This week I travelled with an MRDA delegation to the capital of Western Equatoria State, Yambio, for a series of meetings with key members of the executive and legislative assemblies there, including Ministers of Health, Social Development and Religious Affairs and Youth and Sports, the MP for Mundri West (the county I am living in) and the Director General of the State Ministry of Education as well as the head of the HIV/AIDS comission. The primary purpose of the trip was to follow up on the distribution and use of an HIV/AIDS educational resource for primary school teachers and children so the lead was my colleague Mai, guided by the MRDA Director Light Wilson. This initative was originally undertaken with the Education ministry so a secondary objective was to inform and include other state actors in maximising the impact of the resource within Western Equatoria*. Also in the team was Gobinder Chaudhury, the Manager of the WOYE (Women and Youth Empowerment) Microfinance project. Whilst this might seem an eclectic mix our long (and suprisingly fruitful) discussions with polity makers and administrators alike served to remind me personally of the interconnectedness of development challenges (one issue acknowledged in the much maligned Millenium Declaration document and addressed by the Millenium Development Goals)and the need for interdisciplinary approaches that truly support communities to self-sufficiency.
For example lets take the issue of HIV/AIDs in Western Equatoria. At 7% the state apparently has the highest prevalance of infection in the whole country. We can infer that, due to the border of W.E with Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda that population movement from the so-called 'Green Belt' of high risk countries in Central Africa is a contributing factor. Furthermore migration back and forth across the borders have been intensified by conflict, as communities in all three countries shift back and forth fleeing violence.
For those unable or unwilling to travel conflict brought other risks. The use of rape as a weapon of war has been documented in DRC and by Soldier of the Northern Sudanese army in South Sudan. This practice surely infected many more women and girls, not to mention its other horrific effects. Furthermore the hardline Islamist leadership of the Khartoum government have failed to acknowledge HIV/AIDs as a genuine social concern, preferring instead to marginalise it as affecting an immoral, irreligious minority, and have refused to introduce Sexual and Reproductive Health education into schools, something the Government of Southern Sudan has only recently aquired the power to choose to do for itself. Conflict ensured that many young people in W.E aquired little to no education at all for over 20 years (and arguably reinforced existing cultural inequalities relating to the role of women in society), thus increasing the vulnerability of underqualified youth to participation in risky economic practices, including sex work. Which brings us to the third strand of challenges, those around economic empowerment, which I will touch upon below. Finally just as education infrastructure was affectd, so too were health services, so HIV/AIDs advice, tests and treatment that could, for example, have reduced the chance of mothers transmitting infection to unborn children, were also disrupted. So we can see that the prevalance of conflict affects sexual health and that no self-respecting peace worker can live ignorant of the relationship between these issues.
For those affected by HIV/AIDs, one of the biggest challenges springs not from the disease virus or syndrome themselves, but from the stigma of the community at large. Employment discrimination against the infected population in South Sudan is commonplace, meaning that they are denied the opportunity to lend their skills and expertise in industry or government. There is now a growing movement of groups and even residential communities being formed in W.E to provide peer support and basic welfare, with encouragement and support from the HIV/AIDs commission. Relief alone can breed dependency however, which is where the provision of microfinance loans could truly help. By providing small chunks of capital to those denied loans or accounts elsewhere, at very low interest with long grace periods, Microfinance institutions seek to promote grass roots economic self sufficiency. In South Sudan, where only government provide salaried positions accessible to most locals, and where there are very few banks ( one branc of Kenya Commercial Bank in the whole of Western Equatoria state, Microfinance as provided by organisations like BRAC, or MRDA, can really make a difference for small traders. This is important when Militia leaders can tempt young people to participate in violence with offers of easy food and money, exploitation that destablises the state and threatens its future. Likewise where no opportunities for legal income generation exist, crime can thrive. Western Equatoria, with its abundant fertility and arable land, should not suffer from such a slide into destructive behaviours and conflict for want of start up loans.
As WOYE seeks to expand beyond its current provision in the two counties of Mundri West and Mvolo, it will work with government to offer loans to entrepeneurs living with HIV/AIDs so that they can provide services, generate income and build livelihoods for themselves and potentially others, thus reducing dependency and tackling dominant negative stereotypes of their caapctiy to contribute to the development of the community. Meanwhile MRDA will also continue to find effective ways to educate the populace, especially the majority youth population, on the impact of HIV/AIDs and the prevention of infection, to ensure that a healthier, more educated generation will take up the baton of economic, social and cultural development. Underpinning both of these strands of work is that of Peace Work, neccesitating strong analysis of the root causes of local conflict and violence, and work with both state and non state elites and grass roots commmunities to identify and resolve issues non violently before they destroy the postive work being down in other fields. The gains to be made economically from conflict tend to be neither equitably shared nor sustainable and the above analysis has already demonstrated the correlation between armed conflict and HIV/AIDs in the region.
So whilst it might seem bold or arrogant to target not only the reduction of HIV/AIDs, not only the elimination of armed conflict, and not only the economic empowerment of the most marginalised people, conversations like the ones this one week show that without all three goals, achieving any single one becomes much more difficult. That's why I feel priveleged to work with an indigenous NGO that is working not only in these fields but in many others, including education, agriculture and gender, and with positive forces within the Government, to truly tackle the complex, compelling and vital challenges faced by Southern Sudanese people as independence approaches.
*The project is notable for being MRDA's first truly national project, with 44,000 textbooks distribtued across all 10 states of South Sudan as well as 170 teachers trained in using the resource effectively.
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