COMBATING DESERTIFICATION IN SUDAN: EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS LEARNED

Abstract

Problem statement: Sudan is the largest (2.5 million km2) country most seriously affected by desertification in Africa. The arid and semi-arid lands cover an area of 1.78 million km2, which represents about 72% of the country’s total area1. Sudan has collaborated with and contributed to the International efforts to combat desertification. It is one of the first countries that signed the United Nations Convection to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and assigned the National Drought and Desertification Control Unit (NDDCU) for the coordination of programmes to mitigate the effects of drought and to combat desertification as a focal point. Since the 1930s, programmes to combat desertification and its component projects and interventions have been launched in Sudan through technical and financial assistance (local and international) to improve land resources, production systems, and protection of the environment. Sudan, like other African countries, needs plant cover: an earlier study for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicated that Sudan has lost between 250,000 and 1,250,000 hectares of the total area of its forests since 2005; this is the main reason for the expansion of the desertification phenomenon. Therefore, unless serious and immediate action is pursued, the gap between the sustainability of resources and the degree of exploitation will widen further2. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to review the efforts taken by Sudan in combating desertification from governmental and private sectors, and to assess the reasons for the failure of past efforts to combat desertification. Methodology: Previous acts and agreements from National and International sources have been collected. The hazards of desertification and their impacts on economic and social lives have been evaluated. Findings: Many conclusions and lessons emerged from previous experiences of government, NGOs, civil society and private sectors in implementing desertification programmes in Sudan. The analytical review of Sudan desertification policies showed a lack of an intersectoral approach that integrates forestry activities and land use into the social, economic and developmental process of the country. They also lacked linkages to other sectors that use and actually compete for the available natural resources. Values: Therefore it was recommended that capacity building, public awareness, and integration of NGOs, governmental sectors including research institutions, ministries and international organisations is urgently needed.
Keywords: Sudan; desertification; conflicts; environment

Full text

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OUTLOOK 2018
10
*Corresponding Author
COMBATING DESERTIFICATION
IN SUDAN: EXPERIENCES
AND LESSONS LEARNED
Sarra A.M. Saad1
Adil M.A. Seedahmed2
Allam Ahmed*3
Sufyan A.M. Ossman4
Ahmed M.A. Eldoma5
1National Centre for Research
Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research
PO Box 6096, 11111, Khartoum-Sudan
Email: soilsarra@gmail.com
2Ministry of Agriculture, Khartoum-Sudan
3Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU)
School of Business, Management & Economics
Jubilee Building, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9SL, United Kingdom
Email: allam@sussex.ac.uk
4Khartoum Refinery Company
Ministry of Oil, Khartoum-Sudan
5Faculty of Forestry & Range Sciences, Sudan University of Science and Technology
Ministry of Higher Education, Khartoum-Sudan
Problem statement: Sudan is the largest (2.5 million km2) country most
seriously aected by desertication in Africa. The arid and semi-arid lands
ABSTRACT
WASD

Sarra A.M. Saad et al.
142
cover an area of 1.78 million km2, which represents about 72% of the country’s total area1.
Sudan has collaborated with and contributed to the International eorts to combat
desertication. It is one of the rst countries that signed the United Nations Convection to
Combat Desertication (UNCCD) and assigned the National Drought and Desertication
Control Unit (NDDCU) for the coordination of programmes to mitigate the eects of
drought and to combat desertication as a focal point. Since the 1930s, programmes to
combat desertication and its component projects and interventions have been launched
in Sudan through technical and nancial assistance (local and international) to improve
land resources, production systems, and protection of the environment. Sudan, like other
African countries, needs plant cover: an earlier study for the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) indicated that Sudan has lost between 250,000 and 1,250,000 hectares
of the total area of its forests since 2005; this is the main reason for the expansion of the
desertication phenomenon. Therefore, unless serious and immediate action is pursued,
the gap between the sustainability of resources and the degree of exploitation will widen
further2.
Objectives: The objective of this paper is to review the eorts taken by Sudan in combating
desertication from governmental and private sectors, and to assess the reasons for the
failure of past eorts to combat desertication.
Methodology: Previous acts and agreements from National and International sources have
been collected. The hazards of desertication and their impacts on economic and social
lives have been evaluated.
Findings: Many conclusions and lessons emerged from previous experiences of government,
NGOs, civil society and private sectors in implementing desertication programmes in Sudan.
The analytical review of Sudan desertication policies showed a lack of an intersectoral
approach that integrates forestry activities and land use into the social, economic and
developmental process of the country. They also lacked linkages to other sectors that use
and actually compete for the available natural resources.
Values: Therefore it was recommended that capacity building, public awareness, and
integration of NGOs, governmental sectors including research institutions, ministries and
international organisations is urgently needed.
Keywords: Sudan; desertication; conicts; environment
1Republic of Sudan. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; NDDCU; SNAP; A frame work of combating
desertication in Sudan in the context of the UN Convention to combat desertication, Khartoum-Sudan,
March 2006.
2African News. www.Xinhuanet.com (2016).

