The rural areas of North Kordofan are characterised by widespread poverty, little or no adequate basic human needs and support infrastructure, high dependence on subsistence agriculture and lack of job opportunities. Most villages in the area suffer from shortage of water, limited or poor education and health services, and lack of markets and storage facilities.
Water availability as well as quality is very much a concern for everyone. The main sources of water for domestic use are hand pumps, shallow and deep wells, and water ponds. The main problems related to water are pollution, severe shortage, especially during the summer season, and cost of spare parts, mainly for water pumps. The project area lies in the arid zone where provision of adequate and safe water supply is a pre-requisite for all project developmental activities. Sometimes people, particularly women and children, have to walk more than five kilometers to reach water yards (Mukhtar, 2002:8). A sustainable water supply has always been identified by communities as a main problem and a first priority, Mukhtar (2002) identifies the major constraints that face the provision of drinking water:
lack of financial resources; lack of appropriate technologies; and lack of a proper management system. Mukhtar proposes the replacement of the existing technology by electrical and submersible pumps in order to have a good quantity and quality of water. Research participants indicated that they spent a great amount of resources in digging wells and searching for adequate sources. They raised funds and contributed their own labour to construct wells and dig shallow ponds.
The second priority is education. Most villages have primary schools but they are not large enough to serve the number of school-age children and all of the schools suffer from a shortage of teachers, equipment and books (Hassan, 2005). Some boys and girls have to go to towns or big villages to attend secondary schools, in fact, if the village has no primary school girls are not allowed to go to study in the nearby villages. The research participants justified that as a protective measure, they believed that girls would not be safe if walking alone. However, even boys cannot be sent to study outside the village until they turn eight or nine years old (Sheikh-FGD, OS12005/Bara 2).
Regarding education, the people have their own perceptions; they know that education is important for both men and women. One of the impacts of male-migration is the contact with other cultures, which have opened-up opportunities for girls to enrol in formal schools and acquire a higher education. In contrast, for some of those who still live in the villages, girls' education is not very important, especially if the family is poor. If the limited resources constrain the families from sending all the children to schools, girls always have to pay the price in this equation. In general, both boys and girls would be disadvantaged if their families are very poor and cannot afford to pay the accommodation and school costs outside the village. During a focus group discussion in Bara 2 a village leader summarised the group's perception about the importance of education:
'We can now see how the lives of the people, who left the villages and went to live in Khartoum and nearby cities, have changed. They come to spend the holidays in the village; their children are educated, healthy and look different. The villages that have many educated and influential politicians, you can find everything, water, schools and clinics. We think education is the way to develop our village rather than depending on these projects/organisations' (VL-FGD, OS/20051 Bara 2).
It is clear that the participants had made the link between education and the level of people's capability to establish relationships, access resources and achieve development. Despite the
lack of government responsiveness and accountability, some villages in the area succeeded in developing. These villages have no influential government officials among their residents but have a long history with education. These villages have managed to survive and achieve some forms of internal development. Taking Bara 3 can show us an example of the locals' participatory efforts and outcomes. Bara 3 is situated in the project site but was not selected by the project for any interventions; it has been seen by the project as one of the better-off villages. There were 500 households and various associations including village popular committee, youth club, religious groups, women social associations, Red Crescent (RC) and the education committee. The women' s associations organised many joint programmes, in particular, with the Red Crescent, education committee and Youth club. Some nutrition and First Aid training courses were implemented through joint efforts with the RC. They also organised an annual fundraising campaign to support the schools and group weddings, which became a tradition in many villages. The village (Bara 3) enjoyed many services; it has a large elementary school, which was established in 1 953 and accommodates 643 children, both girls and boys, from the village and the surrounding villages. There are six mosques, a water pump, three flourmills and many other small enterprises. Literacy is very high ; almost all the villagers can read. Many people continued their secondary and university education elsewhere (SH-FGD, 1 0/2005). This resulted in having large numbers of highly educated and professional people who work in large cities or abroad mainly in Saudi Arabia and Gulf States. General appearances such as the existence of cars, trucks and the style of the buildings could reflect that there are some differences in comparison to other villages. Participants from the project' s participating villages related these differences to the impact of education and contributions of educated people. The focus group participants (28/09/2005/ FGDBara 3)
confirmed the absence of government authorities and expressed their doubts of any outstanding achievements that could be made by development or relief organisations. They indicated that what had been achieved in their v illage was initiated and i mplemented by grassroots organisations. Nevertheless, people believed that communities could not do everything alone, but transparent and efficient government authorities could make a great difference.
