Darfurian Voices
24 Hours for Darfur recently released “Darfurian Voices,” a report detailing the results of the first ever representative survey of Darfurian refugees’ opinions on peace, justice, and reconciliation. The US-based non-profit research organization spent four months in the 12 Darfurian refugee camps in eastern Chad, interviewing 1872 randomly-sampled civilians and 280 civil society and rebel leaders. The data gathered from the civilian sample is representative of the adult refugee population in Chad, and sheds light on important questions about participants’ specific beliefs about the root causes of the conflict, past peace negotiations and agreements for Darfur and southern Sudan, the nature and importance of justice in bringing about a sustainable peace, the possibility of reconciliation, land-related issues, democracy, power-sharing, and the national elections, and which actors, if any, best represent their views.
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Dear Jonathan, Thank you for giving notice on “Darfurian Voices” released by “24 Hours for Darfur.” I have not yet read all of of the document, but I do have a question.
The U.S. Department of State is listed amongh the “funders and collaborating partners,” by 24 Hours for Darfur [and I assume this relates to the production of this document] and I was wondering if you could ellaborate on the involvement of the U.S. Government [through the State Dept.] in this project.
Best regards,
Oscar
Dear Oscar,
One clarification: the US Department of State is listed as a source of funding and not as a collaborating partner. The later title would be a misrepresentation of its involvement.
Our research was piloted in Chad in May and June 2008. That trip was funded by individuals and private foundations.
After the pilot study we submitted an application for funding in response to the U.S. State Department’s public “request for proposals†from organizations conducting research on the groups affected by the Darfur conflict. We successfully obtained a grant through this process, which provided the vast majority of the funding for the primary field research component of our project.
The State Department’s involvement with respect to the content of the research was minimal. A few individuals provided some minor comments on a draft version of the survey questionnaire. A few others provided some advice related to the logistics of operating in eastern Chad. That is all.
Best,
Jonathan
Dear Jonathan,
Thank you for the clarification in regard to the U.S. State Department’s involvement in this project.
As you wrote that “the vast majority of the finding for the primary field research component” of your project was provided by the State Department, would it be fair to say that this component of your project was “primarily” funded by the U.S. State Department?
Best regards,
Oscar
can you please tell me how did you ascertain that all those in the 12 camps you mention are actually Sudanese refugees from Dar Fur and not displaced Chadians,who find it easy to get help as refugees in the camps?