Combating Desertification in Sudan
143
INTRODUCTION
Desertication has been dened as land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry
sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human
activities (IPCC, 2001). Another denition of desertication is the spread of desert-
like conditions of low biological productivity due to human impact under climatic
variations (Helldén, 1991; Reynolds, 2001; Reynolds and Stafford Smith, 2002).
It is estimated that three-quarters of dry lands have suffered from some degree
of desertication (UNCOD, 1977; FAO, 1984; UNEP, 1992; FAO, 2000). The removal of
vegetation cover exacerbates desertication and accelerates soil erosion; this causes
reduced soil fertility and eventually renders the land unproductive. This situation
has often led to the assumption that it is a human induced process that leads to the
depletion of soil nutrients and a reduction of biological productivity. Desertication is
one of the central problems that pose very real and severe challenges to the sustainable
development of the dry land’s ecosystem. Rainfall variability, both in time and space,
coupled with the inherent ecological fragility of the dry lands, weakens the resilience
of the ecosystem and its ability to return to its original condition (Abdi et al., 2013).
According to Dregne and Rozonov (1991) and Maliva and Missimer (2012),
desertication has been with us for thousands of years, but has not received attention
for a very long time. It was not until the 20th century that governments and people
in general nally realised that land degradation and desertication threatened their
future.
There are conicting propositions regarding the dynamics of the Sahelian desert,
which lies in the Northern part of the African continent. The absence of a universally
agreed denition of drought, and an understanding of its relationship to desertication,
makes understanding the Sahelian ecosystem difcult. The denitions of the terms
‘desert’ and ‘desertication’ are complex issues in themselves, and open to various
interpretations (Richards, 1994; Toulmin, 1995). In a 1975 report, Lamprey stated that
it is evident that the desert’s southern boundary has shifted south by an average of
90–100km in the previous 17 years, representing a southwards shift of 5–6km per year.
This assertion is contested on the grounds that the basis of Lamprey’s comparison was
wrong, and that the ‘shift’ as a result of a severe drought has been stabilised. Hellden
(1991) did not concur with such expansion in the Sudan, and asserted that there was
no evidence that patches of desert were spreading outward from villages and water
holes into the dry lands of the Sahel area (Hellden, 1991).
HISTORY OF DESERTIFICATION IN SUDAN
Natural disasters in the contrasting forms of drought and ooding have historically
occurred frequently in Sudan; they have contributed signicantly to population

Sarra A.M. Saad et al.
144
displacement, poverty, diseases and the under-development of the country. A silent
and even greater disaster is the ongoing process of desertication, driven by climate
change, drought, and the impact of human activities.
Desertication and land degradation are among the central problems for the
sustainable development of the dry land ecosystem, especially in the case of Sudan
(see Map 1 below). Recurring droughts and land degradation are closely linked.
Drought increases soil degradation, which, in turn, magnies the impact of drought
(Abdi et al., 2013).
Historical data, anecdotal eld reports and modelling all point to the same general
trend. Overall, rainfall is becoming increasingly scarce and/or unreliable in Sudan’s
Sahel belt: this trend is likely to continue. On this basis alone, large tracts of the Sahel
will be severely impacted by declining food productivity over the next generation and
beyond.
Annual variability and relative scarcity of rainfall – in the north of Sudan in particular –
have a dominant effect on agriculture and food security, and are strongly linked to
displacement and related conicts. Drought events also change the environment as
dry spells kill otherwise long lived trees, and result in a general reduction of the
vegetation cover, leaving land more vulnerable to overgrazing and erosion.
Together with other countries in the Sahel belt, Sudan has suffered a number of
long and devastating droughts in the past decades. All regions have been affected,
but the worst impacts have been felt in the central and northern states, particularly
in Northern Kordofan, Northern state, Northern and Western Darfur, and Red Sea and
White Nile states.
Desertication is considered one of the main factors that cause the migration of
rural populations to urban centres; thus, creating so-called “environmental refugees”
(UNEP, 1991). As reported by UNEP (1991) the impact of land degradation manifests
itself in different forms.
50 to 200 km southward shift of the boundary between semi-desert and desert
has occurred since rainfall and vegetation records were rst held in the 1930s. The
remaining semi-desert and low rainfall savannah which represent some 25% of Sudan’s
agricultural land, are at considerable risk of further desertication. This is expected
to lead to a signicant drop (approximately 20%) in food production.
Insufcient and highly variable annual precipitation is a dening feature of the
climate of most of Sudan. Desertication, therefore, is considered as Sudan’s greatest
environmental problem (see Map 1 below). In northern Sudan, there is high awareness
of the issue of desertication within the academic community, and there is historical
evidence of a number of attempts to quantify and/or limit the extent of the problem
since at least the 1950s (Reynolds, 2001; FAO, 2000). As early as 1953, a landmark
study discussed several of the sources of the problem (such as overgrazing), as well
as its implications on long-term damage and reductions in productivity (UNEP, 1992;
Reynolds, 2001).