Development of transport and communications systems was another community priority. In fact a well developed infrastructure and transportation system can save people' s lives, especially in these marginal areas, which are threatened by drought and famine. Lack of transportation as well as its cost affect traders' ability to respond to a crisis and transport food
or fodder from other areas. This means that even if people have the ability to purchase food or fodder for their animals they might not get it and that contribute to the creation ofa famines. The villagers in Bara 2 recorded their experiences with dry seasons, which might threaten them at any time:
'All animals starved to death during May and June (2005). Some people lost their animals because fodder was very limited. Many people had the money to buy it, but from where? We know it was found somewhere else. It should be transported from other places. There was no government to help us, we do not know them and they do not know us. They only serve the capital where they live. You did not hear our girls singing: we wish to go to Khartoum; from where the airplanes fly, where the president sleeps, and where everything is in heaps' (RP-FGD, 08/20051 Bara 2).
Local people have great knowledge of their problems and needs. In Bara 2 the participants used the problem tree technique to identify their problems and the causes and solutions. Apart from the drinking water, poor education and health services, which are common problems in almost all North Kordofan villages, the participants identified the decline of agricultural productivity as one of the main problems in the area. They related it to decline of soil fertility, lack of agricultural extension services, spread of agricultural pests and diseases, lack of improved seeds, lack of finance, and desertification. They were also able to identify consequences of poor agricultural productivity ; decline of income, shortage of food and migration to other cities. They believed that if agricultural productivity improved many of their problems could be dealt with.
Poverty, Capability and Actions
The poverty level in the project sites suggested that the rural poverty level is 70% (IFAD: 2005 :3). The research participants, through PRA wealth ranking, used many indicators such as land, number and kind of livestock, style of building, number of rooms and commercial assets, to rank well-being. Each indicator was given a score. It has been noticed that neither the scores nor the indicators were similar in all villages. Despite the fact that there was no great variation between most of the villages but still there were some features such as building styles and existence of cars and trucks, which gave an indication that a few villages had different socio-economic conditions. This could explain why there were some variations in terms of indicators and scores. In one of the villages women' s clothes, j ewels, cars and trucks were placed as indicators and those who ran the village's shops and services, such as flour and oil mills, were classified as rich.
In Um-Ruwaba J there were 1 60 families belonging to different tribes. Of these 6% were classified as wealthy, and 1 9% as middle class while 75% as poor and the break down of the figures is shown in TabIe7.2. According to the participants' wealth ranking criteria, poor households are those who own less than a 5-hectare farm, but are not capable of cultivating it because they cannot afford to prepare the land and buy the agricultural inputs. They always need to work for other people during the rainy season to meet their urgent needs of food, clothes and medicine. Poor households also have one room and in most cases no fence. Most of the poor do not send all their children to school, because they cannot afford to pay the annual school fees and buy the school stationery. The poor cannot afford to pay for the medicine whether it is available in the village or not. The middle class households own 5- 1 0 hectares and some of the farm' s inputs. The members of the household cultivate their land, which means that they have surplus food and savings to survive the farming season without income. They usually own a house of two rooms and a veranda, send their children to elementary school and afford to pay for health services and medicine inside the village. Rich households own more than 50 hectares; some have more than 1 00 hectares and own all agricultural inputs. Rich households can afford to hire some people to work in their farms and rent others land to cultivate. They have big houses; each contains three rooms or more and is built from permanent material. They afford to pay for the education of their children until university and get health services and medicine from towns.
Table 7.2: Criteria for Well-being Ranking in Um-Ruwaba 1 Criteria
Assets owned / ability
Middle-class Rich
Number of families 75% 1 9% 6%
Land (hectares) <5 5- 1 0 > 50
Livestock 0-5 5- 1 0 > 50
Size of house (no. of rooms) I 2-3 >3
Paying for medicine Nil Limited High
Paying for education Very limited Limited High
In Um-Ruwaba 2, 73% of the population is classified as poor, 1 7% middle class while 1 0% were identified as wealthy and the break down of these figures is shown in Table 7.3. In this village, where the socio-economic status is slightly higher in comparison to other villages, people used more indicators to rank their categories. B esides land, animals, and size of the house, other assets such as small enterprises, trucks, family members who work overseas and women' s jewellery and expensive dresses were used to rank household' s wealth. Women in poor households did not have gold or expensive dresses. For middle class households women own 2-3 pieces of gold while in wealthy households women have a lot of gold and wear expensive dresses. In fact, the Sudanese women' s traditional dress (Tu ' ob) can cost up to US$ 1 50. Women normally differentiate between different styles, materials and the producers.
