The post-cold period has been characterized by a shift in the nature of conflicts
(from inter state conflicts to intra- state conflicts) and a significant
decline in political and economic disengagement of the western powers from
complex political emergencies mostly taking place in the developing world.
This direct disengagement is a result of, inter alia, domestic and political
problems facing the western nations and lack of interest in areas hitherto
considered of strategic and material importance. The disengagement has been
substituted by privatization of humanitarian assistance where the major powers
increased their funding to the non-governmental sector and significantly
reduced their spending on bilateral assistance programmes, leading to a phenomenal
growth in the numbers of no-humanitarian Governmental Organisations (NGOs),
an ‘associational revolution’ that largely minimized the states sovereignty.
These NGOs, mostly international in geographical context, entered into conflict
settings with resources and a defined agenda of alleviating suffering and
mitigating the conflicts. The impacts of their interventions have been varied
since their resources and strategies of mitigating and resolving the conflicts
interacted in unforeseen ways with the conflicts and at times became interfaced
with the forces that energise the conflicts. This not only interfered positively
or negatively with the course of the conflicts, but also with the ongoing
peace-building and conflict resolution mechanisms and the possible overall
effect became a contracted conflict.
The paper will analyse the role and effect of NGOs interventions in the Sudan
conflicts and discuss how such interventions have impacted on the peace building
and conflict resolution processes in the country. How did NGOs’ humanitarian
relief and other ideas for peace-building and conflict resolution interact
with the Sudan conflicts and did the interactions reinforce, prolonged or
exacerbated the conflicts or did they support peace making processes? Were
the approaches used by various NGOs supportive of a milieu for conflict resolution
or did they negatively affect efforts for bringing the conflict to an end?
Using Sudan as the case study, the paper will conclude with a position on
whether the humanitarian NGOs engagement in African complex emergencies is
a problem or a solution to the conflicts and suggest the way forward.
Boys, Boys, Boys: What about "Lost
Girls": Ethnographic Examination of Faith-Based Humanitarian Volunteers Working
with Sudanese Youth in Colorado
Laura Deluca
Developing Areas Research and Teaching Program
USA
This presentation will examine faith-based humanitarian
volunteers working with Sudanese refugee youth with a focus on the so-called
"Lost Boys" and "Lost Girls." It will examine the lived experiences of displaced
persons and the effectiveness of humanitarian resettlement efforts linking
to the conference theme: "Civil Wars in Sudan: Casualties, Displacements,
and Injustices."
Conflict Dynamics in Humanitarian
Assistance: The Case of Mine Action in the Nuba Mountains
Rebecca Roberts
Peace Research Institute
Norway
In addition to being the main focus for peace negotiations,
the conflict line between the Government of Sudan (GOS) and the Sudan Peoples’
Liberation Movement (SPLM) has influenced the planning, structure, and implementation
of mine action programmes in Sudan. This paper explores the consequences
of allowing a national level conflict line to dictate the design of humanitarian
interventions at a regional and local level where the conflict lines may
be different. It argues that although the participation of the main parties
to the conflict at a senior level may have facilitated a humanitarian intervention
and helped to build confidence between the conflict parties, such an approach
has risked politicising assistance and introducing or reinforcing a conflict
line at the level of implementation which has had repercussions for the programme,
the local population, and the understanding of conflict in Sudan.
The paper is based on fieldwork conducted in the Nuba Mountains in 2004 where
both the GOS and SPLM have been actively involved in mine action activities
since their ceasefire agreement came into force in January 2002. The potential
benefits and risks of structuring mine action around a conflict line are
explained by providing an overview of the conflict in the Nuba Mountains
and impact of the ceasefire agreement, insights into village communities’
experiences of the conflict, and an introduction to the history of mine action
in Sudan.
Comparative Examination of the Politics
of Operation Life Sudan and the Current Humanitarian Relief Operations in
Darfur
Matthew LeRiche
University of London
This paper deals with the reality that there has been a
distinctly different approach taken by humanitarians to the emergency in
Darfur to that in Southern Sudan. The similarities between the natures of
the two complex emergencies are striking, particularly between the situation
in Upper Nile and Darfur. This considered; it is interesting to ask, why
the response has been different? Of course this is assuming we consider OLS
to have been generally successful. The cast of characters is mostly the same.
The government has taken a similar approach, the humanitarians are the same;
MSF-Holland, World Vision, NPA, etc. In the paper I propose that the different
approach in Darfur is due to the embryonic nature of the Darfurian armed
opposition groups; a change in aid organization relations with IGOs such
as the UN; a vastly different international political environment; most important
though, is the change to what Mark Duffield has called a ‘New Humanitarianism’.
These factors have combined to result in an entirely different response to
the emergency in Darfur, which is in essence very similar to that of the
situation throughout South Sudan during OLS.
Ethnic Conflicts and Economic Development
Atta El-Battahani
University of Khartoun, Sudan