Khalifa Hassan Open Letter to Sudan Minister of Labour Sudan Minister of Development and Social Affairs Donors in Sudan
An atmosphere of freedom where people and institution rights are respected prevailed following the collapse of the National Congress Party and Islamist regime in Sudan. The access by INGOs and humanitarian actors which previously suffered from aggression of the regime to vulnerable community has improved drastically. The government arm HAC ceased to intervene into INGOs business and is no longer manipulating them or imposing its subtle agenda. In fact HAC and government of Sudan has been intimidated to the extent that they abandoned their role as regulatory body and stopped monitoring project implementation and utilizing of resources avail to the vulnerable people. The space of freedom and absence of HAC has been misused by many INGOs violating the Sudan Humanitarian act and Labour laws. For example Norwegian Refugees Council (NRC) management denied its national staff the 5 days Eid holiday announced by the government ignoring the government decree and violating the Sudanese labour act. NRC management refused to grant all the five days and allowed its staff only 2 days. Some of the staff continued to work up to the evening on the Eid eve (Wagfa); though their families live far away from they work. Some staff complained that they have been overworked and spend long hours (more than 8 hours) in the field without compensation; this is happening despite the core humanitarian standard no. 8 “Staff are supported to do their jobs effectively, and are treated fairly and equitably. To stand for their rights and protect themselves against mistreatment by NRC management Sudanese national staff decided to establish an association/trade union. Staff believes that this is happening in NRC because the human resources manager is an expatriate who has no understanding of the local laws and norms and also because national staff are not represented it in NRC senior management. In contrast to Paris declaration of aid effectiveness and principle of localization of humanitarian aid most of the INGOs start to recruit international staff even for jobs like human resource management, logistic and operation though Sudan Humanitarian act and HAC limits the number of expatriates to 4 staff only as part of its strategy for the Sudanization of humanitarian aid. Many organizations started to bring in and recruit expatriate even for non-essential jobs for example NRC has 8 expatriate in Gadaref. If we leave aside Rome and Paris declaration; there is no value for money in such act (recruitment of expatriate); resources of the donors and tax payers are wasted to pay the high salaries of the expatriates and meet their entitlement which include accommodation, per diem and R and R. In violation of organization policies many INGOs have no succession plan to ensure takeover of key and senior positions by national staff. Therefore, the donor need to encourage INGOs to include national staff in its senior management. Otherwise most of the resources allocated by the donors and donation from people in the Western Part of hemisphere will be used for the privilege of the expatriate instead of assisting the vulnerable people of Sudan.
عناوين مقالات بسودانيز اون لاين الان اليوم السبت الموافق 19/9/2021