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Rural poverty in the Sudan

Poverty in the Sudan is deeply entrenched and is largely rural. Poverty particularly affects farmers who practise rainfed agriculture. It is more widespread and deeper in rural areas in southern Sudan and in areas affected by conflict, drought and famine. 

The incidence of poverty varies considerably according to region, in part because economic growth has been unevenly distributed, but also because of the economic and social devastation caused by the conflict in certain parts of the country. There are severe inequalities in terms of access to education, sanitation and clean water, infrastructure and natural resources, income opportunities, justice and political protection.

Although sustained economic growth was behind a decline in extreme poverty from 85 per cent in the 1990s to an estimated 60 per cent at present, important regional disparities still exist. The Sudan remains a low-income, food-deficit country. It ranks 147th on the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index (2007/2008), among 177 countries.

In the country’s poorest areas, the rapidly growing population, including displaced people and returnees, puts significant pressure on already fragile ecosystems. Erosion, loss of soil fertility and damage to watersheds are affecting resources. Agricultural productivity is low. Farmers face the impact of the effects of climate change, such as water scarcity, on their livelihoods. Volatile food prices affect household food security.

Who and where are the Sudan's rural poor people?

In general, small-scale farmers and herders in the traditional rainfed farming and livestock sectors are poorer than those in the irrigated agricultural sector. And people who do not have land to farm eke out a livelihood by undertaking casual labour such as collecting firewood and making charcoal.

People living in areas that have been or continue to be affected by drought and conflict – particularly in the south and Darfur - are the most vulnerable to poverty. 

Isolation is one of the key factors affecting poverty. Settlements located away from main thoroughfares have little or no access to social services and markets. Within rural communities, households without assets and labour power are the poorest. They include elderly or disabled people, and households headed by women with young dependants. Women and girls are the most disadvantaged members of society – less than one third of them have access to education.

The country’s poorest areas include:

• southern Sudan, with the exception of Western Equatoria
• the transition area between northern and southern Sudan, including the states of Blue Nile, Southern Darfur and Southern Kordofan
• the states of Gedaref, Kassala, Northern Darfur, Northern Kordofan, Red Sea, Western Darfur and White Nile

Why are they poor?

Inadequate development strategies, slow adaptation to climatic volatility, and erosion of natural resources are the root causes of poverty. These causes have also fuelled the prolonged civil conflicts that have had a devastating effect on the rural population.

Poor rural people practise subsistence agriculture, and their livelihoods are based on crop cultivation, herding and fishing, where available. Smallholder farmers are hindered by the limited size of their landholdings, low rates of productivity and an inability to improve their incomes. Because of the lack of rainfall and domestic water supplies, for most farmers the growing season is brief and crop failures are frequent. The main constraints to their livelihoods are:

• the unpredictability of rainfall
• water shortages during the dry season
• barriers on migratory routes, which lead to disputes between pastoral and and settled communities, or between local communities and commercial interests
• cattle raiding

Because their access to credit, distribution and marketing channels is limited, and because they have inadequate technical knowledge and poor skills in production and marketing, farmers find it difficult to break out of the cycle of low productivity and income. Seasonal migration of rural workers in pursuit of wage labour opportunities on mechanized and irrigated farms and in urban areas has become widespread.

Conflict leads to greater poverty

More than two decades of civil unrest in the Sudan have cost the lives of about 1.5 million people and had a devastating effect on the well-being of the population. Protracted civil conflict in the Sudan generally has its origin in socio-economic inequities caused by neglect of the agricultural sector, misguided land reforms, unfair distribution of resources for development between urban and rural areas and for irrigated and traditional farming, and exclusion of local communities from decision-making. These policies have led to the development of an economy based mainly on export and lease of natural resources, to competition over access to scarce land and water, and to inadequate nation-building.

After decades of internal conflict the Sudan signed a peace agreement in January 2005 and the new Government of National Unity and Government of Southern Sudan launched a six-year recovery, peace-building and development plan.

Source: IFAD