Sudan

Strengthening women’s roles in natural resource governance, conflict prevention and conflict resolution in North Kordofan, Sudan (2016-2018)

This first pilot project (2016-2018) of the Joint Programme on Women, Natural Resources and Peace sought to strengthen women’s roles in local peacebuilding processes addressing natural resource-based conflicts in Al Rahad, North Kordofan, a community that is beset by climate-related environmental degradation and increasing conflicts over natural resources.

Building on and complementing interventions of UNDP’s Community Security and Stabilization Programme (C2SP), the project sought to achieve three specific outcomes:

• Strengthen women’s economic empowerment through natural resource-based livelihoods;
• Strengthen women’s participation in resource governance through community environmental action planning; and
• Increase women’s leadership and opportunities to participate in natural resource conflict prevention and resolution.

While ultimately targeting gains in women’s engagement in governance and conflict resolution over natural resources, the project adopted a strategic sequenced approach that aimed at meeting immediate needs first. Complementing alternative livelihood interventions conducted in Al Rahad by the C2SP, the pilot project focused on improving women’s livelihoods through technical training, establishment of cooperatives and access to markets. This first component on livelihoods was critical not only in addressing women’s economic needs, but also functioned as a trust- and confidence-building measure for the other project components.

In order to strengthen community governance and management of natural resources in ways that contribute to conflict prevention, the project supported Al Rahad’s Community Management Committee (now comprising 50% women) to undertake a collective Community Environmental Action Planning process. During this process, representatives from different groups jointly analyzed natural resource challenges, developed an action plan, and implemented concrete solutions to prioritized problems. The process was key not only to building women’s skills for sound governance of natural resources, but also to demonstrating their leadership and conflict resolution potential.

In addition, the pilot project sought to strengthen women’s capacities for conflict mediation and resolution, and to expand their spaces of influence within the community and its conflict resolution mechanisms. Activities aimed at changing community perceptions of women’s roles and capacities, and at increasing opportunities for women to exercise leadership in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, particularly in relation to natural resource conflicts.

Finally, the joint project sought to fill key information gaps by undertaking research on pastoralism, with the aim of improving understanding of how best to include women pastoralists in natural resource governance bodies and conflict resolution mechanisms in the future.

The pilot project started in October 2016 and ended in October 2018. It was supported by the Government of Finland and was jointly managed and implemented by the Sudan country offices of UNDP, UN Environment and UN Women.