VZCZCXRO7147
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #1088/01 1281359
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 081359Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2681
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KHARTOUM 001088 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AIDAC 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/SPG, PRM, AND ALSO PASS USAID/W 
USAID FOR DCHA SUDAN TEAM, AF/EA, DCHA 
NAIROBI FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA, USAID/REDSO, AND FAS 
USMISSION UN ROME 
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH 
NAIROBI FOR SFO 
NSC FOR JMELINE, TSHORTLEY 
USUN FOR TMALY 
BRUSSELS FOR PLERNER 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID PREF PGOV PHUM SOCI KAWC SU
SUBJECT: Eastern Sudan Poverty Alleviation and Peace 
Building Conference - Port Sudan, April 30-May 1, 2006 
 
 
------- 
Summary 
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¶1.  From April 30 to May 1, 2006, the U.N. Development 
Program (UNDP) convened an eastern Sudan poverty 
alleviation and peace-building conference in Port Sudan, 
Red Sea State.  The conference was attended by donors, 
U.N. agencies, non-government organizations (NGOs), 
community based organizations (CBOs), and the walis 
(governors) of Red Sea and Kassala States.  Following 
initial scene-setting presentations, the various state 
governors in attendance presented their program needs and 
funding requirements.  In the discussion that followed, 
one donor linked international assistance to eastern 
Sudan to the resolution of conflict in Darfur, a comment 
which sparked tense exchanges between conference 
participants.  The final communiqu produced by 
conference participants revealed the walis' anger toward 
the lack of funding pledged to the east at the meeting. 
A final private meeting between donors and state 
authorities mitigated this tension, but the meeting ended 
on a bitter note.  End Summary. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
Conference Participants and Initial Dialogue 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  From April 30 to May 1, 2006, representatives from 
the international donor community, U.N. agencies, NGOs, 
CBOs, and Red Sea and Kassala State and local governments 
gathered in Port Sudan to discuss poverty and peace- 
building in eastern Sudan at a conference convened by 
UNDP.  Participating donors included the European Union 
(EU), U.K. Department for International Development 
(DFID), Netherlands, Italy, USAID, and the World Bank. 
The major U.N. agencies represented at the conference 
included  the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), U.N. Food 
and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and U.N. Children's 
Fund (UNICEF).  Local authorities participating in the 
conference included the walis, cabinet leaders, tribal, 
and popular leaders from Red Sea and Kassala States. 
 
¶3.  The UNDP representative, Mr. Jerzey Skuratowicz, 
opened the conference by linking the meeting to a series 
of ten preparatory workshops previously organized by the 
Kassala and Red Sea State governments with support from 
UNDP, CBOs, and NGOs.  Each state hosted five workshops 
where participants engaged in broad discussions 
concerning possible solutions to alleviate poverty and 
advance the peace-building process in eastern Sudan.  Mr. 
Skuratowicz called for the adoption of a coordinated 
approach that follows the national development plan for 
the region and stressed the necessity of assessing the 
successes and failures of past interactions. 
 
¶4.  Sara Pantuliano, the UNDP consultant for the east, 
stressed the complexity of human suffering and the 
fragility of living conditions in the east.  She observed 
that the majority of interventions over the last 15 years 
have been small in scale, short-term, and focused on 
emergency needs.  She called for new thinking to outline 
a holistic, large-scale sustainable development plan for 
the east in order to address the deep-seated livelihood 
crisis currently gripping Red Sea and Kassala States. 
 
