The Feinstein International Center provides advisory support to the Darfur Development and Reconstruction Agency (DRA) – a national NGO in Sudan – to set up and manage a community-based market monitoring network in the Darfur Region. The goal of this market monitoring initiative is to deepen analysis and understanding of the shifting patterns of trade and markets in Darfur on an ongoing basis for key agricultural and livestock commodities; identify how livelihoods and the economy can be supported through trade; and identify peace-building opportunities through trade.
Seven community-based organizations (CBOs) plus DRA are monitoring 15 markets across North Darfur, including three markets in IDP camps, on a weekly basis. A new CBO-based market monitoring network is currently being established in West Darfur and eventually the network will be extended to cover all of the Darfur Region.
The specific objectives of this work are to:
- Deepen analysis and understanding of how the conflict is impacting on trade and markets in Darfur, and therefore on livelihoods and the wider economy;
- Provide policy and programming advice to state-level, national and international actors, on how livelihoods can be supported through support to trade and market infrastructure during protracted crisis and in preparation for eventual recovery;
- Identify where trade provides a bridge between different livelihood and ethnic groups that may otherwise be hostile to one another, to identify opportunities for peace-building through trade. This will help to lay the foundations for the eventual recovery of Darfur’s economy when peace and stability are restored.
There are two components to the trade and markets programme:
- Setting up a community-based organization (CBO) market monitoring network in North and West Darfur, in partnership with DRA, which will result in market monitoring bulletins which capture outcomes of analysis as well as a secure computer-based database of monitoring data;
- Carrying out two in-depth studies into the trade in Darfur in cash crops and livestock, respectively, over a three year period.
Quarterly bulletins are currently available for North Darfur. Bulletins on West Darfur are expected from mid-2012. The work is funded by the European Union through SOS Sahel International UK, and by UKAID from the Department of International Development through UNEP, and implemented with technical advisory support from FIC.