Development Oppurtunities within Sudanese Displacement Camps

A Proposal for the Development of Sudanese Displacement Camps
Mitchell Sipus

December 16, 2008

Introduction
Since independence from Britain in 1956, the Nation of Sudan has been consumed with civil war
for 27 of its 38-year history. As a consequence of continuous turmoil, several hundred thousand
individuals have been displaced throughout the country, establishing an array of displacement
camps within bordering nations and throughout the state. In Khartoum alone, as many as 100
informal camps have been constructed with limited access to water, sanitation, electricity, roads,
goods, or services. Laden with poverty and disease, many of these informal settlements have
been razed by government officials to, yet these attempts to sanitize the landscape do little more
than further persecute an already displaced and marginalized population.

While government policies and development initiatives seek to establish new settlements, I argue
that the emerging livelihood strategies within many of these camps contain the potential for
community wide development opportunities. Although an array of restrictions exist within
camp economies, the reformatting of government policy and procedure may provide the leverage
necessary to stimulate the improvement of living condition. Given the symbiotic relationship
between housing consolidation and home based enterprise within informal economies, the direct
investment into the market place to engage the physical reconstruction process by promoting a
trade in materials and small-scale support industries could promote several positive
consequences for displaced populations within Sudan.

The Economies of Refugee Camps
Upon arrival at most camps, refugees are completely dependent upon the delivery of
international aid to improve their situation. However once they become embedded within the
encampment, their dependency on aid may be offset through their own efforts toward economic
independence, leading toward the establishment of complex economic systems (Bookman 2002,
87). As the physical conditions of refugee camps vary, these economic systems evolve to reflect
the unique aspects and conditions of the resident population. In general, most refugee
encampments are located on inferior land with few resources and an inadequate infrastructure;
many camps contain high rates of malnutrition and disease. While the extreme conditions present
within the camp may motivate the process of individual capacity building, refugee societies also
make conscious efforts to build capacity as a collective as well (Bookman 2002, 86).

The economies of permanent encampments become sophisticated micro-economic systems in
which people produce, exchange, consume, and interact with each other in order to improve the
quality of their lives. In this manner they develop a codependent relationship with other local
economies, and may even appear to function in the same manner as the economies of villages
throughout the developing world. However, refugee camps are “microcosms of artificial
economic relations (Bookman 2002, 87).” They have features that are too contradictory to
survive as a functioning economy, as the role of the aid institutions, the delivery of aid, the harsh
environmental conditions, and the continually shifting framework of state policies undermine the

potential for viable markets. Refugee economies fail to become systems of growth, but they do
serve an important role within the lives of refugees of systems of survival.

Often refugee camps contain market places similar to most human settlements.
The persistence of markets creates a demand for employment, thus generating alternative forms
of income to reduce the consumption of goods and services, decreasing outside financial
obligation upon humanitarian agencies. Yet the demand for camp labor tends to be low. This
results from the depressed economic activity in encampments and the subsequent low rates of job
creation, leaving an excess supply of labor. Although camp residents want jobs in order to earn
incomes and supplement the inadequacies of supplied aid, demographic factors create a surplus
of labor, overwhelming the limited demand for services. Consequently, new workers enter the
labor force faster than jobs are created through growth within formal and informal sectors. Given
these labor conditions, most camp residents are unemployed, underemployed, or irregularly
employed, reinforcing the continual threat of idleness among refugees – in particular among the
youth. With no means to participate in the meager economy, the idleness of youth becomes a
security threat as their restlessness may lead destructive activity (Bookman 2000, 99).

Another common consequence of such constant unemployment is the de-skilling of the
population. While programs that emphasize skill creation and maintenance are crucial, such as
through vocational training, other components of human capital should not be overlooked.
“These include the adaptability to new conditions, creative thinking, risk taking, the ability to
follow instructions, and the personal freedom to respond to incentives.” Before the conﬂict,
livelihoods in Darfur were based on a combination of farming, herding, trade and labor
migration. This pattern of violence and displacement has done much to create a new
demographic composition within displacement camps, as the outflow of men and boys has
created a rise in female-headed households, reducing the traditional domains of human capital
and establishing a necessity to pursue the formation of new livelihood strategies (Bookman 2000,
103).