Combating Desertification in Sudan
145
Map 1 Map Showing Desertication during 2014–15
Source: Revised by the author
The most severe drought occurred in 1980–1984, and was accompanied by
widespread displacement and localised famine. Localised and less severe droughts
(affecting between one and ve states) were also recorded in 1967–1973, 1987, 1989,
1990, 1991, 1993 and 2000 (Reynolds, 2001; IPCC, 2001).
Isolated drought years generally have little permanent effect on the environment.
In the case of central Sudan, however, the 18 recorded years of drought within the
last half-century are certain to have had a major inuence on the vegetation prole
and soil conditions seen in 2006.
Recent research has indicated that the most likely cause of these historical droughts
was a medium-term (years) change in ocean temperature, rather than local factors
such as overgrazing (Helldén, 1991; Reynolds, 2001). Therefore, the potential for such
droughts to recur remains.
Although most of the country is arid, the economy has predominately depended
on the agricultural sector, including livestock production, forestry and shing (see
Figure 1). Together, they used to contribute about half of the GDP before the discovery

Sarra A.M. Saad et al.
146
and exploitation of oil in 1999. Despite the emergence of Sudan as an oil exporter and
the diminishing share of the agricultural sector in overall export earnings, agriculture
continues to be the backbone of the country’s economy in terms of its contribution to
GDP. The sector contributed on average about 35% of the country’s GDP from 2009 to
2010 (see Figure 2) (MOA, 2015).
Figure 1 Contribution of Different Sector in GDP (200922010)
Source: MOA (2015)
Figure 2 Share of Agricutural Sectors in GDP
Source: MOA (2015)

Combating Desertification in Sudan
147
DESERTIFICATION IN DARFUR
Droughts and insufcient rainfall are characteristic of western Sudanese territories,
primarily in North Darfur and Kordofan. Over the past 100 years there have been ve
periods of prolonged drought in the region. Two of them have happened in the last
20 years. In these areas the average precipitation ranges from 100 to 600 mm per year,
which, with its lower limit, poses a high probability of serious adverse consequences
in the agricultural and livestock sectors. The rainfall in 1950–1990 caused three long
periods of drought, one of which occurred in the mid-sixties and was relatively light.
The second period, which occurred between 1972 and 1975, was relatively heavy,
but the third one in 1982–1984 was almost a catastrophe. This period of drought
was accompanied by the outbreak of armed clashes. The most severe and intense of
these clashes occurred in the mid-1980s. Over time, those skirmishes turned into a
full-scale warfare (Suliman, 2008). The graph below shows the relationship between
rainfall and conicts erupting in this area over 40 years (1950–1990). The chart
shows a trend – a correlation between droughts and occurrence of armed conicts.
(Figure 3)
Figure 3 Correlation between rainfall and conict in North Darfur (195021990)
Source: M. Suliman, Darfur, Resource War and Identity War, Academic Press,
Cambridge 2004
The graph also shows the difference between the impact of the drought on the
social situation in the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s. The rst one was moderately