Table 7.3: Criteria for Well-being Ranking in Um-Ruwaba 2
Criteria Assets owned
Poor Middle-class Rich
Number of families 387 90 53
Land (hectares) 1 0 1 0-20 >20
Livestock < 1 0 1 0-20 >20 -hundreds
Size of house (no. of rooms) 2 3 >3
Women jewels Nil 2-3 pieces A lot
Job Casual labours Working abroad Traders
Source: PRA results, 09/2005 .
Social status or leadership were never mentioned as criteria or something important. This could be attributed to the fact that people' s understanding of leadership and representation is different. It was perceived as obligations and responsibilities rather than privileges. It was observed that most of the committees' leaders are from the middle class category or teachers.
In general large numbers of families in the project area are unable to retain their surplus of labour. Some poor families, instead of investing in their own land, usually work for wealthy people to meet their immediate needs. The poor families, who manage to cultivate their land, normally sell their products immediately after the harvest and at lowest prices. Wealthy traders, from inside and outside the area, buy at very low prices and arrange for transportation to highly populated centers and/or store the products until the prices increase.
The poor have no cooperative associations to facilitate transportation, storage and marketing of their products, nor do they have any sources of alternative income to help them survive until the prices go up.
Lack of employment opportunities in villages has forced almost all young males to migrate outside the villages to the nearby cities and the national capital, particularly during the dry season (January-June). It has been acknowledged that those migrants provide great support to their families during this period, although apparently the incomes of these migrants were not counted. People viewed this income as very limited and adequate only to help the family survive until the new farming season. Almost all those migrants returned back during autumn, either to cultivate their land or work on the farms of the rich.
In North Kordofan people's responses and actions were directed by the need for survival and security. It appeared that their social system was constructed according to these needs. The following section examines this system and explains how the local communities managed to adopt survival participatory strategies without external assistance.
Developing Survival Strategies
The indigenous participatory development approaches focused, for a long time, on addressing the key priorities, which were the provision of drinking water, building the schools and mosques, and helping each other to cultivate their land. The research participants recorded that there were different events that took place during the last hundred years, such as famines, which took place in 1 906, 1 945 and 1 984. During the 1 984/85 famines some people left their villages to live in the nearby cities or other regions and most of them returned after the crisis was over. Some villages managed to survive through cooperation and solidarity between the members of the community. The villagers in Um-Ruwaba
3
(not covered by the project) were an example of community that developed a survival strategy when facing difficulty or crisis. The focus groups and PRA participants (conducted 1 511 012005, Um-Ruwaba3)
proudly explained their experiences during the 1 984-famine crisis and 1 998 fire disaster. During the 1 984 famine the people decided not to move outside the village and form 'an emergency committee' that included the Sheikh, religious leaders and influential members of the community. This committee suggested that every household should declare what they had, grains, animals, fodders, money or gold. The committee decided to divide the village into three quarters and form sub committees, each one responsible for a quarter. The people ineach quarter cooked and ate together. The members of the communities who lived in the towns organised themselves and arranged for sending continuous support. This was to last for seven months until the crisis was over. The participants revealed that no one helped the village during the famine, neither the government nor the relief agencies. On the 1 998 fire disasters, fire destroyed 65 houses in the village causing 40% of the families to lose their assets, such as grains, plants, animals and shops. During the fire disaster people worked together and donated whatever they had to rebuild 65 houses and provided food and clothes for the sufferers.
Two years ago the committees in Um-Ruwaba
3
sponsored a group wedding. They organised Nafir for building the new houses and organised fund raising to cover all the wedding expenses, such as food, clothes, perfumes and furniture. The village Sheikh explained:'We managed to survive after each disaster. We know that 'these organisations' did not solve the problems. We saw them in other villages, and they did not change people's lives. Therefore we did not ask them to help us. Our main problem is this government, which is supposed to be aware of our problems and help us' (Sheikh
FGD, 1 0/2005, Um- Ruwaba