¶5.  The Wali of Kassala State, Ibrahim Mahmoud, reviewed 
the major humanitarian crisis facing Kassala:  hosting 
refugees and internally displaced persons, sustained 
drought conditions, and flooding along the Gash River. 
He observed that although the problems resulting from 
refugee flows are the responsibility of the international 
community, donors have failed to commit the necessary 
level of financial resources to support refugee 
assistance programs.  He added that donors should focus 
on rehabilitation and development to take advantage of 
the historic opportunity created by the Comprehensive 
Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the longest-running war 
on the continent.  He noted that development initiatives 
could not begin until peace prevailed throughout the 
region and urged the international community to pressure 
 
KHARTOUM 00001088  002 OF 004 
 
 
the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to withdraw 
completely from the east.  (Note:  The JEM is a rebel 
group from Darfur which has mobilized elements in the 
east and recently perpetrated 2 security incidents in 
eastern Sudan.  End note.)  Finally, he reported that 
Kassala State has received armed forces from the Umma 
party, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and the 
NDA El Fateh that have recently withdrawn from the Hamesh 
Koreib enclave and Eritrean border areas, and is also 
willing to "receive Eastern Front troops." 
 
¶6.  The Wali of Red Sea State, Mohamed Tahir Eila, 
summarized the humanitarian challenges facing Red Sea 
State:  drought and desertification, conflict, lack of 
health and education services, and the mechanization of 
Port Sudan which resulted in increased unemployment rates 
among Beja laborers.  He added that the current 
government of Red Sea State is a national unity 
government composed of nine different parties.  He talked 
about government interventions in the service sector and 
education, as well as government plans to establishing 
model villages.  He called for a partnership between the 
state government, U.N. agencies, and NGOs to alleviate 
poverty and advance peace in Red Sea State. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
Kassala and Red Sea States Appeal for Foreign Assistance 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶7.  Two proposal papers, one for Red Sea State and one 
for Kassala State, were presented to the donors.  The Red 
Sea Sate paper proposed a variety of projects in health, 
education, agriculture and food security, local 
government and civil service, social affairs, culture, 
information, youth and sports, and urban planning at an 
estimated cost of 220 billion Sudanese Dinars (SD), or 
roughly one billion U.S. Dollars.  The Kassala paper 
opened by highlighting the fact that the CPA targeted 70 
percent of national development and reconstruction funds 
toward the least developed states in North Sudan, 
including Kassala.  The paper focused on the following 
themes:  basic social services, productive sectors, 
infrastructure, livelihoods and social services, 
governance and rule of law, monitoring and evaluation, 
information systems, and capacity building, 
decentralization, and statistics.  The Kassala State 
government estimated the cost of the proposal at 2.5 
billion U.S. dollars and promised to finance 30 percent 
of the total budget. 
 
¶8.  The presentation of the Kassala and Red Sea State 
proposals was followed by general discussion among 
conference participants.  The following comments emerged 
during the discussion: 
 
a)  The administrative costs for NGOs working in the east 
are very high, leaving a relatively low percentage of 
funds for actual service delivery to project 
beneficiaries. 
 
b)  Despite the fact that Red Sea State has the highest 
infant mortality rate in Sudan,  UNICEF does not maintain 
a presence in the east. 
 
c)  Peace must be achieved in eastern Sudan prior to the 
implementation of any proposed humanitarian assistance 
programs.  Without peace, humanitarians cannot gain 
stable access to beneficiary populations. 
 
d)  The Rashaida tribe, a marginalized ethnic group in 
the east, was not well represented at the conference. 
 
e)  Red Sea State received no revenue from French gold 
mining operations in the state.  Sharing of revenues with 
the state government would alleviate the need for donor 
assistance from the international community. 
 
f)  The two papers were extremely ambitious with huge 
budgets.  The budget figures should be more realistic. 
 
g)  A successful food-for-education program in Red Sea 
 
KHARTOUM 00001088  003 OF 004 
 
 
State should be strengthened. 
 
h)  The majority of students in eastern Sudan cannot 
afford to pursue higher education. 
 
¶9.  Donors held group discussion meetings with UNDP and 
representatives from each of the two state governments. 
Participants agreed that the papers were very broad and 
needed a greater focus on priority areas for 
intervention.  Stakeholders also agreed to undertake an 
additional needs assessment in order to develop a 
strategic plan which would be collectively owned by the 
wider eastern Sudan community including government, CBOs, 
NGOs, and donors. 
 
