By examining the history of humanitarian engagement in Southern Sudan during OLS and in Darfur, the research aims to identify parallels with the current landscape in South Sudan. This report focuses on the practical implications that the changing operating realties have for international organizations operating in South Sudan as well as those dependent on an effective humanitarian response.
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CSRF Research Repository
The CSRF Research Repository aims to support greater contextual knowledge for policy makers, programme managers, and implementers by providing a searchable repository of research, analysis, and resources, and providing periodic updates on new research and analysis.
In his essay, which is part of a collection of articles examining the history of humanitarian action in Africa, Leben Nelson Moro discusses one of the most significant, Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS). Established in 1989, OLS was set up in response to famine in Bahr-el Ghazal in Southern Sudan. Managed by the UN, it aimed to ensure aid access in government-held areas and to areas held by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). As…
This article from 2002 reviews the nature of “complex emergencies”, and briefly examines the motives for humanitarian aid responses in such conditions. It is written out of the authors’ experiences of living and working in Sudan and for aid agencies working in Sudan and in other countries experiencing complex emergencies. In particular, it draws on the programme known as “Operation Lifeline Sudan” (OLS) as a case study. Link to publication
This paper from 2002 attempts to survey the corrigendum present within the underlying OLS relief structure using both specific insights into the mistakes made in the 1998 Bahr el- Ghazal relief operation as well as a broader analysis of the inherent weaknesses within the triangular network of: relief agencies, donor governments, and political influences within the Sudan. The paper identifies key issues that are likely to be as relevant for conflict dynamics and the humanitarian…
This report offers an independent analysis of the ‘Ground Rules’ agreed between the UN’s Operation Lifeline Sudan and SPLM/A leader John Garang in July 1995. It argues that the influence of the Ground Rules is evident in five areas: in the regulation and coordination of the humanitarian programme in southern Sudan; in the system of security; in the management of assistance; in protection activities; and in capacity-building and good governance.
This study from 1999 attempts to identify empirically, types of participation by beneficiaries of food aid and their communities over a geographically and socially limited area. (i.e. Southern Sudan). This is achieved through a description of the experience of some of the 12 UK based NGOs covered by the Disasters’ Emergency Committee (DEC) evaluation of the South Sudan humanitarian programme (OLS) in consulting with the beneficiaries and involving them in the planning, management, monitoring and…
This report investigates the 1998 food crisis in Sudan and reveals how the fault lies primarily with Sudanese government and militias and opposition forces that precipitated the famine and deliberately diverted or looted food from the starving or blocked relief deliveries. Download
Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) seeks to integrate humanitarian principles and the protection of civilians within its mandate and operations. This paper details the ways in which these laws and principles were promoted through negotiation, advocacy, dissemination and training and the monitoring and follow-up of violations and abuses. It seeks to distil specific lessons from working with armed opposition movements, as distinct from sovereign governments, in particular the concern of humanitarian agencies that they may provide…
In March 1989, the international community launched a major relief effort to help civilians suffering needlessly from food deprivation in the Sudan’s bloody civil war. It was an uphill battle from the start: against the rains, against political sabotage, against recurrent ward and famine. Operation Lifeline Sudan was a massive international relief effort which helped stave off disaster. Its success was due in large part to the agreement of the warring parties, the determination of…
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