Story
Highlights
- In Bara Locality, North Kordofan
State, communities have been suffering
from the effects of climate change,
resulting in increased heat, dune
encroachment, water scarcity, and
diminishing crop yields and livestock
production year after year.
- Diversification of activities
is one of the most effective practices
for increasing the resilience of
the community to harsh climatic
conditions.
- The United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) places more emphasis
on community-led interventions to
strengthen people’s resilience
with focus on improved livelihood
options, sustainable natural resource
use, and conflict prevention.
In
Bara, a locality in North Kordofan
that encompasses 90 tiny villages,
the greenery can be deceptive. The
flat desert sprawls for miles around,
dotted with tiny villages where
the only colors to be seen are the
bright clothes of women coming back
from their weekly trip to the central
market of Bara town.
A group of women is all smiles as
they go through their record books
and count the revenue gained from
their community’s horticultural
gardens and livestock production.
These activities have offered them
major opportunities to promote food
security and improve their livelihoods,
a big contrast from the past, when
women had less economic value.
“We succeeded. Women are
keener than men on community-related
matters. Managing horticultural
gardens is mostly done by women
as men and youth are engaged in
the gold mining rush currently flaring
up in a number of places in North
Kordofan and elsewhere in the country.”
Says Igbal Bakri, a 49-year old
mother of three children and head
of the women’s village committee.
In the past few years, communities
have been suffering from the effects
of climate change, resulting in
increased heat, dune encroachment,
water scarcity, and diminishing
crop yields and livestock production
year after year.
Hafiz Eldouri is the director of
the Agriculture Department of Bara
locality and assistant director
of the “Building Communities’
Resilience to Climate Change”
project jointly implemented by the
Higher Council for Environment and
Natural Resources (HCENR) and the
UNDP. Based on his experience as
one of the inhabitants of this area
who lived through successive years
of drought, he explains “Provision
of energy substitutes and water
sources for livestock and horticultural
gardens have spared women time and
enabled them to stand against the
major cause of their vulnerability,
drought. It has brought about a
general increase in their adaptive
capacity amid harsh climatic conditions
through production of vegetables,
fruits, and livestock for house
hold consumption and income generation.”
| Participants
Farmers by Gender |
|
Source:
NAPA Best Practices in Sudan-
Documentation Study
|
Livelihoods Severely Affected
North Kordofan State is located
in Central Sudan in the woodland
savannah on sand. Livelihoods depend
on rain-fed agriculture including
herding, farming, forestry and Gum
Arabic production. But the state
suffers from extreme fluctuations
in rainfall, which generally vary
from 150-450 mm/year, resulting
in livelihoods that are severely
affected by frequent drought cycles.
UNDP Environment Officer Hanan Mutwakil
highlights the impact of climate
change on livelihoods “Severe
climatic conditions and land mismanagement
have caused poor vegetation coverage
and the loss of endemic woody and
range plants species that were once
dominant.”
To increase the resilience of communities
vulnerable to the impact of climate
change and to support these communities
in fighting the vicious cycle of
drought and loss, UNDP has established
a new initiative entitled “Building
Communities’ Resilience for
Climate Change”.
UNDP, with support from the Least
Developed Countries Fund (LDCF),
has also supported HCENR in developing
the National Adaptation Plan of
Action (NAPA), which led to the
initiation of community-level activity
piloting in 40 rural villages across
four states in Sudan: North Kordofan,
South Darfur, River Nile, and Gedarif.
The NAPA processes revealed that
the most vulnerable groups in North
Kordofan State are those living
in Bara locality. 90 villages are
located in the Bara Basin with estimated
populations of 18000 persons; out
of these villages, seven were targeted
by the UNDP/LDCF project aiming
to increase the capacity of the
Sudanese government and local communities
to take informed, equitable and
gender-sensitive action on climate
change.
“My
Community Has Benefited”
| RESULTS:
Diversification of Activities
is Contributing to Communities’
Resilience |
• Three horticultural
gardens were established in
three villages with a well-established
irrigation system. Cucumber,
okra, arugula, potato and tomato,
in addition to lemon, guava,
and grapefruit are being produced
by community members and sold
in the local market as well
as nearby areas.
• Nurseries were established
in three villages producing
19,000 seedlings in 2011-2012
with a total contribution of
181 farmers. Women constituted
the majority of participating
farmers in village nursery activity,
with 135 women (74.6%) compared
to 46 men (25.4%).
• With contribution from
the Forestry Corporation Nurseries
of Bara and El Basheiri localities
300,000 tree Seedlings were
planted in the seven villages
on open sand dune areas and
for live fencing of horticultural
gardens. |
As
part of the diversification package,
energy substitutes in the form of
butane gas cylinders and stoves
were distributed to reduce the pressure
on biomass which is used for provision
of domestic energy.
“My entire community,
women and men has benefited from
all the good services provided by
the project team. The team provided
us with energy substitutes through
the distribution of gas cylinders
and cooking stoves, which is a good
practice that reduces our demands
for tree cutting for cooking and
charcoal making, reduces cooking
time and spares us time to perform
other duties. In fact, the cost
of filling a butane gas cylinder
for SDG30 is less than the cost
of buying a sack of charcoal for
SDG100.” says Igbal joyfully.
To date, the project has distributed
72 full units of gas cylinders and
stoves in the 3 villages of Foja,
Abu Dalam, Elhumra, at a cost of
SDG500 each. The project contributes
SDG200 while community members repay
in ten-month installments at SDG30
per month.
Indeed, as Igbal said, women are
not the only ones benefiting from
these developments. Men have the
lion’s share of generated
returns from the project measures
that improved livestock production
and marketing. Both men and women
have benefited from increased awareness
and capacity building on animal
vaccination and treatment that are
necessary for improving livestock
productivity, since disease prevalence
and spread has escalated as a result
of climate change. These activities
have improved sheep and goat productivity
and increased generated income by
value addition through fattening.
Mohamed Ahmed Koko, a 65 year-old
farmer is a good example of those
who have benefited from the project’s
livestock activities, “Now
a sheep that was worth SDG500 can
be sold for up to SDG1300 after
just 45 days of fattening and vaccinations.
My sheep are healthier now; out
of the 50 sheep I own, nine of them
have delivered twins.”
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