Examining Enterprise Capacity - SSDDRC

A larger problem for the communities of Southern Sudan, according to the official, is the tension felt
towards Northerners. During the war, Northerners were considered enemies and these attitudes do
not change easily. Terms such as Jelaba and Jur are used to describe outsiders – the first having
been associated with Northern merchants accused of stripping Southern resources. Patience and
education are needed to move from hate to acceptance. At one time, Help Age had set-up an eyeclinic
in Yay, but the local community there would not allow doctors from Khartoum to serve them.
Tension between Southern communities also exists and is a great concern.
The Help Age senior official believes that income-generation projects can bring people together and
ease community conflicts, but too often it isolates groups due to the narrow focus of target
communities. Transparency in any project is important, as experiences differ from location to
location, community to community and project to project. On the topic of remittances, the official
stated that there are some remittances being received in Juba; however, it does not appear to be
substantial enough to support the livelihoods of much of the community.
The Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD), Juba
In Juba, the researchers met with members of the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD), the NGO
charged with de-mining and training Sudanese nationals in such activities. Their work is focused in
Southern Sudan and Darfur and is an important part of the DDR program.
One member of the team stated that in the Juba area, FSD had hired 120 ex-combatants for demining.
Of these 120, over 60 were fired due to alcoholism problems. 81 new recruits were recently
hired from returnee populations, mainly those returning from Ugandan and Kenyan refugee camps.
The official stated that the refugees are better educated than the ex-combatants and are less likely
to show up for work inebriated. Interestingly, there is widely available documentation that large cash
payments are often misused by ex-combatants, as they are not accustomed to managing funds and
may be more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.
FSD members noted that the mandate given to them by the UN is to clear roads for UN activities and
to open Juba to different markets – both to Khartoum and East Africa. There is no intention to demine
farmland so that people can return to sustainable forms of livelihoods. The official who
commented on this stated that the responsibility to de-mine farmland would be left to Sudanese
national, and that these activities would not likely start for ten to fifteen years. An official at the UNDP
was able to confirm this statement.
The United Nations (UN), Juba
The researchers met with two UN staff members, one from the UNDP and one working with UNMIS
(Southern Sudan) who has UNDP and Ministry of Justice (Southern Sudan) experience. Both are legal
officers with vast experience with issues pertaining to DDR, governance, gender, government
capacity building and human rights. One is a foreign national and the other a Sudanese national.
Land tenure and inheritance were raised as important legal issues pertaining to development in
Southern Sudan, especially for women. Communal land is shared and under the authority of tribal
leaders, almost always men. Property itself can be purchased, giving legal and economic rights to an
owner, where communal land faces many political and economic challenges. With current
inheritance customs, cattle, an important factor of wealth, does not go to women. Thus, women in
Southern Sudan, especially the large group of marginalized IDP women, are very concerned with their
potential for economic development. Access to markets is also a large retardant of the economic
development of women. Conflict exists between Dinka IDPs who are using agricultural land for
grazing their cattle and other IDPs interested in raising crops. Exacerbating this issue are Mulas,
militias involved in cattle raiding from competing tribes. Chiefs of returning IDP communities do not
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