The Role of the Government of Sudan in the Facilitation of Humanitarian Assistance in Darfur, Sudan

The Role of the Government of Sudan in the Facilitation of Humanitarian Assistance in Darfur, Sudan



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This paper is all attempt by the Humanitarian Aid Commission/ Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Government of Sudan, to share its experience to date in the facilitation of humanitarian aid in Darfur and the about the various mechanisms it has put in place to respond to the unprecedented international response to Darfur crisis.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Introduction:

The Humanitarian aid in Sudan has witnessed various developments especially since the escalation of the Darfur crisis in 2003. The newly formed Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) together faced the daunting task of facilitating what turned out to be the world's largest humanitarian response. Today Darfur has over 80 INGOs and several NNGOs working apart from various UN agencies and the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. Overall there are over 16,000 humanitarian workers, about 1500 of them international and manage over a thousand projects. Facilitating such an exponential growth in humanitarian work has not been an easy task, however, the Government of Sudan has risen up to the occasion by promulgating several presidential decrees, signing up joint communiques with the UN and setting up a number of mechanisms to facilitate humanitarian work in Darfur.
A glance at the following figures gives one an understanding of the magnitude of work involved:

#	Particulars	Before 2003	Post 2003(up to present)	% increase
1	Number of INOOs in Sudan	119	188	58%
2	Recruitment procedures (both national and international)	2,000	16,690	735%
3	Vehicles and movement facilities	400	2,041	410%
4	License to communication equipment�	260	3,808	1,365%
5	Number of Project site locations	130	472	263%
6	Number of Projects approved	270	1,162	330%

Roughly 80% of this work is undertaken only in Darfur

2. Evolution of Facilitation mechanisms - Important Milestones:
1. Joint Communiques of July 2004 and March 2007

The first important milestone in the process of facilitating humanitarian work in Darfur was the Joint Communiqu� signed by the Government of Sudan with the UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan during his visit to Sudan and Darfur in July 2004. The JoC had a much wider understanding including humanitarian issues, human rights, security and political settlement of the conflict. From a humanitarian access point of view, the JoC paved the way for the government to declare Moratorium on Restrictions, which provided exemption on a number of normal procedures for Darfur. The Government issued as many as 29 Presidential decrees to authorise exemption and lifting of a number of restrictions specifically related to humanitarian work in Darfur. This included visas and freedom of movement for humanitarian workers, temporary registration of NGOs suspension of importation restrictions on vehicles, communication equipment etc. This came to be known as Darfur Fast Track Procedures
The March 2007 Joint Communiqu� which was signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs on behalf of Government of Sudan with the UN on the occasion of the visit of the UN Emergency Coordinator Mr. John Holmes. This communiqu� was more specific in raising a number of areas where the government agreed to facilitate approvals in a speedy manner by committing itself to a time frame. These were related to providing entry visas, work permits, travel notifications, custom exemption on a number of items, speedy recruitment procedures for national staff etc. Importantly it also appointed a High Level Committee and tasked it with the responsibility of monitoring progress made on the JoC pledges of the Government and the UN related to policy matters and implementation of the JoC.

2. High Level Committee

As per the JoC, of March 2007, a High Level Committee has been established to oversee the implementation of the various provisions related to Joint Communiqu�. The HLC is co-chaired by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and the Humanitarian Coordinator of the UN and has five permanent members - the Commissioner General of HAC, Senior representative from the Department of peace and Humanitarian Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator, a senior representative each fro international and national NGOs. The committee has three observers from the international community - one from the three main humanitarian donors to Darfur, one from the Arab League and one from African Union.

The High Level Committee was constituted in May 2007 and since then it has managed to meet nine times and has addressed a number of issues related to the implementation of the JoC. It has provided a policy overview and has provided forum for members and observers to share experiences and raise issues that needed policy level intervention in matters related to the humanitarian operations in Darfur

3. Joint Procedures Centre:

Realising the difficulties humanitarian orgnisations, particularly International NGOs experienced in following a number of bureaucratic procedures, the Government established the Joint Procedures Centre in 2006. The objective was to bring together various departments and ministries (about 18 of them) that deal with various aspects of NGO work in Sudan under one roof and be facilitated by HAC in order to expedite facilitation. The departments and ministries have deputed Director level staff members to be housed in the JPC, who are able to give approval to the various procedures of the NGOs. HAC has appointed a Director General to facilitate the functions of the JPC.

