Results from South Sudan's referendum on independence earlier this month show overwhelming support for secession. But with the creation of a new country comes the responsibility of developing it after decades of conflict. International donors, non-governmental organizations and the government of South Sudan are working to build infrastructure, improve health and education, and create a governing framework to ensure long-term success. The U.S. government has been the leading international donor, having provided nearly U.S.$10 billion in assistance to Sudan and eastern Chad, which hosts Sudanese refugees, since 2005. AllAfrica spoke with the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Sudan mission director, Bill Hammink, about the referendum and development challenges ahead.
Can you describe what the referendum was like?
The excitement in the air was palpable. There were long lines, not only in Juba but also at many of the 2,300 or so polling centers across Sudan. People had been waiting many years to have the opportunity for this vote on self-determination. At the end of the seven-day polling period they immediately moved to counting. When they closed the polls for the last time, a number of us went to several polling sites. It was pretty amazing. They had all the international and Sudanese observers in the room; they had all the polling officials. They followed a strict procedure; they opened the ballot boxes correctly and started the counting process in front of everybody. It was a real exciting process that they did very well.
Can you describe how the role of governance in South Sudan will impact how development unfolds in the future?
Just like in any country, you absolutely have to have good governance in order for development to take place and take off. USAID has been working very closely with the government of southern Sudan since 2005 in helping them develop ministries and institutions and procedures, including a public finance management system, a human resource system, processes of good governance as well as training for staff from various ministries. That's going to continue to be a challenge - to make sure that across the board, from the government of southern Sudan in Juba down to the states and counties, that they have instituted good governance measures, including clear accountability and transparency.
With Sudan being divided between the north and south for so many years, how had this impacted development in the south so far?
Since the comprehensive peace agreement was signed in 2005, USAID has supported over 20 ministries and commissions and state governments within the government of southern Sudan in setting up these systems. In southern Sudan, especially after 2005, we were faced with the situation where, after decades of war, they had very high illiteracy, very few trained southern Sudanese who could really step in and pick up. You had no institutions of government – they kind of had to start from scratch. You had very little infrastructure for a government to be able to use. It was a typical post-conflict [scenario] but even worse than most. During the decades of conflict you had very little investment and very little infrastructure or government systems.
Now that the referendum has been held, how would you characterize the next phase? The south will continue to need enormous support to foster development.
They have enormous challenges ahead, enormous development needs and high expectations. They have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, [high] under-five mortality, an 80-percent illiteracy rate, [low] percentage of children who are in school. Almost across the board – education, primary healthcare, water and sanitation, infrastructure, even livelihoods, the development needs are great. There are going to be high expectations.
They have to reintegrate and anticipate a very large number of returnees. The United Nations estimates that over 200,000 southerners have already returned from the north and it could be many more before July [when formal independence is expected].
They have weak institutional and human capacity at all levels. They're going to have major challenges around stewardship of oil revenues and trying to diversify their economy away from oil to include non-oil economic growth. They're going to have continuing humanitarian needs. They're going to have a dependence on bilateral aid for a while. I think it's up to donors and others, the UN, to make sure that all assistance is done in the most effective way possible.
[South Sudan has] made important strides in terms of the number of children who now are receiving some form of primary education. They have made strides in terms of clean water. They have made strides in the number of roads. But it's such a large area that it's small compared to the overall needs.
What kinds of efforts are underway to improve food security in South Sudan?
USAID is increasingly focused on agriculture as a way to help diversify the economy, to try to significantly improve food security, decrease poverty rates, especially since an estimated 80 percent or more of the population depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.
Southern Sudan, especially the southern half, actually has very good soils and very good rainfall. They have high potential for agriculture and so it's actually a question of just improving productivity, improving soil, improving methods of farming. Obviously you need to then make sure there are markets, the whole value chain. But they do have good rains and they have cultivable land, quite a bit of which is not even being cultivated right now. The whole southern part - Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria and Eastern Equatoria - it used to be a breadbasket and it still can.
There is obviously interest by very large agribusiness, and that's fine. But a large percentage of the population is focused on smallholder agriculture, and that's our focus right now.
Is there one critical area of development that will help accelerate other areas of development?
It's all tied together. I think if we can get some real productivity increases - and links to markets and links to rural towns in the agriculture area - that will have a major beneficial effect across the entire economy.
Now that the referendum has been held, will USAID continue to focus on the same areas of development in South Sudan or will you portion your resources differently?
We will definitely continue to focus on strengthening an effective and inclusive governance system, both for the public sector [and] for civil society, in terms of demanding accountability of the government, economic governance, as well as democratic governance.
We will continue to focus on health, education, water and sanitation services. We will improve our coordination, working under a development plan that the government of southern Sudan is now putting together, and working under sector strategies which will allow much better harmonization and alignment of donor resources.
We will continue to support agriculture-based economic opportunities across the sector. And we will expand our work in terms of helping local governments and local authorities to reduce and mitigate local conflicts.
How do you do that?
I can give you an example. In 2009, in parts of southern Sudan there was a huge increase in violence and civilians being killed, ethnic groups against different ethnic groups. Part of it was around cattle raiding. There was a part of eastern Jonglei state that was especially bad. We provided significant assistance into a place called Akobo, with the United Nations, with terrific local leadership by the county commissioner there. We focused on some of the underlying causes of local conflict. One was that the youth who were doing cattle raiding and carrying AK-47s, didn't have other livelihoods and didn't have other things to focus on. So we brought in some brick-making machines and trained them to make bricks and helped them to actually set up their own business.
And then we supported the local county commissioner to sign a contract with these youth, these groups, to buy the bricks and then have them construct the county commissioner's facilities. This empowered local authorities by having their own facilities. Then we brought in communications equipment so the local authorities could communicate and know when there was a local conflict coming or when conflict happened.
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We supported traditional authorities, who in the past were the ones using traditional reconciliation methods, to try to stop or negotiate an end to these conflicts before they got to a point where people were injured or killed. We built some facilities for them. And then supporting groups of youth and women - the more marginalized groups - both [there and in] neighboring counties where there were different ethnic groups - and getting them together through reconciliation.
[It was] a whole broad range of interventions that were all locally based and based on trying to empower and support local mechanisms and local people, on the economic side - but also supporting local conflict-resolution mechanisms that had somewhat broken down during the war.
Was there a decrease in conflicts after these interventions?
What's amazing is that in Akobo they had many hundreds of people killed in 2009, and then in 2010 after all these efforts, less than 10 [killed].
The UN has made children's and women's health a priority in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. What sort of specific programs is USAID involved in related to these areas?
Especially in southern Sudan, we have programs for girls' education where we're providing thousands of scholarships to try to help girls stay in school, especially in secondary school, because that's a level where so many drop out.
We have maternal and child health programs throughout southern Sudan, through various primary healthcare centers and primary healthcare units, training midwives, better birth kits. We have programs that are providing radio-based education, where the messages are for issues like maternal mortality. Water and sanitation programs mainly affect women and children, so a whole broad range of programs. {We are] working with the government on all of this.
