keen and Vivian Lee
Global factors shaping the future of food aid: the implications for WFP Daniel Maxwell
Looking beyond food aid to livelihoods, p! rotection and partnerships: strategies for WFP in the Darfur statesHelen Young
Conflict, camps and coercion: the ongoing livelihoods crisis in Darfur Margie Buchanan-Smith and Susanne Jaspars
From food aid to livelihoods support: rethinking the role of WFP in eastern Sudan Sara Pantuliano
The future of food security in the Three Areas of Sudan Jason Matus
Food aid and development in souther n Sudan: implications of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for response planning Buzz Sharp
Sub-regional integration in Sudan: the key to food security and recovery Brian D’Silva and Olivia Tecosky
Accelerating progress on salt iodisation in Sudan: time for action Ibrahim Bani

UN Reinforcements Coming

An African Union (AU) peacekeeper has been killed in Darfur (The Independent, The Times). The attack took place immediately after US Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, had visited the AU headquarters in an attempt to persuade the Sudanese government to allow UN reinforcements to enter the country to support the AU (The Independent).

Over 2 million refugees have fled Darfur to neighbouring states including Chad, 90% of the villages in Darfur have been burned, and over 4 million civilians in Sudan and Chad are dependant on humanitarian aid (The Independent). 'Unimaginable suffering' is gripping Darfur (The Telegraph).

Aid efforts may collapse

Things are getting bad in Sudan with aid agencies exacerbating the problem by only delivering humanitarian supplies in camps and thus depopulating the coutryside. On top of which, five members of the African Union peace keeping force have been killed in Darfur according to The Times, The Guardian, and The Independent. The Times add that the United Nations humanitarian chief, John Holmes, fears that aid efforts could collapse if the situation becomes worse.

Giving families a chance

With regard to the Kids for Kids item below - Patricia Parker of Kids for Kids sent us a couple of photographs:

Above: KIDS FOR KIDS kids - giving families a chance

Below: KIDS FOR KIDS tree seedling helps a family to make a tent more like village life at Abou Shouk - tents are collapsing and being repaired with food bags.

Kids for Kids

Patricia Parker sent this item today:

KIDS FOR KIDS Chairman, Patricia Parker MBE, and Trustee, Alastair King-Smith returned yesterday from Sudan after visiting remote villages in Darfur – despite other agencies pulling out because of the dangers of attack.

“We have been supporting communities for the past five years.” said Patricia “ We were here before the conflict started. Our journey to Darfur was a fact finding visit and what we saw has enabled us to make a firm commitment of a minimum of £500,000 for the next three years. We must be the only organisation prepared to make such a long term commitment. We were told by 17 communities that our simple integrated projects – the loan of goats and donkeys, training of midwives and paravets and much more - are enabling them to stay in their homes. If we can help families to stay in villages, Darfur will have a chance to recover, once peace is established. Despite 2 ½ million people being forced to endure existence in vast camps, there are 3 ½ million still managing to cling to their homes.” KIDS FOR KIDS is seeking help to aid these people.

“It is sad that the aid agencies have been concentrating their efforts almost exclusively on the camps. Help is needed urgently to enable these poor families to return home. They are trapped in the camps with large numbers of lorries, carrying many armed soldiers, patrolling the boundary between camp and town.”

contact@kidsforkids.org.uk