If you care about Peace, Now is the time to invest in Southern Sudan

This entry was also posted on The Huffington Post.

Traveling around Juba on deeply rutted, dusty red dirt roads in blazing 100 degree-plus heat drives home the paramount importance of water. Though the mighty Nile river runs through this fertile country, the people live without enough water. Women and girls spend hours a day fetching water from community borehole wells. They line up their yellow plastic jerry cans and buckets in long queues to wait for their turn at the spicket. Then, they carry heavy loads back home carefully balanced on their heads, often with their arms full.

Water and sanitation is one of the new program priorities that BRAC Southern Sudan would like to pilot with financial help from BRAC USA. Drilling more borehole wells costs roughly $7,000 each and can serve dozens of households. BRAC runs a massive WASH program in Bangladesh, so has lots of expertise to offer.

I visited all the programs supported by BRAC USA grants including microfinance, health, education and agricultural development. BRAC is now the largest microfinance provider in the country operating in 7 of 10 States and serving over 23,000 clients and benefiting 138,000 people, and about 138 million people worldwide.

Training teachers, teaching children
I went to the BRAC schools for out-of-school children, ages 8 to 11 years old, and was impressed with the vibrant methods to engage students in teaching math and English. Michael, the teacher trainer, was a clear leader who supported his teacher in carrying out lessons. We now have 110 schools serving over 3,000 students, 60% of whom are girls.

I sat in on the last day of a 6-day teacher training as they moved from primary 1 to 2. Over half were extremely dynamic and spoke English with me. Others were more shy about their language skills but welcoming in their native tongue. All were women who lived in the community where they taught, who adored their profession and who spoke passionately about their students. One woman named Sunday was particularly outspoken. She said that the children "have much to offer their country."

Growing the future
I met with a group of 20 farmers who had cultivated a 10 acre plot collectively. With a 6,500 Sudanese pound investment they generated 40,000 pounds, which they split equally. They were eager to continue with BRAC and requested a school for their children.

BRAC's agriculture pilot in Southern Sudan has trained almost 3,000 farmers and demonstrated the viability of this strategy.

Getting healthy
I dropped in on a health forum on sanitation and talked to a group of women and the dynamic BRAC community health staff about the health needs in that area. They spoke about the government plans to bulldoze part of their community for a road project and showed me the red X marks on homes condemned. The community health volunteer was not present as her brother had just suffered a motorbike accident and she was tending to his care.

Building partnerships
We concluded my visit with a dinner at which over a dozen partners and potential funders participated along with key government officials.

The BRAC training center has not yet been built because of liquidity problems at Nile Commercial bank. We are hopeful that this $1.5 million will be released soon, along with other funds trapped in this bank. I was assured that BRAC is on the priority list.

BRAC has created a buzz in the community, it seems, for being able to deliver under adverse conditions. The Sudan Recovery Fund just awarded BRAC the responsibility to implement its grant fund of $2.5 million to 70 community-based organizations in all 10 states. BRAC has screened these groups and supported their capacity building and direct implementation of agriculture, education, water and other initiatives.

In a country of some 10 million people, BRAC is having an impact in all 10 states. While having 7 times the land of Bangladesh and only a fraction of its 150 million people, the BRAC team faces daily hardships to accomplish its mission.

The series of elections coming up to address the independence issue should not make people shy away from investing in Southern Sudan. As our agriculture officer said from Torit, "We are tired of fighting. Nothing is going to happen in 2011."

Note: Since independence in 1956, factions in Sudan had engaged in a north-south civil war. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement based in the South and the Sudanese government based in the North, was the culmination of years of peace negotiations. The accord ended the civil war and granted Southern Sudan autonomy until a referendum, scheduled to be held in 2011. Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held before then, in April 2010, in an event that will undoubtedly mark a significant point in the Sudanese peace process.


-Susan Davis