ZOA Sudan project ”Sustainable Integrated Development Approach"

In 2018, ZOA in a consortium with World Relief and SOS Sahel Sudan was awarded the Sustainable Integrated Development Approach (SIDA) project funded by the Swedish international development agency (Sida). The project ended by the end of March 2022. In line with the Swedish strategy choices and priorities for Sudan, four outcomes were formulated aiming at strengthening the resilience of people living in Darfur (North, South and West) and Gedaref states. In addition, this project was designed to be complimentary to the Aqua4Sudan programme and fill important gaps. The project was implemented in a very complex time period and has had to adapt to a deteriorating economic climate including hyperinflation, the political turmoil in the past years and COVID19 affecting the operation in the last two years. The results of the final evaluation show that the final year of implementation has been instrumental for reaching the encouraging project results, showing an average success rate of 98% of achieved planned results. Outcome 1: Improved conditions for peaceful and inclusive societies at the local level, including land rights. In 2019 and 2020 Peace Committees together with a range of other committees, such as Water Committees and Women Committees were established and trained in all project areas. In some instances individual committees were clustered in committees overseeing a total catchment area, hence leading to more reach and consistency in their approach. Committees obtained legal registrations serving their legitimacy in Sudan, beyond recognition in their communities. An inspiring example of inclusion of women in committees is the election of a woman as head of a catchment committee by around 15 villages in South Darfur. This shows that community norms, mindsets and attitudes can be significantly changed, if context sensitive strategies are used by capable, determined and committed staff. Outcome 2: Increased Sustainable Management of Water Resources and increased Access to Water. To increase the management of water resources and increase the access to water in a sustainable way the project 10 Catchment Committees were established and trained. This was followed up with the support to all committees to work out Catchment Water Resource Management Plans. This was a participatory process in which clear priorities for each catchment area were worked out. These priorities resulted in the construction/rehabilitation/upgrading of 34 water points and 159 water conservation points. To a degree that differed per state, access to water has improved for approximately 164,823 people. Finally, a total of 24 Water Management Committees were established to manage the water points in the catchment areas. Outcome 3: Increased capacity on local level to sustainably manage and protect natural resources and prevent environmental degradation. Under this outcome, the capacity of local committees to manage natural resources was strengthened through establishing and training a total of 27 Natural Resources Management (NRM) and crop protection committees. A key success to protecting natural resources was through the creation of fire lines. Awareness raising on environmental degradation has been an important component under this outcome as well, in relation with offering environment friendly ways of income generation options such as the production of fuel saving stoves and soil stabilized bricks. Fuel saving stoves offered pportunities to significantly reduce the amount of charcoal used for cooking (benefiting the environment and the reducing household expenses) as well as provided income generating opportunities for women groups. The introduction of solar energy as an alternative and cleaner source of energy has been received well by the communities and helped to further raising awareness. Nurseries played a role in producing seedlings for planting trees, contributing in a very direct way to preventing environmental degradation. During the reporting period, a total of 8 nurseries were set up and 4 nurseries rehabilitated with 24,669 beneficiaries and 165,000 seedlings produced. Outcome 4 Increased sustainable agriculture productivity and improved food security. The focus here was a combination of training, organizing community groups around income generation, providing inputs and facilitating links to the market. 11 Solar irrigation pumps were provided to farmers associations, reducing the cost on fuel to run the generators. 28 farmer associations were successfully linked with private sector entities such as the Agricultural Bank, Arab Sudanese Seed Company and others. In this regard, farmer field schools (86) and demonstration farms (48) were established during the project period. In addition, 9 seedbanks were set up by the project during the three years. Various fishery and farmer associations were started and strengthened by the project, leading to improved production and improved food security. A good example of how improved production combined with better links to the market can be found in what the project achieved in the fishery sector. Fishermen were equipped to cool the fish and transport these directly to the markets.

The aim of the project "Sustainable Integrated Development Approach" is to strengthen the resilience of people living in Darfur (North,South and West) and Gedaref states. These areas are water catchment areas that have been identified as especially needy in terms of water scarcity but with potential to improve because of these being water "gathering" areas (where water flows into a "catchment" area). The selected states also corresponds to Sida's/OCHA's analysis of areas most vulnerable/at risk. Community participation committees will be used to manage the scarce natural resources (such as water) to avoid conflicts. Through Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) the program aims to create a well-reasoned balancing of water needs with water availability and to improve communities planning and management of water usage for specific areas, communities, including both pastoralists and farmers in this planning and management process. The same approach will be used for managing local forests as a source of firewood.  The project has four outcomes: 1) Improved conditions for peaceful and inclusive societies at the local level, including land rights; 2) Increased sustainable management of water resources, and increased access to water; 3) Increased capacity on local levels to sustainably manage and protect natural resources and prevent environmental degradation, and 4) Increased sustainable agricultural productivity and improved food security. Activity summaryOutcome 1:- Capacity building of local organisations and committees on conflict resolution and building of trust- Strengthen land right systems at Locality level- Capacitate local organisation and committees on resolving issues related to land rights Outcome 2:- Establishment and training of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Committees in targeted catchment areas- Development of Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs)- Construction of groundwater recharge infrastructure- Rehabilitation and/or construction of water supply infrastructure for people, livestock and crops Outcome 3:- Strengthen the capacity of local committees to manage natural resources- Improve corridor management- Increase the understanding of local communities on environmental degradation- Pilot environmental friendly alternatives for cooking and lighting on community level (this includes the provision of income generating activities (IGAs) for women)- Set up of tree seedling nurseries Outcome 4:- Set up of farmer field schools- Stimulate diversified crop production (including irrigated systems)- Set up of seed banks- Distribution of intermediary technology equipment to farmers groups- Organize farmers in associations and connect them to the private sector and other relevant bodies (microfinance, insurance, government entities) In regards to reporting, the baseline in any new geographical area cannot be done until permission to work in the areas is obtained from HAC, the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission. This can only be applied for once there is an agreement in place. Baseline from the geographical areas where the partners have been working already exists, which in some cases is close the to proposed sites for this intervention. Anchoring their work with local governments will be very important for the success and eventual sustainability of the project. Dialogue questions to follow up on during review meetings, field visits, etc: - Outcome 1: Regarding Land Rights, a possible contact with various actors working in this area such as Swedish Land Survey (Lantmäteriet) and UN-Habitat in Sudan. Explore the possibility to include Sudan in an upcoming ITP programme under CAPDEV strategy. - Outcome 2 and 4 - water harvesting infrastructure should be of interest and there are good examples (successful low-tech infrastructure) to learn from.- For output 3.3 ZOA should develop an e-waste management strategy if the proposed feasibility study on use of domestic solar is put into practice- Close follow-up on the fuel efficient stoves is recommended- Explore the possibility with ZOA to base their indicators on SDG targets (1,2,5,6,13 and 16)- Follow how they build on humanitarian work/resilence. Overall a very ambitious, comprehensive and well-thought through multi-sectoral project with a needs-based and community-driven program approach. Aside from the dialogue questions which require more consistent follow-up, several aspects of the program need to be further developed during the inception phase and again reviewed by experts at Sida (See comments from Plan Appraisal meeting 2018-09-04). The Inception Phase which will end by 30 April 2019, will provide Sida with an updated budget and log frame. Sida assesses that during the Inception phase, the Consortium has a good possibility of setting realistic and attainable objectives. Documentation and information from other programs carried out by ZOA and their partners indicate a high level of confidence in their work and a good level of achievement.