Care International in Sudan : Kordofan emergency relief project (KERP) -- September to November 1996 : final report

The project was implemented by CARE. The project"s plan to provide 416,666 persons with a daily ration of 400g of sorghum for a 60-day period had to be revised due to delays in gaining Government of Sudan (GOS) approval for the local procurement of sorghum. The GOS tried to insist that all commodities be purchased through parastatal organizations, even though it had previously approved and assisted a joint CARE/Save the Children Fund-United Kingdom quiet" open tendering process from which 2 private vendors had been selected. Eventually, however, the GOS permitted the commodities to be purchased from the private vendors. As a result of the delay, the distribution plan was revised to cover 30 days food requirements at 3OOg per person per day for a total of 421,640 people characterized as the most needy in 282 villages in 14 rural councils (2 in West Kordofan and 12 in Northern Kordofan), beside the 7,601 displaced persons in En Nahud Camp, where food was allocated to satisfy a 4-month food requirement. End use monitoring confirmed that CARE had successfully distributed food to 548,180 needy people in 282 village councils -- a 30% increase over the original target number, due mainly to differences in actual village populations against those planned. These population variations resulted in beneficiaries actually receiving an average 30-day ration of 230g per person per day, not 3OOg as originally intended. Steps are currently being taken to update the project"s 1993 population census database to avoid similar problems occurring in the future. In addition, the project successfully supplied 120 days worth of sorghum, at 3OOg per person per day, to 7,601 displaced persons in the En Nahud camp. The project recorded total commodity losses of 2,548kg (0.06% of total), all of which occurred during transit. Unlike the previous free food distribution programs in Kordofan, CARE decided to transport food to Rural Council administrative centers instead of the Village Council or distribution centers, through trans-shipment points in Omdurman, Khartoum State and in El Obied, North Kordofan. As the losses indicate, the new approach proved very efficient and significantly improved CARE"s cost-effectiveness through reduced transportation costs. Overall, the project achieved its object of mitigating suffering due to chronic food shortage, and avoided widespread out-migration from the area in the run up to this year"s harvest.