The establishment of the JPC has enabled especially the INGOs in that they can approach one office and submit their applications related to visas, registration, work permit, national staff recruitment, customs exemption etc and expect to get a response from the same office, without having to visit several offices. This has considerably reduced administrative hassles experienced by NGOs besides providing a speedy response.

4. Tripartite Joint Technical Committee

In line with the spirit of cooperation and partnership, the Joint Procedures Centre established a Tripartite Joint Technical Committee in November 2006, comprising the Directors of the JPC, representatives from UN - OCHA and representatives from INGOs. This Committee is chaired by the Director General of the JPC, and is mandated with clarifying and standardising various procedures.

The TJTC has been playing an important facilitation role in complementing the various efforts of the government in facilitating humanitarian work especially in Darfur, but also Sudan in general. It has met a record 55 times since its inception and has been able to clarify a number of procedures. The long association has built very healthy and constructive relationship and trust between the three actors wherein it is possible for any of the members to raise any bureaucratic issue and expect an a response. It has greatly contributed to the accountability and transparency of the functioning of the JPC.

Two of the main contributions of the TJTC are the production of a General Directory of Procedures and bi-monthly monitoring visits to the three Darfur states and interaction with the authorities and humanitarian agencies to monitor as well as to resolve any issues and also pave way for developing more constructive relationship. This has culminated in the formation of State Level TJTCs, which will look into standardisation of state specific procedures in line with the letter and spirit of the JoC.

5. General Directory of Procedures

This is a significant document from the view point of facilitation by the Government. For the first time, this document has brought together all procedures related to the facilitation of NGO humanitarian work in Sudan with specific provisions applicable to Darfur. The Directory has managed to standardise procedures, clarify terminology across various processes required for NGO facilitation. Where procedures were unclear or not spelt out, the TJTC managed to seek clarification from respective departments and ministries and has standardised them. Besides providing the procedures, the Directory also has stated the time frame that will be taken up for each procedure and also specify fees that the agency will have to pay for such procedure.

The Directory was produced in both English and Arabic. It was officially launched in September 2007. In 2008 a series of training programmes were facilitated by members of TJTC and JPC both for government and NGO staff who deal with these procedures to create greater awareness among them. Further similar workshops were held in the three Darfur states

Currently, the Directory is undergoing revision based on the experiences of the past year. The revision is expected to provide greater support to the humanitarian work in Sudan.

6. Formation of the Tripartite Joint Technical Committees at slate level in Darfur
The General Directory of Procedures mainly deals with the federal procedures. With the autonomy given to the state governments under the federal system and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, the states have started setting their own procedures and this has caused some constraints on the smooth facilitation of the humanitarian work, As a result of this, the Government has helped establishment of state level tripartite Joint Technical Committees comprising, government, UN and NGOs, in line with the federal TJTC. The mandate given to these TJTCs is to spell out clear and standardised state level procedures that are in line with the federal procedures as to honour the letter and spirit of the Joint Communiqu� which is the commitment of the Government to the international community.

The state level TJTCs have been constituted only in the past three four months and will need time and nurturing from the federal TJTC to become an effective mechanism and complement the facilitation role played by various agencies. The federal TJTC has already started timing its regular visits to the three Darfur states to coincide with state TJTC and participate as observers in these meetings to provide further support.

3. Main Accomplishments:

The above mechanisms have resulted in speedier and more efficient processing of a number of procedures for NGOs.

The table below provides a list of important procedures facilitated by the Joint Procedures Centre in the last two years (Jan 2007 To Oct. 2008).

