International donors pledge billions for reconstruction

International donors at a conference in Norway have pledged more than US $4.5 billion to rebuild Sudan, officials told IRIN on Tuesday. "Preliminary calculations indicate that we far exceeded the target of $2.6 billion," Espen Gullikstad, head of information at the Norwegian Ministry of International Development, said. "Approximately $2 billion will go towards the long term recovery programme." The World Bank said it hoped donors would produce the money quickly. "We expect the pledges will meet both the $2.6 billion [needed] for the recovery programme and the shortfall of funding for urgent humanitarian needs under the Work Plan for Sudan," Ishac Diwan, World Bank country director for Ethiopia and Sudan, told IRIN from Oslo, Norway’s capital, where the donors were finishing a two-day meeting. "Now the real hard work will start," Diwan added. "We have to make sure the money gets on the table, and that we start spending it in an accountable way. We need to show results." A joint report by the UN, the World Bank, the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) had estimated that Sudan needed $2.6 billion in aid to fund reconstruction until the end of 2007. According to the report, the funds were needed to consolidate peace and encourage broad-based human and economic development. This would allow, amongst other things, the creation of basic health and educational services. The $2.6 billion requirement in the report had taken into account the recovery and basic-development needs for Sudan, but had not included the substantial costs of peacekeeping, demobilisation or the massive humanitarian requirements, notably for Darfur, as outlined under the UN 2005 Work Plan for Sudan. The total required for Sudan until 2007 was estimated by the authors of the report to be $7.8 billion, although the country was expected to contribute most of this itself through its oil revenues. Hilde Johnson, the Norwegian international development minister told the donors at the end of the meeting: "I am very pleased with the amount that has been pledged. This demonstrates that the concern for Sudan is truly international." Immediate needs Opening the Oslo meeting on Monday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the donors to be generous, and to help rebuild Sudan's southern and northern regions despite the ongoing conflict in the western region of Darfur. "Pledges are good, but cash is better," he told them. "We must remain unified in taking the next step, by giving the parties what they need to help communities recover and to consolidate peace." "I urge you to close all these funding gaps for 2005 now, with firm commitments and cash contributions - not with pledges that may not be realised until it is too late for us to save lives," Annan added. "If ever there was a time for donors to get off the fence, it is surely today." Annan warned that with the rainy season approaching, time was running out to cover the "massive shortfalls in funding" for the most immediate needs. "How can we expect people in Darfur, in the south and the east, to have hope for peace and development if their very survival is under daily threat?" he asked. Prior to the Oslo conference, about 50 percent of urgent humanitarian needs had been funded, Diwan added. The majority of this money had gone on food aid for Darfur. He told IRIN that the World Bank had set up two multi-donor trust funds, one for the north and one for the south. Diwan said the northern trust fund could be operational in early July, once a government of national unity had been formed. The southern fund was likely to start dispensing money before July - as soon as the SPLM/A had made arrangements for its implementation. In a statement also released on Tuesday, the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), urged both the government and the SPLM/A to give priority to women's concerns. UNIFEM said that Sudanese women had successfully lobbied for inclusion as delegates in the donor conference, and had presented their recommendations to the plenary session. "The key message from women is a call for 80 percent of the resources to show direct benefit to women, reduction of gender inequalities [and] a special focus [on] young people - especially girls," UNIFEM said. The war between the SPLM/A and the Sudanese government began in 1983 when the SPLM/A took up arms against authorities based in the north to demand greater autonomy. At least 2 million people were killed in the fighting, a further 4 million were uprooted, and some 600,000 forced to flee to neighbouring countries. On 9 January, the government and the SPLM/A signed a comprehensive peace agreement in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.