From Durable Solutions to Emergency Response - Darfur Case

Khartoum/Sudan, March 2013

Based on a positive assumption regarding the outcomes of the round peace process that was scheduled in Doha/Qatar in April 2013, the Humanitarian Coordinator endorsed my deployment in September 2012. My terms of reference as Senior Protection Adviser (SPA) were to support the United Nations team to co-ordinate its strategy, planning and responses within the early recovery, durable solutions conceptual framework and “finalize” work on a plan of action for the existing Protection and Early Recovery coordination structure. 

The Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) provided a new framework and created new momentum in the transition from humanitarian assistance to recovery and development in the region. Consequently, the situation of Sudan end of 2012 has led to an increased emphasis by national and international actors on recovery, durable solutions and transition from relief to development, alongside continued humanitarian assistance. In response to these priorities, the Governance, Infrastructure, and Economic Recovery (GIER) Sector was established late 2012 under the leadership of UNDP to ensure adequate coverage of specific areas that play a crucial role in the transition from relief to development. Unfortunately, the faltering DDPD end of 2012 and new socio-economic problems created a climate of instability and lawlessness with high levels of displacement in the beginning of 2013. Coupled with the restricted access to area of displacement and the denial of the Government of Sudan (GoS) to recognize the global protection mandate provided to specialised agencies, it became an ambitious task to carry out in the political and security context of Sudan (particularly in Darfur) after the displacements of over 300 000 people in 2013. The volatile and sensitive oil-rich region of Abyei as well as the two other contested areas in northern Sudan—the states of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, part of the north further complicated the political settlement in Darfur. Combined with limited international protection and human rights personel, few experimented protection-implementing partners , a complex African Union-United Nations hybrid peacekeeping operation, and cyclic emergencies in Sudan, my work had been re oriented to further support the Protection Sector in its emergency response in Sudan;