Procedures			Total
	Immigration	Entry visa	1651
		Residence permit	4520
		Multiple Exit\re-entry Visa	192
		Exit & Re-entry Visa	5183
		Final Exit Visa	1402
	Travel Notification	NGOs + UN	7371
		Embassies & Donors	618
	Flight Permissions	WFP��	4198
		Others	364
	Labor Procedures	Work Permits first time	1563
		Work Permits Renewals	1497
		National Staff Recruitment	729
	Customs Exemptions		1316
	HAC ID Cards		823
	Communication License		1404
	Tax Exemption		1604
	Registration of NGOs	National NGOs (new and renewal)	989��
		INGOs new	21
		NGOs renewals	169
	GRAND TOTAL		35,614

Challenges and Constraints:

1.Facilitation of the biggest humanitarian operation in the world - over 16,000 humanitarian aid workers over 1,500 international personnel is a stupendous task and one that cannot be taken lightly. As the expansion happened within a few months it exerted severe pressure on the Government, in particular, the Humanitarian Aid Commission and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs which was the lead agency to facilitate humanitarian work on behalf of the government.

2. Building trust among the various actors

The sensitive context in which humanitarian work was being undertaken and the complexities of Darfur crisis meant that any facilitation work would not succeed if there was no trust and understanding between the various humanitarian actors. Thus one of the first obstacles the facilitation work had to address was to build trust among the various humanitarian actors and to ensure that humanitarian work always stayed in focus.

3. Human Resources

With the exponential growthin the humanitarian response to the Darfur crisis, the limited number of personnel, at the command of the government to facilitate the humanitarian aid, was not able to cope with the increased work load. Further, the capacity of the staff across the Commission as well as across related departments and their understanding of humanitarian principles, the Government's commitment to the facilitation of humanitarian work as well as of the various mechanisms put in place has posed severe challenge on the overall facilitation work.

4. Technology

Technological constraint in terms of communication between Khartoum and the three Darfur state capitals as well as between the state capitals and the other field office is yet another challenge in terms of information dissemination, capacity building and problem solving.

5.Future Plans:

The Government will continue to address the challenges raised above and strive to overcome them to facilitate humanitarian work particularly in Darfur but also in Sudan in general.

Some of the more specific plans it has for the coming months and particularly for 2009 are as follows:

• Implement State procedures and guidelines for the delivery of Humanitarian Assistance consistent with federal procedures and Humanitarian Principles.
• Operationalise web based fast tracking for all procedures undertaken by HAC/JPC to enhance transparency and accountability.
• Continue Federal and state level consultations on humanitarian assistance.
• Establish internet communication links between the JPC and the state capitals
• Strengthen HAC capacities especially at the state level
• Enhance partnership between national and international organizations.
• Strengthen HAC/OCHA partnership.
• Disseminate the revised GDP widely both in English and Arabic and also hold workshops and training as necessary
• Define lines of coordination and reporting between federal and slates HAC and between line ministries and NGOs.
• Maintain HLC and TITC forums for dialogue on humanitarian issues.
• Continue addressing procedural constraints faced by NGOs.
• Standardise the information sharing templates for the NGOs - Technical Agreements, reporting, etc between federal and states.
• Regular missions and visits to the field supported by workshops if necessary
• Build on Darfur experience to widen the scope to other regions in Sudan.

6.Conclusion:

In conclusion, the Government can proudly say that it has stood up to the challenge of facilitation to a great extent particularly in relation to Darfur. As the accomplishments suggest and the situation in facilitation related to 2003. The Government also acknowledges that there is more to do. The experience of the past few years have shown that these challenges are not insurmountable and with the critical mass of trust, cooperation and partnership that has been built between the various humanitarian actors, the Government is confident that it will fulfil its role to the satisfaction of the humanitarian workers in Darfur.

The Government will continue to address all the above challenges through dialogue resource mobilisation/ allocation and capacity building. It will continue to work with greater transparency and accountability in facilitation of humanitarian aid in order to further build the trust among various humanitarian actors.

The Government of Sudan recognises and acknowledges with appreciation all the efforts exerted by national and international organizations, & by donors in supporting humanitarian programmes in Sudan in general and in Darfur in particular over the past years and decades. The Government of Sudan calls on all the organizations and the world community to exert more efforts to serve the humanity, and to realise our hope to acquire nationwide peace.