Khartoum: The Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Haoliang Xu said, in a virtual address to the opening session of the 'Dialogue on the Recovery of Sudan's Private Sector,' that the humanitarian crisis in the country is worsening at a rapid pace, with severe repercussions at a time when available resources and international funding are declining to their lowest levels.
According to Sudan News Agency, The UN official explained that humanitarian assistance remains an urgent necessity to save lives, but on its own it cannot restore economic recovery.
He stressed that markets and the private sector have the greatest capacity to reach communities and meet their needs, noting that restoring irrigation networks and commercial centers directly contributes to supporting large segments of farmers, traders, and workers.
He pointed out that in the areas most affected by the conflict in Darfur and Kordofan, where relief is intermittent, mobile money networks and local traders have become the main lifeline for transporting food and essential goods, requiring direct support for economic actors in those areas.
Despite the scale of the destruction, the development official commended the resilience of farmers and traders who managed to market about 90 percent of crops. However, he warned that the major impediment is the lack of capital, as around 70 percent of farmers and small enterprises are unable to obtain financing due to the near-total collapse of the banking system.
As part of the proposed solutions, he announced that UNDP is working in coordination with financial institutions to launch credit guarantee mechanisms to encourage banks to resume lending and to build rural production capacity to connect Sudanese harvests with regional and international markets.
He concluded his remarks by calling on the participating parties to make practical commitments centered on two areas:
Adopting a private sector recovery roadmap with clear timelines and binding implementation.Joining the 'Private Sector Recovery Alliance' as a permanent and ongoing platform for addressing obstacles and coordinating efforts.
He affirmed that the sustainability and resilience of the Sudanese economy depend on turning this dialogue into tangible financing commitments that are implemented on the ground.c