CAIRO: Moving from humanitarian assistance to development in Darfur will be impossible in areas where the conflict is still blazing, said David Phillips, visiting scholar and director of the Darfur Early Recovery and Development Initiative at Columbia University in New York. More than the political situation, security issues are an important determinant. There are islands of stability in Darfur but there are still ongoing conflicts, he told Daily News Egypt, in these conflict areas it is possible to provide humanitarian assistance but moving to early recovery and then development is not possible. So we re concerned about the security environment. Phillips was speaking at a press conference Tuesday to announce the formation of the Darfur Advisory Group (DAG) which aims to bring Darfuris themselves on board in order to have a say on the development process in the war torn region. From my previous experience I can say that government agencies are notoriously inefficient, there are often instances of corruption so the common person doesn't benefit from the contributions of the international community and the international community is deterred from fulfilling its pledges, he said at the press conference. That's why we re taking a different approach, relying on Darfuri organizations themselves to demonstrate the operational capacity to implement the projects working directly with donor funds that are earmarked, Phillips added. The Darfur Reconstruction and Development Initiative, which was launched in late 2007, aims at a lasting solution to the Darfur conflict (by addressing) its root causes, which lie in the extreme poverty of the region, according to a statement. In November 2008, Colombia University s Center for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR) in conjunction with the Mosaic Institute of Canada organized a conference in Cairo to gather Darfuris to discuss sustainable peace in the region. The initiative was motivated by the belief that mainstreaming post-conflict planning at an early stage in the conflict resolution cycle would focus the conflicting parties on a development horizon and could positively influence the peace talks, said the CSHR website. Hamid Eltgani Ali, assistant professor of economic and public policy at AUC said Work must be done inside Sudan with the people of Darfur. International donors earmarked $1.8 billion annually for Sudan and Darfur. The biggest donor is the United States government, which puts up $1 billion a year. Asked whether the initiative will be able to bring the Sudanese government onboard in order to facilitate its goals, Phillips told Daily News Egypt, We look at the government of Sudan as a development partner. We see our efforts as a tool for developing donor assistance to stabilize the situation in Darfur which ultimately serves the interest of the Sudanese government as well. Conflict has rocked Darfur since 2003 when rebel groups clashed with the government backed Janjaweed forces. An estimated 1.5 million people have been displaced because of the conflict. The number of deaths has been estimated at anywhere between 50,000 and 300,000 whether as a direct result of the fighting or from the resulting starvation.
