Microfinance assessment consultancy to Darfur, Sudan

The trading networks and entrepreneurship of Darfuri traders are legendary and Darfur has long been the source of Sudan’s most important exports of agricultural produce, including groundnuts, gum arabic and livestock. Its modern economy remains based on agriculture and trade, but chronic under-investment, marginalization and isolation from the rest of the Sudanese economy has disabled the region from reaching its full production and trading potential. To a large extent, the conflict that escalated in Darfur in 2003 represents a modern flare-up of grievances caused by natural, political, national and local processes that started deep in history and have continued during colonial times as well as under the regimes that have ruled Sudan since Independence. The key economic impacts observable today are a combination of the acute effects of the latest conflict and the gradual impact of increased competition for scarce political, economic and natural resources.

The assessment was originally published by the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University.