The Demand for New Livelihood Strategies within IDP Camps
The dynamics of forced migration and informal settlement have resulted in sprawling, poorly
constructed encampments producing bleak opportunities for a population that can no longer rely
upon its traditional mechanisms for subsistence. The sudden population influx has rapidly
stripped the natural vegetation and water sources from the surrounding environment. Refugees
are legally prohibited from bringing new cultivable land outside the designated areas into
production either in response to population increase or depleted soil fertility. In addition, the
government has made allocations since the mid-1960s, so that farms have become overly
fragmented to accommodate newly established families (Kibreab 2003). Unable to pursue the
traditional pastoral methodologies of income generation within their new settlement, alternative
means must be found.

Until 1998, building and construction managed to employ some men while women worked
within informal activities such as making tea or brewing alcohol (Agnès de Geoffroy 2007). As
housing consolidation within informal settlements is a constant process, brick-making is a
common source of day labor. However this maintains an inconsistent wage as fluctuations in
food aid and market saturation increase or reduce the demand for bricks. A similar initiative is

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the collection of natural resources, such as grass and firewood, for sale. These materials may be
used within the housing consolidation process or as fuel for cooking, yet the constant pressure
exerted upon the landscape to produce these goods has stripped the surrounding hinterland and
forced the women and children who collect these goods to drift further and further into the
countryside where they become exposed to the dangers of violence and rape. Continual
insecurity thus undermines the collection of natural resources for any use (Lischer 2005, 9).

Due to the influx of humanitarian aid between 2004 and 2006, some livelihood opportunities
improved. Some individuals were able to undertake farming with the improvement in security
and the distribution of food in rural areas. For others, new financial strategies emerged, such as
the creation of redistributive collectives where a group of individuals pool money for large
purchases (Bascom 1993). In addition, many IDPs were able to engage in basic trading
activities, as food aid stimulated market places. However these minor improvements were easily
affected by fluctuations in security and failed to provide an impetus for major development
opportunities.

For those displaced individuals who live outside of urban camps, increased mobility provides the
opportunity to pursue agricultural and pastoral activities. However the limited access to labor
markets reduces their ability to capitalize on their access to forest products and cash crops.
Among those who live within relatively secure regions, high concentrations of livestock and
people exert great pressure on water resources and the looting of livestock always remains a
threat (Buchanon-Smith 2007).

Developing New Markets in a Landscape of Displacement
A web of trading relationships that stretch between the North and South, connecting the rural and
the urban, has always characterized the regional Darfur economy. Consequently the continuation
of conflict has wreaked massive havoc upon the national economy, reducing the ability of even
local markets to sufficiently accommodate their population. Local markets have suffered as a
result of the displacement of producers and traders, of restrictions by militant groups, insecurity
in rural areas, the constant risk of looting, and the high cost of random payments or taxation my
militants (Buchanon-Smith 2007).

Although most of the secondary and urban markets are still functioning, the primary village
market network has been devastated and few still operate. Although livestock continues to
maintain a fraction of its previous significance, the cost of transporting cattle has multiplied
several times as transport routes become more circuitous and longer. The increase in transport
cost is naturally passed on to the consumer while the trickle of supplies fails to accommodate the
massive demand. Trade in locally produced grain is also badly affected by the difficulties of
moving grain from traditional surplus areas to key markets. This is the inevitable consequence of
so many farmers having become IDPs, and of the limited access that much of the remaining
resident rural population have to their farms (Buchanon-Smith 2007).

Amidst the consistent patterns of reduced scale and high costs, a new market opportunity has
however developed due to the influx of food aid. Although the sale of food aid is much a
consequence of poor management by relief organization, such as problems with registration and
or corruption among local leaders and agencies, it has doe much to stimulate local markets. The

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impact on extremely precarious livelihoods in Darfur has been overwhelmingly positive for IDPs
who have limited livelihood alternatives. The distribution of food aid has encouraged some
people to return to their villages in each of the three states, both from camps and from hiding in
the bush, thus enabling agricultural production to resume.

