In 2017, MDPD worked closely with USAID in establishing Al-Malam Umbrella, a wide local network of more than 40 grassroots community organization in Darfur, the main goal was to strengthening the capacity of the local NGOs in South Darfur and increasing citizen engagement – including women, youth and other marginalized groups- in the transitional period in Darfur and furthermore the gender Mainstreaming.
Malam Darfur Peace and Development (MDPD) has launched its mission in Darfur since 2011, to serve an ultimate goal of peace and development. MDPD’s strategy was to mobilize the local resources and capacities such as Women Peace Ambassadors, the Peace Committee, women and youth groups, the traditional leaders and the local producers (farmers, traders and skilled labors), for a wider and more integrated participation.
Since then, MDPD’s investment in the local capacities has been evolving to include the other localities of northern South Darfur state, where MDPD collaborated with number of local civil society organizations in Mershing and East Jabal Marrah, to lead the peace building and reconciliation efforts. Our collaborative work has further encouraged the IDPs to return to the villages they fled during the conflict. Now, MDPD is collaborating with those local NGOs to rebuild villages and provide necessary services to a community that has long been affected by civil conflict, such a huge work would not be perfectly completed without having the local civil society organizations under a unified umbrella, that’s managing, organizing and coordinating the holistic work.
This project funded by USAID to support Al Malam Peace and Development Organization (MDPD) to organize a conference of more than 120 members of the local civil society organizations in South Darfur. The conference was moderated by MDPD to mobilize the local partners to create the Umbrella network, a new platform aiming at strengthening the local NGOs, and organizing them in a collaborative work where they can engage actively in identifying the needs, building their capacities, integrating different efforts and replicating successful experiences in addition to widening the scope of work and geographic coverage.
The activities have taken place in Niyala, as an important and accessible location for the participants, who were coming from all around South Darfur State, the conference has come on time with the State of Village Address, where a group of local leaders and communities gathered for the traditional event organized by MDPD, and that helped in strengthening the relations between the participants and the other partners and community members. list of 40 different organizations, including local unions, NGOs, women groups, youth groups and others, were actively engaged in the activities, a board for the umbrella was selected and different aspects related to how the umbrella would be identified or operate has been thoroughly discussed. The Umbrella is considered to be a continuation of the work that MDPD has done by USAID, and aimed at creating a model of a community where the entire needed infrastructure is built and provided. After finishing the market, solar energy, water wells and other projects, MDPD thinks it is high time to share the lessons learned and lead the local partners to replicate the successful experiences we had in AlMalam
The major outcomes were:
- A new platform of more than 40 organizations was created, covering most of Northern South Darfur, with different groups (women, youth, ethnic, etc.); MDPD has used percentage to ensure that the representation is accurate.
- Umbrella’s strategic plan (a road-map) for the next 12 months was created at the end of the conference, the strategic plan was shared with USAID
- Operation plan covering the needs, priorities, and identified geographic areas was also detailed, and shared with USAID.