19 September 2008

Juba, Sudan: I am a national UNV volunteer working at the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) Torit Team Site in Eastern Equatoria, South Sudan. As a Civil Affairs Officer working in the field, I am most involved in peace-building work.

My duties or daily activities are to collect data, then analyze it and report to the sector office of UNMIS Civil Affairs Division. Our mandate is monitoring the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), in particular its power- and wealth-sharing protocols.

I often meet state Government officials, line ministries and civil society groups (especially women's groups, youth political parties and religious organizations) to advise, support and train them in governance, conflict resolutions, peace and reconciliation processes. I conduct peace and reconciliation workshops and CPA dissemination workshops in collaboration with the Public Information Unit plus the Human Rights and Gender Sections of the mission.

My work also means joining the military observers' medium- and long-range patrols to monitor Quick Impact Projects (QIPs) and also conduct meetings and workshops in the Counties with chiefs, Payam administrators, elders, and NGOs - both local and international to find out how humanitarian development is going in the villages and grassroots communities.

Many of the communities in this area are engaged in conflicts over cattle rustling and grazing lands conflicts, which results in most of the insecurity in this particular state.

Youth tend to be the most involved in raiding cattle, for a number of reasons. When getting married you need to have 20 to 100 cows, and in some of their cultures stealing cows is seen as braveness… all the girls in the area will like you! But poverty is another of the reasons for raiding cattle. Most of the youth are unemployed, so they steal cattle to sell and do business with and also, unfortunately, to buy weapons.

The state Government has tried many ways to stop the insecurity in the state that results from this. Some progress has been made with experience. Some of these groups have participated in peace and reconciliation conferences, and workshops organized by UNMIS, UN agencies and international NGOs.

Recently we organized a peace actor's workshop and formed a taskforce to coordinate effectively and advise the state on how to resolve conflict and build peace.

As a UNV volunteer I must work through some difficulties in the field, like travelling along bad roads and sleeping in difficult places. I used to stand at the gate to get a ride to where my meetings were and also stand in the main road leading to the team site to get a ride back; it might take 10 minutes to one hour waiting.

Despite all these problems I enjoy my work and am ready to support and advise my stakeholders. It is interesting to be a UNV volunteer, because you can work hard as the others, or more, for no interest in money. But you are contributing to social and economic development – like the Millennium Development Goals - and the transformation of societies and governments, and moreover you contribute to peace.

Especially in my own country, it is a privilege to serve and share what I have and know to the people. Lastly I must admit that as a UNV volunteer I have far more experience compared to when I first joined, so I benefited and also gave.