1 Jul 2012

Strengthening Ties with Darfur’s Communities

UNAMID’s leadership is steering the Mission into more quick-impact projects that focus on humanitarian assistance across Darfur, as a way to facilitate recovery and development in the region.

By Abdullahi SHuaibu

In December 2011, as part of an effort to reinvigorate the African Union - United Nations Mission in Dafur (UNAMID) mandate, the Mission restructured its quick-impact projects (QIPs) programme. The new programme consists of six priorities: health; early recovery and livelihoods; empowerment of underrepresented populations; environmental protection; education; and water and sanitation.

QIPs are part of UNAMID’s focus on early recovery and development, and are meant to support initiatives oriented on basic aspects of life. By extension, QIPs are designed to address the underlying problems that have contributed to the situation in Darfur.

“The populations affected by the crisis [in Darfur] require lifesaving support,” says Zurab Elzarov, a UNAMID Humanitarian Affairs Officer. “Their communities, institutions and livelihoods have often been physically destroyed and weakened, so recovery programming works to restore services, livelihood opportunities and governance capacity.”

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Read the full article in the July 2012 issue of Voices of Darfur. Download the magazine (PDF) here.

Girls from Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced persons (IDP), North Darfur, dance and sing to celebrate the inauguration ceremony of 10 new classrooms in three Abu Shouk schools, 18 April 2012. The rooms were built by UNAMID’s Rwandan Battalion 29 as part of a quick-impact project. Photo by Albert González Farran, UNAMID.