Sudan and South Sudan: EUC Report

Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead Excerpts

Wednesday 17th October 2012 Grand Committee

[Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead]

My Lords, I, too, pay tribute to the commitment shown by the EU Committee to the situation in Sudan and South Sudan. We have been provided with a very welcome opportunity to take stock, which Members here this evening have shown they are very capable of doing. I, too, welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi, and wish her well in her new role. I pay tribute, too, as the noble Lord, Lord Alton, did, to the work of the noble Lord, Lord Howell.

The misery and suffering of the people of Sudan and South Sudan is relentless. There are continuing insecurities, humanitarian crises, lack of resources and grave shortages of food. Roads are not being constructed, despite the fact that they are crucial to building unity, security and economic development in that country. Education and health systems are not functioning and water and sanitation needs are not being met. In fact, South Sudan is really living on the edge of disaster and faces perpetual and manifold crises and emergencies.

Against that background, the African Union-promoted agreement, guided by Thabo Mbeke’s African panel made in Addis last month, is worth applauding, as noble Lords have done. But all success now depends on its full and faithful implementation and the urgent use of what could be a brief and positive period that we have now to address outstanding issues. Building a functioning and legitimate South Sudan Government is obviously essential to efforts that have to be made to manage the expectations of the people of South Sudan and to deliver essential services to those who have waited such a long time. Now, even in the context of the insecurity and humanitarian crises in border areas, it remains vital that this work is supported consistently and continually by all donors. Transference to the state is just not happening and clearly, dependence on NGOs has to be reduced.

Central to delivery of sustainable change in South Sudan is that the citizens of that country see the Government in Juba being able to deliver basic services locally across the country, using their own local authorities. Action means so much more than words and intentions when the needs are clearly so great. Traditional authorities must be involved, while at the same time strengthening the role of the state.

This is after all a country where 200,000 dangerously malnourished refugees from Blue Nile have arrived in the past, and where thousands of southerners have returned since 2010. In South Sudan, the health needs are substantial: cholera, measles, meningitis, polio, river blindness, sleeping sickness, yellow fever and whooping cough are all prevalent. It remains the case that what services exist are largely delivered by humanitarian and other NGOs funded by donors. As the noble Lords, Lord Cameron and Lord Curry, have said, the level of dependence in South Sudan is simply not sustainable or desirable.

Can we at last anticipate an end to the flip-flopping between humanitarian aid and development aid, which we have seen for far too long? Most recently, donors—including the UK, I have to say—pulled out of developments following the oil shutdown. However, as soon as that oil deal was reached, they started talking about development aid, and working with government systems. Now we see that current and urgent humanitarian concerns have simply been obscured or ignored completely.

There is a widespread perception that aid is being used in South Sudan as a mechanism for political conditionality, when what the Government of South Sudan really require is an understanding from donors that they need consistent and reliable support. Development and humanitarian aid should never be used to hold a government and people to ransom, because for practical as well as moral reasons, one should never be at the expense of the other.

On the European Union’s engagement, we should certainly support the fact that the EU institutions and member states have agreed to work together to produce a joint strategy paper on the implementation of programmes. However, if it is to be meaningful, it is essential that sectors are identified and donors complement each other in the implementation of that country’s strategy. On paper, this is of course agreed as part of efforts to increase EU aid effectiveness. However, one official was quoted as saying that they agree on something and then each member state continues to do its own thing. It was ever thus. This, I regret to say, includes what I see to be a reluctance demonstrated by the UK to forcefully and enthusiastically join co-ordinated efforts to draw up an all-European Union position.

The preoccupation of European Union member states with East Africa, Palestine, the Amazon, the Sahel, Syria, Yemen, the DRC and Mali—depending on what your various colonial connections happen to be—mean that priority is just not being given to South Sudan. That is clearly and repeatedly reflected in the agendas drawn up by the Foreign Affairs Council. Therefore I ask the Minister: will the UK Government make every effort to push Sudan and South Sudan up the agenda at this very critical time?

Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, the head of the delegation in Juba, and Dame Rosalind Marsden, the EU special representative, are both doing an excellent job. The delegation and the embassy are up and running, with plans to co-ordinate these efforts. I commend urgent action, especially when the potential for advancing peace and security is great, but the possibility of a descent into disaster is ever present in any fragile state, and of course that remains the case for South Sudan.

In November, South Sudan will join the Cotonou partnership agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and the EU, and will access European development funds. Very importantly, it will also join ACP partners in what is called the “Everything but Arms” market access agreement with Europe.

Other noble Lords have raised the concerns that we share about the need for peace and security in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. Is it not time to do more and end the ambivalence about the clear need for a more strategic approach to deal with these crises, as a number of noble Lords have said? After the Addis agreement, I am afraid we are continuing to see more of what is really just a “wait and see” approach, which has frankly brought nothing more than paralysis in the whole system.

After 18 months of efforts to negotiate humanitarian access, nothing has changed for the people affected by these conflicts. Is it not time now to explore alternatives to repeated failed attempts to negotiate with Khartoum? I also ask the Minister whether she would agree that the efforts to negotiate have failed and diplomatic efforts need to be substituted with a different approach. Many thousands of people are suffering in these areas, and we know full well that the Government of Sudan have absolutely no intention of protecting civilians suffering from starvation. Will the Minister tell us whether any consideration is being given to delivering cross-border aid without the permission of Khartoum? If noble Lords around the Table here were honest, we would say that this is already happening through the efforts of civil society, international partners and, yes, Governments.

When fruitless diplomatic toing and froing has not achieved anything, it is time for the tripartite partners to take effective action. All of this is made more emphatic by the fact that food is being used as a weapon of war. It is time, recognising the realities, that action is taken to deliver food and aid immediately and urgently. The special representative of the UN Secretary-General confirms that progress has been made in South Sudan. Many noble Lords have been, I think, extremely pessimistic and cynical perhaps about what has happened in South Sudan for some, and maybe many, understandable reasons. However, having read a recent report by the UN Secretary-General’s special representative, I will say that state institutions have been strengthened, and militias and rebel groups have been integrated into the national army. Nevertheless, a great deal needs to be done to protect civilians and to broker peaceful coexistence among feuding tribes. Demobilisation is a massive challenge. The salaries of the army, police and other forces make up more than half the budget, and donors and the Government must focus on this challenge of change.

South Sudan now has a new legislature made up of a Legislative Assembly and a Council of State, and there seems to be a real appetite for strengthening and developing the country’s institutions. Work is in progress on new laws, developing political parties, elections and a constitutional review. These are major tasks for an infant democracy. It is surely realistic to understand that it is going to take time. It is also going to take time for the current Government to build the maturity that state-building will demand. The Government of South Sudan also have to insist on increasing transparency and accountability, by introducing new and clear standards of conduct in government.

Corruption must be fought with vigour and elected politicians must be constantly reminded of their obligation to be accountable to the people they serve. All this may seem like a very tall order but many of us who have followed Sudan, and now South Sudan, over many years and other crises in developing countries know that these issues are well worth supporting and encouraging. I hope that we will have future meetings on reports from the European Union Committee which will confirm that these things are happening and that change is taking place for the people of South Sudan.