Furthermore the distribution of food aid has had a positive effect by mitigating conflict between
IDPs and resident populations. It has provided them with a stable source of food and income so it
is unnecessary to engage in dangerous livelihood strategies such as firewood collection. Where
food aid is being provided to all population groups in an area it has eased tensions with local
populations (Buchanon-Smith 2007).

Displacement Camps and Urban Development Initiatives
Although displacement camps and informal communities continue to persist throughout the
Khartoum metropolitan area for several decades, government initiatives to advance the physical
urban development of the landscape have remained rooted within methods generally appropriate
for advanced economies and stable political domains. These methods include the demolition of
low-income communities and the arbitrary consolidation and redistribution of property rights and
land plots. Unable to pay the high costs for formal ownership, forced migrants living within
Khartoum are ultimately evicted from their current dwelling and forced to live at the further
outskirts. Other planning initiatives, such as sites and services projects, that might actually
benefit IDP camps and informal settlers never actually come into place, consequently leaving a
bleak landscape of destruction in the name of development – but never actually prompting
development among residents (Geoffroy 2007).

An Argument for Housing and Asset-Building for Development
A major disadvantage within the development of refugee settlements is the reduced capability to
expand upon capital assets such as property and housing. Already burdened by the constant
threat of insecurity, the social tension rooted within environmental consumption, and a limited
means of economic advancement, refugees face an additional body of problems when concerned
with investment and development. Living within a state of suspended socio-political
temporality, refugees are exiled from the culturally defined, socio-economic mechanisms that
have commonly supported processes of exchange or value determination.

Throughout the developing world it has been a longstanding problem to build upon existing
property and housing assets as such nations suffer from the inequitable distribution of legal and
administrative mechanisms to promote the fair exchange of such capital. As successful policy
decisions must imbibe a social consensus to represent a collective understanding of ownership,
value, and exchange, the development of such mechanisms demand a sophisticated
psychological and social transaction between the government and the people (De Soto 2000,
156-157). As a product of this socio-political transaction, property is not merely a physical
thing, but becomes a “legal expression of an economically meaningful consensus about assets
(De Soto 2000, 157).”

Although developing nations struggle to institute this transaction, refuges may not even attempt
to participate within this process of social production as an authoritarian framework dominates

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their daily lives. Stripped of the capacity to formulate a social contract via legal and
administrative procedure within their own community, refugees cannot rely upon the systems of
their origin country, nor can they rely upon the politics of their host government. Although the
transferability of refugee assets would provide systems of incentive and streamline development
initiatives, the prospects of asset oriented policy development is undermined by the constant
possibility of repatriation or resettlement (McDougal, 2007). Within a refugee population, the
lack of property ownership, the inability to later transfer accumulated capital across state
borders, and the constant threat of asset stripping by militants or the host government, all
complicate the prospects of any development initiative far beyond the conditions found within
most developing nations. However, as displacement camps do maintain vital informal
economies and self-help housing is the standard shelter procedure, a review of the intersection
between informal activity and housing consolidation may provide vital insight toward the further
development of viable housing programs within refugee communities

The Informal Sector and Housing Consolidation
One way that government and humanitarian authorities could advance development among force
migrants in Sudan is to build upon the symbiotic relationship that is established between housing
and income generation. The process of housing consolidation is frequently a straightforward
process as homeowners are often willing to display housing improvements, however to
understand the dynamics of income generation within the informal sector is a more complicated
task. It must be first recognized that the foundation behavior within the informal sector is to
derive income within an economic framework that has otherwise denied his ability to enter the
formal economy due to the lack of resources, or because the individual lives within an economy
that has inequitably distributed capital and resources across multiple sectors and has thus
subjected low income populations to additional hardships. Within the latter circumstance the
individual has a severely limited means to acquire capital within the existing economy beyond
the pursuit of informal activity.

