wfn.org | Better coordination needed for aid operations in Southern Sudan

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

LWF World Service program secretary submits report

GENEVA, 20 August 1998 (lwi) - Improved coordination and logistics in
relief programs in
famine stricken Southern Sudan must become a priority, according to
Kaanaeli Makundi,
Coordinator for Program Implementation in the Department for World Service
of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Makundi visited the Bahr el-Ghazal region
in mid-July to
assess the implementation of a program sponsored by Protestant and Catholic
churches
worldwide. According to Makundi, operations by the LWF and Action by
Churches Together
(ACT) currently concentrate on the Yirol and Rumbek counties, where the
largest number of
vulnerable groups, including about 69,000 displaced persons, are to be
found.

Looking to longer-term involvement in Sudan, the World Service coordinator
has requested that all participants join hands to improve the logistics. As
an example, Makundi cited the urgently needed improvement of roads, since
land transport is by far the cheapest way to reach Southern Sudan. These
days, the roads are hardly practicable. She pointed out that it is "reality
in Southern Sudan that trucks loaded with food, seeds and other items
dispatched from Uganda in April arrived in Rumbek only during the last week
of July". It is impossible to assist - or even to want to assist - starving
people under such conditions. "The food arrived too late for some," she
stated, expressing doubt whether the seeds could be distributed in time for
the planting season.

Since one aid organization cannot on its own construct and maintain
passable roads, in her concluding report, the LWF coordinator for Program
Implementation calls particularly upon governments and the United Nations
(UN) to address the problem of transport. Very little has been learned in
this respect from earlier emergencies, she criticized.

The only alternative is the airlifting of goods. Even here, Makundi says,
there are constraints. There are no suitable airfields for bigger planes,
and for the time being military planes are not allowed to operate in the
area.

Supplement food aid with other measures

Among other things, Makundi visited a feeding center in Rumbek. "The sight
was devastating," she remembers. "There were children and old people who
could survive only if the food continued to arrive. Many were too weak to
prepare their own food or to eat by themselves. ... It became apparent that
food alone was not enough. Other services are needed."

In view of dwindling resources, is it important, according to Makundi, to
plan for highly effective programs and to target selected groups. As for
the future, her report calls for agricultural training programs and support
for agriculture by partner churches.

Sudan has been ravaged by civil war since 1955, and millions of southern
Sudanese have been displaced. The situation has worsened owing to renewed
fighting, the continuing drought and crop failures.

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Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
E-mail: jbn@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/