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Sonia Warner and Dr Garth Glentworth at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2005 |
Dr Garth Glenworth OBE is a longstanding
friend and mentor. He encouraged me to become a Governance Adviser almost
10 years ago and remained a great sounding board and source of encouragement
over the years. I inherited his preference for realistic, sensible and
practical development solutions, rather than the overly bureaucratic,
complicated and commercialised responses increasingly proffered which stand
little chance of sustainability.
Garth and I met in Sudan in 2005, the year the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed. I was a Programme
Coordinator, leading on Security and Justice in the British Embassy,
Khartoum. Garth was the Senior Governance Adviser commissioned to provide
technical support in developing the new Security and Justice Programme covering
both Sudan and Southern Sudan (as it was known before independence in 2011).
Garth made occasional, but very meaningful visits during which time we
travelled extensively. Southern Sudan was ravaged by decades of war which
meant travel was challenging and quite treacherous, to one’s health particularly.
However, this did not deter us from being amongst the first to
start travelling between Sudan and Southern Sudan to explore the terrain for
the first security and justice programme.
We both felt committed to doing things in the right
way, which meant developing a programme that reflected the very different needs
of both countries. Sudan had a reasonably well-established police force,
albeit closeted from modern policing practices. Southern Sudan had to establish
a police force from a ramshackle group of largely aged war-torn ex-military
personnel, with no understanding of policing; no uniforms to make them
identifiable to the public and low to no literacy. Garth and I had to
consider building from scratch, basically responding to the situation as we
found it. At that time, the Southern Sudan Police Force was under the
leadership of Makwei Deng who was very approachable and keen to stand up his
police force, under the stewardship of the then Commissioner (and later
Minister) of Interior Daniel Awet Akot. He was to us quite a fearsome
character, but he engaged constructively with Garth and I to the extent that we
felt covered by this big man of the South. Akot was Deputy Speaker
of the National Legislative Assembly of South Sudan when I last checked.
In Sudan, we had the challenge of prising doors
open which had long been closed to western interventions, to develop new
relationships and design interventions. The Sudan Police Force seemed hard to
penetrate, particularly with Darfur raging and accusation of serious human
rights abuses directed towards them. However, we managed to find some common
ground with General Majoub, Inspector General of the Sudan Police Force,
sometimes through extended meetings in his office or over sweet tea at the
Police Social Club in Khartoum, where Garth and I were invited on several
occasions and shown the utmost hospitality as outsiders. I realised the
increasing pressures of General Majoub’s office as Darfur became a protracted
and highly publicised international humanitarian crisis. I recall General
Majoub and I clashed once on rape as I confronted him after a visit to Darfur,
pressing him to recognise and act against such atrocities. He remained adamant
that there was no rape in Darfur, this was the firm line of the Sudanese
Government. Of course, part of my job was to try to understand the
politics, but I continued to advocate against human rights abuses. This was not
just my official line, but also my moral obligation. However, I also
understood that raining judgements would not help the situation and would only
result in closing a door that had only just cracked opened to foreign
engagement. My overarching aim was to keep the door open and not have
myself declared persona non grata, the fate of many international at that time!
Garth and I finally managed to get the Security and
Justice Programme approved – DFID’s first such programme to both countries
following the CPA. We then moved briskly to procuring a commercial service
provider to manage implementation. Bizarrely, as it appeared to others
perhaps, Garth and I felt strongly that both Sudan and Southern Sudanese
partners should be invited to participate in the tender moderation
process. Of course, we faced opposition from some colleagues who did not
see the point in going to such lengths, but we insisted and made a convincing
case to travel with a delegation of both Sudanese and Southern Sudanese to
London. We commandeered a room on FCO King Charles Street and even
organised an evening Reception to conclude the visit. This trip was
instrumental in deepening trust and confidence on all sides. An image
ingrained in my memory was Southern Sudanese and Sudanese officials walking
along Whitehall holding hands. I realised that both sides welcomed the
chance of peace and hoped politicians would allow it to mature. On
my return to Sudan, I felt the door had opened a fraction more allowing a good
dialogue to develop, through a Programme Steering Committee and informally over
more sweet tea and treacherous visits to the South, as we prepared for
implementation to commence.
For both Garth and I, the priority was to build
and sustain relationships, so we invested in getting to know our national
partners on both sides, without bias. It was clear that security sector engagement
is inherently political, not just technical, so we made sure we were
visible and accessible to beneficiaries. It was important to understand
that our partners wanted to see the faces of those representing the government
they were working with, not just our contractors. I have heard this operating
principal echoed throughout my career and also seen clear evidence that failure
to adhere, resulted in failure to deliver good results. It took a great
deal of effort, particularly in the case of Southern Sudan, which involved
having meetings under mango trees (they did not have offices at the time),
surrounded by soldiers with rusty weapons, who had spent a lifetime fighting in
the bush and now intent on protecting their leaders at all cost. I certainly
made sure to make no sudden moves!
We slept in tents, unsafe hotels with sporadic
electricity and government guest houses (this was long before the joint donor
office and its accommodation came into existence). But somehow, we did not feel
afraid or at risk. These days, we have become (quite rightly) more aware of the
risks and insecurities we are likely to encounter in the line of duty and
adhere to guidelines. At that time, we were more engrossed with just
getting the job done. I recall taking the sample police uniform
down to Southern Sudan in my ruck sack to show IGP Deng for his sign-off before
proceeding with procurement. I remember thinking gosh this is a surreal
experience. How many people get to do stuff like this – literally kick starting
a police force from my ruck sack!
Also, the thought of buying uniform, boots, belts,
stationary, bicycles and vehicles for the police, the full caboodle, might seem
quite bizarre today, particularly as it is hard to imagine this dreadfully dire
situation years later after the country became awash with oil money. However,
at that time it was really just about getting Southern Sudan started and giving
its citizens some sense of security following decades of conflict. The
timeframe for delivery mattered to us, of course we experienced delays with
procurement, and the final products once delivered were not quite according to
the specifications, but we stayed engaged with beneficiaries making sure they
understood our operating challenges. These days, we often get wrapped up in our
own internal bureaucracy, forgetting beneficiaries are waiting for our
assistance. We then expect these same beneficiaries to own and sustain whatever
assistance we eventually decide to deliver.
This was the first on many experiences working
together with Garth, but the most profound as we discovered that despite our
background differences we were extremely like-minded on many issues which
affect the quality and impact of development assistance. Certainly, as I
returned to work in South Sudan in 2012, many of the relationships formed in
2005 still endured. Apart from being astonished by the rapid pace of
development in Juba, including the development of the South Sudan Police
Service, it was almost like I had never left.
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