Sudan

Two of the Workshop participants came from Southern Sudan which has a Regional' Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities based in Juba. The Ministry is responsible for all technical functions relating to human settlements, both rural and urban. on behalf of the Regional Government. It is divided into six sections: Survey. Lands and Town Planning, Buildings and Works, Public Utilities, Housing and Research. and Construction, the first four of which also have Divisions at the Provincial level. Sudan has a single political party, Sudan Socialist Union. A hierarchy of organization links the grassroots with national leadership. and there is an overlap between party and administration. Every urban area has a party representative. However, the links to self-help organization are undeveloped in the Southern Region due to lack of such settlement projects to date. Major obstacles to housing development include the remnants of a colonial housing policy, an acute shortage of government and individual finance, and shortage of trained personnel at all levels.

Southern Sudan was always treated as a separate area by the British colonizers and was never able to develop. Civil war began in 1955, and in 1956 the British left Squatters began moving to Juba as result of civil disorder and returning refugees also moved there after the peace of 1972. Urban land was stratified by race and class under colonialism and the pattern persists in present First, Second, Third and Fourth Class housing areas. Transportation remains a problem since communications to the north along the White Nile are poor, and much material, including building supplies, has to be brought in from neighbouring countries to the south. Juba has a population of 100,000, living in semi-rural conditions. Such employment as exists is mainly in the civil service or in service industries. Remnants of the British Town Planning Act of 1947 still apply and this leads to confusion over roles and responsibilities between central and regional government.

It is planned to hold two workshops in Juba on Housing Policy and Strategy and Building and Materials Research. This is an attempt to organize the efforts of the Ministry towards a rational use of its limited resources and to begin planning for a selfhelp housing programme based on a realistic assessment of local potential and funds available through international donors. No Training Case Study was presented due to lack of any activity of this type so far.