By Albert González Farran

The situation in Darfur, as in many other conflict-affected regions of the world, has prompted a common question in media outlets, in peace talks and in universities here: Is peace a requisite of development or will development lead to peace? The answer to this question likely will be debated for years to come, as peace and development here have become inextricably linked in political and social discussions. While there are some two million people living in camps for displaced people and many villages still suffer from the results of armed clashes, the Government of Sudan, UNAMID, UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations have been implementing projects to help rebuild Darfur’s economy in the interest of creating a stabilising environment for peace.
 

Many local communities have taken the lead on these development projects, and have become the main agents of change. The people of Darfur—women and men, young and old, students and professionals, farmers and nomads—are moving, step by step, to rebuild Darfur’s infrastructure, economy and social bonds. Although most Darfuris consider a cessation of the conflict the main priority, the people of Darfur say that economic development, where it is happening, is contributing to peace.

“Before any economic development, we need to focus only on the peace process; this is crucial,” says Ms. Najwa Adam, a young graduate from Katila, South Darfur. However, she also says development projects designed for a sustainable future are critical. With Darfur’s conflict largely confined to specific geographic areas of Darfur, many of the communities now in desperate need of development assistance are well positioned to take advantage of some of the recovery programmes that UNAMID and its partners are working to implement.

One such project, undertaken by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is specifically designed to boost economic recovery in Darfur through relying on the energy and enthusiasm of Darfur’s young people. The programme, called Youth Volunteers Rebuilding Darfur, involves training young people—mostly in their twenties and thirties—who later serve as teachers themselves, providing training to people in their communities. The young men and women participating in this programme are beneficiaries themselves while also serving as agents of change for Darfur’s economic recovery.

On 2 July 2013, young Darfuris attend training as part of UNDP’s Youth Volunteers Rebuilding Darfur project at the Center of Peace Studies at Nayla University, South Darfur. Photo by Albert González Farran, UNAMID.

In addition to providing training, the programme equips these young graduates with laptops and Internet connections so they can work effectively in their home communities. Essentially, they become the links between UNDP development experts and the local community. Prior to serving as partners to engage local communities, the young people receive training in a broad variety of business-related topics so they can play an active role in linking suppliers, purchasers and wholesalers into local, national and international markets.

The Youth Volunteers Rebuilding Darfur programme started in early 2012, when UNDP, with the support of the Government of Sudan and local nongovernmental organizations, selected 205 university graduates to receive the intensive training at the University of Nyala, El Fasher and Zalingei on subjects such as community mobilization, resource management, green business opportunities, microfinance, entrepreneurship, climate change adaptation and reforestation. “We learned how to solve problems and how to apply this knowledge to our communities,” says Mr. Aljeeb Abdulgabi, a programme participant originally from Dreege, South Darfur.

While the one-month programme focused on training, the students described the experience as much more than that. Sharing accommodations provided by the Government, traveling together in UNAMID buses to the University each day, having meals together, socializing, and, of course, attending classes together and participating in lively discussions were all part of the daily experiences of these young students. The programme was an opportunity not only to learn new skills, but also to interact with other people, all from different backgrounds but facing similar challenges. “I really enjoyed all that time,” says Mr. Mohamed Abdul Al Jabbar, a programme participant who came from El Daein to attend the sessions in Nyala.

The programme’s facilitators were Sudanese professors sponsored by the Centres for Peace Studies from the Universities of El Fasher, Zalingei and Nyala. Ms. Nagla Mohamed Bashir, a professor at Nyala University, says the programme serves as a conflict-prevention mechanism because it teaches social skills useful for resolving disputes. “Young generations want to contribute,” says Ms. Bashir. "But they need to learn how to do so.”

Students participating in the training sessions passionately engaged the topics in the course of their studies, debating issues that they face in their daily lives. In the end, they came away with information that they were then able to apply in their home communities. Such information included how to work with microcredit transactions and how to manage natural resources effectively. “Part of our conflict is due to the lack of resources,” says Ms. Amina Mustafa, one of the programme’s participants originally from Al Arfisen, South Darfur. “The problem to solve is how to deal with it.”

Out of these 205 young people who received the Youth Volunteers training, UNDP selected 139 to continue the programme as active contributors not only in their home communities but also in other parts of Darfur. Individuals in this group were deployed to 47 remote villages in all five states to work with the communities there and share their newly gained expertise. UNDP calculates that, since the programme commenced, those 139 volunteers have interacted with more than 6,000 community members, and have trained them on entrepreneurship and natural resource management.

On 4 January 2014, Mohamed Hassan Hamid and Abdala Ahmed Mohamed, members of the Voluntary Network for Rural Helping and Development in Dar Al Salam, North Darfur, are photographed in the storage of Hibiscus Development Project, funded by UNDP and El Fasher University, as a result of the Youth Volunteers Rebuilding Darfur Project (YVRDP). Photo by Albert González Farran, UNAMID
 

The training-of-trainers process ultimately has an exponentially large upside. Just as the young volunteers were encouraged to share their knowledge, these 6,000 community members are passing on what they learn from the programme participants to their relatives, friends and colleagues. "I am sure we’ll bring change to our communities after all,” says Ms. Neimat Abduljabar Abdala, from Kabum, South Darfur. “This new information is already building peace and development in my community.”

While Darfuris have a reputation for relying on time-tested tradition, communities are embracing and adapting to the new ideas with enthusiasm. Mr. Bashir Alduma Ibrahim, a farmer from Dar Al Salam, North Darfur, attended several workshops conducted in his village by the Youth Volunteers graduates. While he has relied on traditional farming methods in the past, he says he is developing new skills based on this new training but is struggling with the business aspect of his work. Dealing with credit requests to financial institutions is a daunting prospect for those not well versed in the practice. “It's out of my capacity,” Mr. Ibrahim admits. Some of the training received by the young volunteers was designed to help farmers like Mr. Ibrahim specifically deal with such issues.

Now that the programme is well into its second year, its impact is evident not only in the knowledge-passing work the young volunteers are still undertaking in their communities, but also in the many agricultural and business projects that have emerged in line with concepts taught in the month-long, intensive-training programme. These projects include new ways to manage food grown on farms and new microfinance services. UNDP indicates that these new initiatives alone have created some 2,500 new jobs, many of which are staffed by women.

Some of the Youth Volunteers graduates likely will continue their work in private organizations or local administration, says UNDP Project Officer Narve Rotwitt. It is the expectation of UNDP officers, and all those supporting similar development projects across Darfur, that young Darfuris will continue to put their hope for peace into action, taking ownership of Darfur’s economic recovery and development and leading the troubled region of Sudan into a brighter future. In the end, when peace does come to Darfur, the question of whether peace led to development or development led to peace will be left for historians, sociologists and political scientists to answer.