FROM THE FIELD: ON THE ROAD IN SUDAN

06/11/07 16:45

"We proudly announce that in the British Council delivery room, attended by midwives from the Interaction facilitators network, a new baby was born on November 5th, SOHSI - Sudan Oil and Human Security Initiative.

We had hoped for 7 community representatives and 7 people from the oil sector to attend a 2 day meeting to discuss oil and community in Sudan. In the event 2 oil companies, Petrodar and White Nile, each sent 2 representatives, while we had 9 people from the community side. The community people were a really interesting mix, experts on plants and animal health, a gender officer, a former signals officer in the SPLA,a journalist, chairman of a federation of youth groups, and 3 MPs. The fact that the MPs stayed for three solid days, and organised a meeting with John Luk, a Minister in the SS Govt, indicates what a critical issue oil is at the moment, with violence escalating in several states.

What we were trying to do in the two day seminar was change people's thinking - away from the focus on isolated community projects to buy off the community, and towards an approach of much fuller consultation, trust and engagement across the whole range of issues where oil and community interface, including security, environment, human rights and development. Irene Gerlach, our resource person, emphasises in her presentation that the millions of dollars that Shell had poured into community projects in the Niger Delta, have not brought security. And the facilitators used all sorts of exercises and challenges (including an impromptu maths test where none of the signs had their usual values) to get people into a new way of thinking.

They also went out of their way to give recognition to the oil companies, and emphasise the common interests between all the people in the room - trying to be as different as possible to the accusatory event which the oil companies might have been expecting (and we need to point out that probably attendance would have been nil without the persuasive powers of the British Council who issued the invitations.)

The end result is a group of committed people who will mount a programme to spread the results of the event broadly among the other oil companies, throughout South Sudan and with the Ministry, leading up to a bigger forum in March. The attitude of the oil companies is critical. We are proposing a major change in approach, but one which makes business sense. What is encouraging is that they have already asked for a follow up meeting with Rasha, co-ordinator of the Collaborative for Peace in Sudan, who organised the event, to plan how they can help get the message out to the oil companies and the Ministry.

The issues are intensely complex, so let's leave it there. It's a good start on what will certainly be a bumpy road!"

03/11/07 17:50

“As you leave Khartoum the roadside is very empty, dusty, covered in strips of flimsy plastic bag, and looks overgrazed to death by something, probably goat. After about three hours it starts to look greener, there are pools and lakes, and then the Blue Nile, and by El Obeid, the bus terminus, it is quite a different country. Then the fun begins - I thought it was a 2-3 hour journey to El Fula, but after four hours the driver said we still had another two to go. Most of it was straight through the bush- a journey of thousands of decisions to take this track or that one, which miraculously did get us to El Fula.

But not until I had thrown up due to the bumping around.

Finally we got to El Fula and the guest house of the NGO, and we were tucked up three to a bed under a mosquito net in the open air - and woke to the sound of the cock crowing.

The workshop in the morning was to disseminate the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. With the money from Peace Direct they are setting up a Peace Centre with the University of West Kordofan. The link with peace was partly about compensation from the oil companies - they value one of these trees at 6 dollars even though a single tree produces fruit worth 100 dollars a year.

Much easier money than millet...

Now we've just had a day of preparation for the oil and community seminar. We need to change the mindset from 'You said you'd build a school but you only built a grinding mill’ to 'how can we build relationships that will deliver value for both sides?'. Some people get it, others don't and I guess the next two days will show which people are going to be worth investing in.

The faciliator with us today is tremendous, a very large forceful Ghanaian who is the only civil society representative on the Ghana National Security Council, and I think she and the oil and community expert are the best possible people we could have – here’s hoping the oil company people turn up tomorrow and there is a willingness to engage.”

We’ll have further updates later. The conference has been fully funded by the FCO