Mid Term Review of the Government of Sudan and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation’s Country Programming Framework (2012-2016) and Development of the Plan of Action (2015-2019)

On 27 November 2014 in Khartoum The Government of Sudan and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, held a validation workshop for the Country Programming Framework’s Plan of Action (2015 to 2019). It was well attended by over 60 participants from Ministries, United Nations Agencies, Civil Society, Framers Unions, Private Sector, Universities and the Donor Community. Mr Abdi Jama, FAO Representative in Sudan co-chaired the meeting with the Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Rangelands, Dr Faisal  Hassan Ibrahim, State Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Dr Gaafar Ahmed Abdalla and Director General International Cooperation, Mr Elamin Hassan Elamin.

Since 2011, and the succession of South Sudan and a downturn in the Sudanese economy, the Government of Sudan has advocated agriculture as the engine to effectively contribute to economic growth and export performance and to simultaneously advance people’s livelihoods, reduce poverty, improve food security and nutrition and develop and protect natural resources. The Sudan Country Programming Framework (CPF), which is co-owned by FAO and the Government of Sudan (though its Ministries of Agriculture and Irrigation (MoAI), of Livestock, Fisheries and Rangelands (MoLFR), of Environment, Forestry and Physical Development (MoEFPD) and of Water Resources and Electricity (MoWRE)), presents the broad commitment of the Organization, subject to the availability of the required funding, to assist the Federal and State Governments in their efforts to achieving their own national and state development objectives. These are specific to agriculture, food and nutrition security and natural resource management (NRM), as identified in the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers I and II (2011-2016), the Second National Five Year Development Plan (2012-2016), the Three Year Economic Crash Programme (2012-2015), the Second Agricultural Revival Programme (2012-2016) and the 18 State Five Year Development Plans (2012-2016). The CPF also supplements and contributes to the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2013-2016). The CPF identified four priority areas (and five outcomes and 15 outputs), namely:

• Priority Area 1. Capacity building and consolidation of policy, laws, planning and information institution, systems and mechanisms reforms and development in agriculture, forestry, fisheries of Sudan.
• Priority Area 2. Capacity building of agricultural research, technology and knowledge development and transfer for enhanced productivity, production and competitiveness institutions, systems and mechanisms in agriculture, forestry, fisheries of Sudan.
• Priority Area 3. Capacity building of natural resources development and conservation institutions, systems and mechanisms in agriculture, forestry and fisheries of Sudan.
• Priority Area 4. Capacity building of disaster risk management institutions, systems and mechanisms in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries of Sudan.

The overall goal of PoA for Sudan is to contribute to the improvement of food security and nutrition and the reduction of rural poverty in Sudan, while supporting the country’s longer term economic development goals. In this context, PoA is in line with The Government of Sudan’s Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper; Outcomes 1, 2 and 3 of the United nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) Pillars 1 and 2 and FAO’s five global Strategic Objectives .

The immediate objective of PoA for Sudan is to address the key challenges of food insecurity, malnutrition and rural poverty in hazard-prone areas of Sudan by strengthening the resilience of vulnerable smallholders through a cohesive programme supporting relevant household livelihood protection and recovery, equitable and sustainable management of natural resources and agriculture development initiatives. In this context, PoA is line with the and Government of Sudan’s Second National Five Years Strategic Development Plan (2012-2016) and ARP (2008-2014), FAO’s three Regional Initiatives , and in common with the IGAD-led “Sudan Country Programming Paper – To End Drought Emergencies in the Horn of Africa” and the Darfur Regional Authority’s (DRA’s) “DDS”.

The PoA therefore aims to increase food availability and accessibility and diversify household incomes in order to decrease the risk of threats and crises faced by landless, marginal and small-scale men and women farmers over the extended period of CPF (2013 to 2019). Moreover, PoA prioritises and promotes inter-related and mutually supporting and sustainable short, medium and long-term interventions at all levels (i.e. household, community and institutional) that would ultimately contribute to overcoming the underlying causes of vulnerability in Sudan.

The PoA for Sudan has a duration of five years (i.e. 2015 to 2019) and is spread across three overlapping/interlocking tracks/timeframes, namely: rapid-delivery and immediate-impact food and nutrition security and livelihood protection and short-term risk-sensitive agricultural policy/strategy development (12 to 24 months); medium-term delivery and impact for risk-sensitive research and development and institutional strengthening of the agriculture sector (24 to 48 months); and long-term delivery and impact for rural livelihoods recovery and risk-sensitive agricultural and rural development (36 to 60 months).

The CPF/PoA for Sudan identifies four strategic intervention areas that mutually reinforce 17 short, medium and long-term overlapping/interlocking projects and programmes in support of the relief, recovery and development of Sudan’s small-scale agriculture sector (Table 1), namely:

• Improved policy and institutional environment for food and nutrition security and resilience programming – through capacity development, enhanced co-ordination and better informed decision making and knowledge management and sharing systems (four short-term projects, one medium-term project and two long-term programmes).
• Enhancing production, productivity and competitiveness of the crops, livestock and forestry sub-sectors and agricultural climate change adaptation (two short-term projects, one medium-term project and one long-term programme).
• Natural resource management and livelihood, food security and nutrition response, protection and recovery (one long-term project and three long-term programmes).
• National, regional and international control of threats to Sudanese food chains (one medium-term project and one long-term project).