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On 16^th December 2019, Golo town in Jebel Marra, Central Darfur was no less than a fair as UNDP jointly with UNICEF held a jubilant ceremony to hand over three infrastructure assets constructed and fostered by the project to enhance peace and support livelihoods through durable solutions in the area. Since 2018, the project - Sustainable Returns and Peacebuilding through Durable Solutions and Rule of Law in Golo constructed and equipped three centres that would serve as community owned assets in Golo - a Youth Vocational Skills Development Centre, a Peace and Reconciliation Center, and a Veterinary Centre. Along with the infrastructure construction, the project provided equipments, established and developed associated community-based mechanisms to operate the centre to reduce conflict, build skills, and provide extension services for the local community.

The Youth Vocational Skills Development Centre handed over to the Central Darfur State Ministry of Education – Department of Youth will function as a hub to build the skills of the Golo locality’s young women and men in various vocational skill areas and income generation activities. The centre is currently training 60 youth (15 women) to build their skills in masonry, carpentry, welding and food processing. Selected from different villages and tribes across Golo locality, the trainees will be given start-up kits to kick start their endeavors and top performers will be recruited as teaching assistants at the centre with the support from State Ministry of Education. The goal behind skills development programs is to prevent youth from being drawn into conflict or get recruited as soldiers and divert them towards vocation-based income generation.

The Peace and Reconciliation Centre handed over to Golo Peace and Reconciliation Committee and received by its Chair and Head of all community local leaders – Shatai will serve as a resource center for mediation, peaceful coexistence and community dialogues in Golo. It will act as a platform for mediating those cases which the Community-Based Conflict Resolution Committees (CBRMs) would have failed to mediate at village level and have escalated to locality level.

On the other hand, the Veterinary Centre will serve all segments of the population in Golo, including farmers, nomads, IDPs, youth and women to ensure accessible health care services for their cattle, considered as a social asset and status of prestige. The centre serves as a key dividend of peace as the availability and accessibility of vet care within the town means better production from cattle, more opportunities of interactions between tribes thereby enhancing harmony and reducing communal tensions .For the first time in many years, the Head of the nomads arrived in Golo to attend this event, signaling a step towards peaceful coexistence. 

Attended by UNDP’s partners of the project: UNICEF, War Child Canada, Siyaj Charity Organization and Technology Transfer and Productivity Platform, during the ceremony, Director General of the Ministry of Education committed to provide security for the Youth Vocational Centre and reassigned a lecturer from another locality as Head of the Centre.

Until 2017, Jebel Marra area of Central Darfur in which Golo locality is located has seen constant clashes between the government and rebel groups. In early 2018, however, improvements in the security situation allowed relief and development organizations to access the area. Since its inception in 2018, the UNDP-UNICEF project, funded by the UN Secretary General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) at a value of US$ 3 million, has implemented a wide range of recovery activities to establish and enhance rule of law, prevent conflict through capacity building of state and non-state actors, and improve livelihoods, support local economic recovery and basic services for the area’s returnees, IDPs and host communities.