Towards An Economic Development Strategy for the Nuba Mountains

Firstly: A Development Strategy for the Nuba Mountains shall aim at formulating a long-term perspective framework for social and economic development in the region aiming at realising the following:

A significant increase in income and service entitlements for the general region’s population to realise a lift above poverty levels and onto the path of development.
Mobilisation of resources in a context of an environmentally sustainable development.
Community coherence, intercommunity harmony and governance

Secondly: Enhancement of Economic Capabilities

An economic development strategy for the Nuba Mountains is basically a poverty elevation strategy. It is based on attacking poverty from two fronts. The income generation front and the service provision front. The strategy is meant to be intrinsically sustainable (based on mobilisation of local resources and integration of local economic activity and local communities) and is also meant to be consistent with the sensitivity of environmental position of the region (in acknowledgement of the peculiarity of local environment and its status as being on the verge of collapse).

Thirdly: The income generation component of the strategy will be based on the following:

1. Support for agriculture as the driving force by developing an overall agricultural development plan based on the following:

a. Bringing traditional farming into line with more environmentally friendly practices.
b. Support for more choice of crop mix available to the farmer
c. Offsetting the prevalent crippling seasonality by a multiplicity of ways including encouragement of adopting a market oriented animal farming and horticultural practices in a context of mixed farming.
d. Introducing credit both individual and communal
e. Total change to the current absentee farmer tractorized schemes
f. Laying the basis for a long term plan aiming at bringing to an end the current practice of nomadic animal production system. The current practice is proving increasingly unsustainable environmentally and in odds with intercommunity harmony and governance. Such a plan is basically a social engineering plan which must be based on democratic non-coercive measures and must be community-lead. Such a plan is envisaged to work through scheme of incentivisation and disincentivisation, which will render the old practise less viable economically and induce the adoption of the new scheme. Sedentariation, revillaglisation may form salient components of such a plan.

2. Broadening the wage employment base by developing an overall industrial development plan for the area. The industrial plan must avoid past approach and focus entirely on development of industries which are based on local resources and integrate with locally based economic activity. A good example of such industrial activity is when you have oil-based industries such as soap production which makes use of locally produced cotton seeds/groundnuts/and/sesame producing the raw material for animal feed to be supplied to locally-based animal production farming. Cotton may as well go into spinning industry which in turn helps rise of textile industry.

3. In recognition of the fact that any augments to be realised in income entitlements could easily be eclipsed by a decline in entitlement to health, education, sanitation and clean drinking water services; a service plan is to be drawn along those lines. It will be necessary for most of these services to be free at the point of delivery at the early stages of the implementation the strategy at least.
The service plan is expected to bring together public funding (central and regional), Non-governmental services deliverers (local and foreign) and local community efforts. Such a service plan should give guidance and long-term perspective to the current ad hoc and isolated gap-filling efforts.

Fourthly: - Infrastructure;

Road building program will be the main focus of the infrastrural support for the strategy. The region has historically suffered from isolation as a result of the lack of road system. Obied Dilling Kadugli road which was started in the sixties has yet to be completed even to its current rudimentary standards. The road building programme aims at opening up intra-regional as well as access to all neighbouring regions. Obied Dilling Kadugli road to be extended to Bahar El-Ghazal region through Talodi. The East West road across the region from to link Kosti Obied road to Kawda Kadugli and Westward to South Darfur through Western South Kordofan (Lagawa and Al Fula). Feeder roads may have to be built to connect to the mountain’s road cross.
Water supply program to be developed to support the agricultural plan and other aspects of the strategy. Mini dam building and other water catchments and water preservation techniques are expected to form an important component of the program. Lessons are expected to be learned from the experience of Miri and Talodi old dam. Nowadays, literature is available on successful experiences in the Savannah region from as far as Mali.

Fifthly: - Energy;

Demand for energy is expected to rise many times over its current levels. Current capacities to deal with that are non-existent. Use of alternative energy sources will be encouraged but, oil will remain the main source. The region may have to be allocated a sufficient quota from oil produced in the region. Oil refining installations may have to be considered.
Currently, wood and charcoal is heavily used as domestic source of energy and in some businesses. Preservation and development of the regions vegetation is an important feature of this strategy. Removal of the vegetative cover and reliance on it as source of energy must be discouraged.

Sixthly: - Funding;

Sources are
1. Central government contributions
2. The region share in oil revenues
3. Local revenues
4. Inward investment national and foreign
5. International aid NGOs

Seventhly:- Land
Current land arrangements under existing laws and conventions have not really been subjected to proper examination. Current disputes are of a relatively minor nature. That situation is expected to change, as use of land intensifies. Pressure will be expected to rise. The two main sources of dispute are presently prevalent the clash between nomadic and sedentary communities and the dispute between rain-fed mechanised farming and local communities.
Demand and subsequent pressure on land in the Nuba Mountains is expected to increase substantially due to the implementation of development plans and the following factors:

Population growth of the area and subsequent growth in use of land and local natural resources.
Areas on the immediate vicinity of the mountains to the North, East and West are already under immense pressure environmentally. There is evidence that those areas are undergoing intensive environmental degradation and are increasingly failing to support livelihood for these communities, who are finding it necessary to enter into the mountains where vegetative cover and water supplies are relatively in a better shape. That is a potential for more pressure on land and possible dispute.
The spread of mechanised farming schemes has contributed to the pressure on the land and the environment. Techniques used for this method of farming will have to be subjected to substantial change in all its aspects.

Eighthly: - Tourism and cultural Development
Nuba Mountains has traditionally been attractive to tourism. The rich cultural heritage and the uniqueness and diversity of the region nature and communities shall be drawn on to develop and promote tourism. Currently there is no such a thing as infrastructure for tourist industry. No hotelling capacity to speak of, no other supporting infrastructural facilities. Private and foreign investment must be encouraged to act as the driving force.


Ninthly: - Phasing Out of the Strategy

Such a strategy may have to be phased out into a relief, resettlement and reconstruction phase, followed by capability building phase and development phase. These phases are not necessarily mutually exclusive phases. They rather serve as milestones for practical purposes.


Tenthly:- community driven approach

The very people that the strategy means to service have for long suffered poverty and marginalisation. They may have often been viewed as the target of poverty reduction efforts. Community Driven Development approach, which the strategy must innovatively adopt would turn this perception on its head, and treat poor people and their institutions as assets and partners in the search for sustainable solutions to development challenges. Communities must have control over planning decisions and investment resources to community groups and local governments. Programs operating on such principles of local empowerment, participatory governance, demand-responsiveness, administrative autonomy, greater downward accountability, and enhanced local capacity must be the way forward. Experience has shown that given clear rules of the game, access to information and appropriate capacity and financial support, poor men and women can effectively organise in order to identify community priorities and address local problems, by working in partnership with local governments and other supportive institutions.