A frequent approach toward the upgrading of informal settlements is to better connect the
informal settlement to adjacent formal communities, to absorb one enclave into the other with a
focus on social and economic programming rather than a focus on the physical condition of the
shelters (Abbot 2002, 194). However I argue that a better approach within the situation of
displacement camps within Sudan – as refugees have no property rights, and insufficient
economy, and supplied infrastructure is lacking- is to invest development funding into the local
economy in a manner that will aid the consolidation of informal settlements. As these homes are
intimately connected to the development of home based livelihood procurement, the success of
which would be directed toward reinvestment into further housing consolidation (Gough and
Kellett 2001, 235).

Conclusion
Although limited in scale, market actives and livelihood strategies continue to persist throughout
displacement camps and informal settlements within Sudan. As conflict remains to undermine
former economic patterns, new patterns are forced to exist among internally displaced peoples,
while international aid and government programs achieve only minimal positive impact.
Although food aid has influenced market prices, and to a small extent employment sectors as
well, the consumptive nature of this assistance hinders long term objectives. Given the extent of

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disease, poverty, and the limited opportunity for advancement within IDP camps, additional
measures need to be taken.
Although IDP camps certainly maintain population and social dynamics unique from informal
settlements throughout the developing world, the majority of characteristics in terms of housing
and employment are shared. As the Sudanese government fails to capitalize upon these existing
circumstances by engaging a tabula rosa approach to development, it is important for
humanitarian agencies to utilize the economic social capital at hand to spur development
processes. Although displaced peoples have no legal right to property within spontaneous
settlement, and are therefore continually limited within their capacity to improve their housing,
by investing in home based enterprises, and driving the advancement of informal consolidation,
development may occur in an irregular but socio-culturally appropriate fashion.

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Works Cited

Abbot, John. 2004. “Upgrading and Informal Settlement in Capetown.” Reconsidering
Informality: Perspectives from Urban Africa, Ed Karen Tranberg Hansen, and Mariken Vaa.
Nordiskaa Afrikainstitutet

Agnes, de Geoggroy. 2007. Internal to International Displacement in Sudan. Unpulblished paper
for Migration and Refugee Movements in the Middle east and North Africa.

Assal, Munzoul A. M. 2007. Unpulblished paper for Migration and Refugee Movements in the
Middle east and North Africa.

Buchanan-Smith, Margie. 2007. “Conflict, camps, and coercion: the ongoing livelihoods crisis
in Darfur.” Disastors, Vol. 31, No. 51, pp s57-s76

De Soto, Hernando. 2000. The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs In The West and
Fails Everywhere Else. Basic Books; New York NY.

Downing, Theodore E. 1996. “Mitigating Social Impoverishment when People are Involuntarily
Displaced,” in Understanding Impoverishment: The Consequences of Development-Induced
Displacement by Christopher McDowell, ed. Berghahn Books, Oxford UK

Gough, Katherin V., A. Graham Tipple, and Mark Napier. 2003 “Making a Living in
AfricanCities: The Role of Home-based enterprises in Accra and Pretoria.” International
Planning Studies, Vol. 8, No. 4, 253-277

Jacobson, Karen. 2002. “Can Refugees Benefit the State? Refugee Resources and African
Statebuilding,” The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 40, No 4,
pp 577-596

Jacobson, Karen. 2006. “Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Urban Areas: A livelihoods
Perspective.” Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 19, No. 3. pp 273 - 286

Kibreab, Gaim. 1996. “Eritrean and Ethiopian Urban Refugees in Khartoum: What the Eye
Refuses to See,” African Studies Reivew, Vol 39, No. 3. p 131-178

Kibreab, Gaim. UNESCO 2003. “Constraints on the construction of sustainable livelihoods.”
Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Lischer, Sarah Kenyon. 2005. Dangerous Sanctuaries: Refugee Camps, Civil War, and the
Dilemmas of Humanitarian Aid. Ithica and London; Cornell University Press.

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