Some remarks on aid agencies and dependency in the southern Sudan (original) (raw)
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2008
Scholars of development studies have long debated the efficacy of humanitarian assistance in the Sudan, especially in eastern Sudan, where humanitarian agencies have been working for more than two decades. Questions about the importance of humanitarian assistance to recovery and, hence, development, are central in the debate. Does humanitarian assistance end up creating dependence, not development? This study suggests that humanitarian assistance, often carried out in contexts of complex emergencies and fragile livelihoods, has little chance of achieving recovery and eventual development. Using qualitative data from the Red Sea State in eastern Sudan, this article argues that the failure to achieve recovery and development is not the fault of NGOs alone. Chronic susceptibility to droughts and famines, wars, and lack of coordination among NGOs and between NGOs and local authorities are some of the local level problems that negatively affect humanitarian work in eastern Sudan. The local level problems that impede achieving self-reliance are entangled with the discursive national and international politics of humanitarian assistance in ways that cast doubts about the positive role of aid agencies. The presence of NGOs certainly led to changes in many structures, but this is not reflected positively in people's livelihoods. Instead of achieving recovery, communities in eastern Sudan are moving from positive coping strategies to negative adaptive vulnerabilities, exemplified by dependence on NGOs. The recently signed peace agreement in eastern Sudan offers opportunities for more inclusive planning, but without national commitment and international support it might accelerate conflict and vulnerability and hence deepen dependency. 1 This article is part of a larger project called "Macro-micro issues in peace building in the Sudan," a joint research project between the Chr. Michelsen Institute (Norway) and the universities of Khartoum and Ahfad (Sudan). The author acknowledges with gratitude the financial support during fieldwork and a fellowship at the Chr. Michelsen Institute where part of the material is written. I am grateful to Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed and Gunnar Sørbø for their encouragement to join the project. 2 http://www.akhbaralyoumsd.net/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=5934
NGOs and the implications of providing biased aid in Sudan and South Sudan
This article explores the contributions made by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to the processes of conflict and conflict resolution is Sudan and South Sudan. Focusing on 19th century Christian missionaries and late 20th century NGOs, the paper demonstrates how well-intentioned aid often has unintended consequences when that aid collides with regimes that view segments of their own populations as enemies.
Humanitarian Aid and Its Complex Role in African Countries' Development Process
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The main problem related to the activities of civil society organizations, is the logic humanitarian assistance-improvement of beneficiaries' living conditions. Indeed, in most of Africans communities where development NGOs are operating, poverty and social vulnerability are illogically increasing. This fact is often due to an insufficient knowledge of the realities of the social environment in which these NGOs are operating, lack of self-reliant development models and mostly the mismanagement of funds by the NGOs officials who have become true "businessmen". Thus, the application of strategies and techniques for development trample and objectives of donors are still not realized. If the proliferation of NGOs in Africa started in the 1990s after the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Policies, we can legitimately ask the question of whether NGOs are real actors of development or simple organisms set up by the capitalist system to further control the world. This article aims to answer to this question. Firstly, it analyzes NGOs operations in Africa, their methods and the way they are processing. Secondly, it tries to propose some alternatives to improve the humanitarian actions in African countries. Finally, this work takes a concrete example of NGOs aid program which is the microfinance and tries to see if microcredits have or not an impact on their beneficiaries' lives.
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In Villalon Leonardo (ed.), the Oxford Handbook on the African Sahel, 2021
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Refugee aid and development : a case of Sudanese refugees in West Nile, Uganda
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