Japan funds for UNDP in Sudan

The Government of Japan is continuing its contributions to the Official United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiatives on Peace and Recovery.

A total of $1,481,000 has been given to support the UNDP’s peace-building and recovery activities in the country, the UNDP in Sudan reported in a press statement today.

An amount of $740,500 has been allocated to support UNDP’s Community Security and Stabilisation Programme (C2SP)to prevent violent extremism, while $740,500 has been given for the Youth Volunteers Supporting Peace and Recovery project in Darfur.

With the new financial support of Japan, the C2SP project will focus its peace-building and livelihood activities on two communities in its six prioritised states -White Nile, Blue Nile, South, North, and West Kordofan, and Sennar- which would benefit 4,000 community members, at-risk youth, and vulnerable women.

Rebuilding Darfur

Building on UNDP’s best practices from the initial Youth Volunteers Rebuilding Darfur project, the second project is a youth-focused initiative aimed at building skills and capacities of youth in micro-enterprise development, micro-finance, green business planning, and natural resource management to empower their own communities and play an active role in the peace and recovery processes of Darfur.

“Sudan is at a critical stage with a wonderful opportunity for lasting peace and stability,” Ambassador of Japan Hideki Ito stated on the occasion. “More people are now trying to recover from the effects of conflicts. This is a stage where we should help those people so that they will not be drawn into wars again, as the Government of Japan attaches great importance to the consolidation of peace, which is one of the three priorities of our assistance to the people of Sudan.”

Youth employment

According to UNDP in Sudan, high rates of unemployment amongst youth and women -particularly in the six states- make at-risk youth and vulnerable women groups prone to both engaging in armed conflict and to radicalisation and violent extremism. The C2SP project aims therefore at enhancing stability in the region and build peace by strengthening the communities’ resilience against potential conflict through the provision of socio-economic infrastructure and assets and interventions. These not only generate household income for community members but also provide short-term/seasonal employment for displaced people and refugees, thus contributing to peace dividends for sustainable return, reintegration and recovery.

The Youth Volunteer’s project targets 8,000 youth and women in 30 communities applying new elements, such as the human security concept, to further ensure the involvement of youth in peace and decision-making processes, taking on a more people-centered and preventative approach to community resilience. The project also incorporates essential innovation on business incubation and acceleration.

Stabilisation

Maj. Gen. Abdelaziz Abdelrahman, SDDRC Acting Commissioner-General explained that “The support of Japan for Community security and Stabilisation and youth and employment projects is aimed for promoting stability in conflict zones and includes displaced persons, demobilized persons, returnees from war and those affected in the targeted areas.”

UNDP Resident Representative Marta Ruedas welcomed Japan’s present contribution to the two projects and thanked and acknowledged the contribution of the DDR Commission, the National Commission for Counter Terrorism, the State Ministries of Youth and Sports, and as Finance in Darfur; She also thanked the Peace Centres, Civil Society Organisations and the communities for their roles and support in realizing the goals of the projects.

“It is extremely important that we develop ways to channel the energies of the youth into productive activities enabling them to contribute to the stability and development of Sudan. We urge other partners to follow in their footstep to support similar initiatives that promote peace, stability and development of Sudan and the region as a whole,” she said.

Implementation

Japan has been supporting C2SP since its inception in 2015. Japan has so far provided $4,500,000 that has helped support 15 crisis-affected communities in White Nile, Blue Nile, South, North and West Kordofan states, with livelihood interventions that enabled communities to transit from post-conflict recovery towards sustainable development pathways.

The implementation of the project will be carried out in consultation with the affected communities and in partnership with Sudan DDR Commission and other relevant federal institutions, state-level line ministries, local authorities and locality commissioners as well as local NGOs and CBOs. In addition, UNDP has entered into partnership with National Commission for Counter Terrorism for prevention of violent extremism.