Netherlands Supports Refugees Contributing To Sudanese Communities Development
12 December, 2018
KOSTI/KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - White Nile State currently hosts around 176,000 South Sudanese refugees who for years were relying on humanitarian aid only. A new project managed by UNDP and supported by the Government of Netherlands had the ambition to change that for good.
On December 11th, a delegation composed of Dr. Karin Boven, the Ambassador of Netherlands, Dr. Selva Ramachandran UNDP Country Director, Ms. Noriko Yoshida, UNHCR’s Representative in Sudan and Locality Commissioner Dr. Hamed Ali, among others, visited the Khor Alwaral and Alkashafa and were very warmly welcomed by the communities in White Nile state. The reason for the visit is to witness the inauguration of rehabilitation of all nine big irrigation schemes that were abandoned over the past years.
These schemes are crucial to the expansion of agricultural land on which local people rely, but also to further engage refugees in working the land and expanding the production of cotton, which can be then sold to fabric factories locally for export or for sale within Sudan. This venture is supported by the private sector and allows not only to generate financial gains for local people and refugees working on the fields, but also to invest in local infrastructure.
Through the mediation of the UNDP, significant part of the gains of all economic activities (this also includes vegetable farming and other small business ventures) will be reinvested to maintain facilities build by humanitarian agencies UNHCR and UNICEF for the use of refugees and Sudanese community. Even more importantly, public financing is also used to complement actions and generate profit for all groups locally, which will then again reinvested in the community. These initiatives and the planning also attracted three private companies joining the initiatives for improving the life of all people in the region. ”I am so extremely pleased to see such a large crowd of people working together and we can achieve a lot more through peaceful coexistence” said Dr. Selva Ramachandran, UNDP`s Country Director applauded by the crowd.
He also explained the importance of cooperation between UN agencies and the new way of working which UNDP and UNHCR already implement in White Nile and West Kordofan, allowing to reduce the costs and avoid duplicating their efforts and assist communities better instead.
The Ambassador Dr. Karin Boven expressed her content on the achievements of the project and encouraged UNDP to continue the efforts in the region, highlighting the commitment the government of Netherlands has to inclusive development. “The involvement of private sector is something which is also extremely important to us as it is key to stimulating local economy”.
The delegation also dedicated time to training sessions and interacted with trainees (both Sudanese and South Sudanese) in different areas- vegetable production and trade, clothes repairing and tailoring and conflict mitigation and heard on their experiences and concerns.
Distinguished government representatives among which Mohammed Fadalla, representing HAC and Dr. Adil Dafa Allah from COR also thanked the government of Netherlands for their valuable support and evaluated the project as excellent and appealed for more support to host communities around Sudan and for programmes building self-reliance in refugees allowing them to work as citizens contributing to the communities they live in.
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