-------------- 
Donor Response 
-------------- 
 
¶10. Donors presented five key lessons to the conference 
participants: 
 
a)  Peace:  All parties must work to end conflict and 
realize a firm peace throughout eastern Sudan. 
 
b)  Dialogue:  A two way interchange of information is 
needed.  Donors and authorities need to listen to each 
other and should look for ways to optimize their 
partnership.  Donors offer more than money, and could 
provide technical assistance, experience, and lessons 
learned from other countries. 
 
c)  Planning:  Planning should be based on good 
information.  What are the targets?  How do they match 
the Millennium Development Goals?  What social indicators 
should be used?  What is the long term plan/strategy for 
the East?  How can the information collected in the Joint 
Assessment Mission be used in the planning process? 
 
d)  Services:  Health and education services should be 
free for the poor. 
 
e)  Coordination among donors is very much needed. 
 
¶11. In presenting the donors' points, the DFID 
representative put forward some observations: 
 
a)  The world looks at Sudan through the lens of Darfur. 
Sudan must bring the conflict in Darfur to an end if the 
country desires increased development assistance. 
 
b)  The Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) urges the 
Government of National Unity to provide the bulk of 
development assistance to the east.  Under MDTF 
guidelines, the international community's contribution 
toward development in the east may not exceed five 
percent of the proposed budget. 
 
c)  A key lesson learned in other countries was the need 
to stop corruption before it starts. 
 
¶12.  Local authorities at the conference reacted very 
negatively to the DFID representative's comments, 
claiming that: 
 
a)  The donors are politicizing humanitarian work by 
linking assistance to the East to the conflict in Darfur. 
 
b)  The MDTF's offer to fund only five percent of 
development assistance is extremely low.  If this sum 
indeed represents the donors' maximum contribution, the 
east does not need it. 
 
C)  Donors did not come to the east to teach local 
authorities how to combat corruption. 
 
---------------- 
Final Communiqu 
---------------- 
 
¶13.  The final communiqu was drafted under a tense 
 
KHARTOUM 00001088  004 OF 004 
 
 
environment and delivered by Musa Shash, Red Sea State 
Minister of Finance.  The communiqu stated that "the 
participants of the eastern Sudan conference for poverty 
alleviation and peace-building were very much 
disappointed by the fact that the donors have apologized 
to provide any funding to the east for the time being." 
 
¶14.  The Wali of Red Sea State officially announced the 
end of the conference.  He extended his thanks to all 
participants, claiming that the conference was a good 
brain-storming session.  He added that one lesson learned 
from the conference was that "we should depend on 
ourselves and invest our resources and we should not 
depend on others." 
 
¶15.  The donors interpreted the final communiqu and the 
wali's closing speech as an insult.  They called for a 
private meeting that was attended by representatives of 
the EU, DFID, Italy, USAID, UNDP, WFP and the Red Sea and 
Kassala State Ministers of Finance.  Following a frank 
nk 
and transparent discussion, the participants agreed on 
the following: 
 
a)  The great needs for continued support from the 
international community to Red Sea and Kassala States. 
 
b)  Donors will continue to fund current NGO and CBO 
assistance programs in Red Sea and Kassala States. 
 
c)  Donors and the two state governments will continue 
their dialogue over foreign assistance to the east. 
 
d)  State authorities will work to improve the working 
environment for humanitarian organizations operating in 
eastern Sudan. 
 
¶16.  Comment.  Although the final meeting was courteous, 
the donor participants departed feeling that the poverty 
alleviation conference had failed to achieve a positive 
dialogue between state and local authorities and the 
international community.  The two governments agreed to 
issue a press release including the agreements listed 
above.  However, these results have yet to be broadcast 
to a wider audience, a failure which may illustrate the 
governors' difficulty in addressing a population that 
feels their high expectations and aspirations were not 
really addressed by the conference.  End comment. 
 
STEINFELD