Sarra A.M. Saad et al.
148
severe, but it did not cause an intensication of social unrest and armed conicts.
The second drought in the eighties of the last century contributed to famine, and
armed conicts that took place in the region. Migration has intensied. Drought has
contributed to the collapse of the rural economy. Many animals died. Shepherds often
hastily discarded other animals for low prices. The life of the population was difcult.
At this moment, the rural community is susceptible to disintegration, to surrender,
to falling into armed conict, and nally to war. It was in northern Darfur in the mid-
eighties of the last century. Many years later, in 2007, the United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP) published a comprehensive analysis of the depth of the ecological
crisis in various parts of the Sahel. It turned out that one-third of the forested area
was lost in 1973–2006 in Darfur. Based on these studies, it can be concluded that this
type of drought and lack of precipitation is sufcient for the natural environment to
change signicantly, regardless of human inuence. This resulted in a displacement of
40 years to the south of the desert climate by about 100 km. Such a scale of historical
climate change is unprecedented. Reducing precipitation changed millions of acres of
marginal semi-arid areas into the desert. This process has changed the northern part
of the Sahel into almost deserted terrain. This also led to the displacement of the
pastoral community to the south in search of pastureland (Mundy, 2010).
REVIEWING CHALLENGES TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION IN SUDAN
Sudan started combatting desertication many years ago, when the report of the Soil
Conservation Committee of 1944 concluded that soil degradation and desertication
was mainly due to the misuse of land resources rather than as a result of climate change
(Seedahmed, 2017). Desertication continued to worsen day-by-day and threatened
the economic and social progress of the country and the lives of its inhabitants.
Between 1972–1976, the Sudan government established the National Committee
for Combating Drought and Desertication under the chairmanship of the National
Research Council and the Ministry of Agriculture. It commissioned the preparation of
studies and solutions to the problems of desertication and drought. The Committee
issued a report on the status of desertication in Sudan and project proposals to
address the phenomenon. The report was presented at the United Nations Conference
on Desertication in Nairobi in 1977 (Seedahmed, 2017).
In 1979, the Ministry of Agriculture was assigned a part-time coordinator to follow
up desertication control projects. In 1980, a full-time coordinator was appointed.
The National Bureau for Drought Control and Desertication was established under
the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture under the administrative supervision
of the Minister of State for Agriculture. A decision was taken to form a Permanent
Council for Desertication, in which all relevant ministries and departments, as well
as academic and research bodies, were mentioned.

Combating Desertification in Sudan
149
The International organisation also played a signicant role in desertication issues
in Sudan. The Sudano Sahelian Ofce (UNDP) provided technical and nancial support
in the early 1980s to the Ofce to Combat Desertication, which was designated as
the Ofce for the Coordination of Desertication Programs. The Ofce was able to
hold four regional workshops to raise awareness and to consult on the phenomenon
of desertication, and how to address these problems in the beginning of the eastern
region, followed by Kordofan, Darfur region, and then the northern region. These
workshops had been adopted on the consultative approach and involved all concerned
in identifying and addressing the problem of desertication. Sudan also dened the
consultative approach from bottom to top to prepare the National Action Plans (NAPs)
(Seedahmed, 2017).
Sudan succeeded in obtaining funds for the gum arabic belt and the grassland
development project, and ve grants from the Australian Government in the eld of
natural resources.
In 1986 Sudan established the Relief and Reconstruction Commission that was
afliated to the Ministry of Agriculture, but external funding was suspended due to a
conict of competencies.
In 1988, the Council of Ministers decided to establish a central ministry for
refugee and relief affairs, and included in its structure an administration to combat
desertication. After strenuous attempts, the two ministries were disbanded
in connection with desertication, which was reintroduced to the Ministry of
Agriculture.
This was followed by the establishment of the Drought and Desertication
Coordination Unit (NDDU) by a ministerial decree issued on 17 March 1991. This
decree conrmed the subordination of the unit to the Ministry of Agriculture and
Livestock at the time, under the direct supervision of the Minister of Agriculture. The
resolution specied the terms of reference of the unit and the terms of reference of
the Coordination Council, which was formed under the chairmanship of the National
Coordinator and the membership of 15 other bodies.
The unit was able to obtain technical support from the European Union in Sudan
in 1993, which was used in the establishment of the rst Geographic Information
System (GIS) unit in Sudan. An expert from the British Hunting Company was hired to
determine the geographical extent of desertication.
FORMULATION OF SUDAN’S NATIONAL ACTION PROGRAMME
After the implementation of the International Convention to Combat Desertication
the Sudan began preparing the National Action Plan with the assistance of the United
Nations Development Programme. The stages of formulating the National Action
Programme (NAP) (Seedahmed, 2017) were rst to organise workshops involving

Sarra A.M. Saad et al.
150
national partners and community leaders in the 13 affected states, where experts
from the same states prepared specialised working papers and discussed the following
topics:
1. The priorities of the state programmes in combatting desertication and miti-
gating the effects of drought.
2. Previous experiences in combatting desertication and mitigating the effects of
drought.
3. Identifying the roles of all stakeholders in combatting desertication.
Second, the organisation of specialised workshops at the federal level, mainly
concerned with the development of a unied strategy for the implementation of
the NAP to combat desertication. In this context, 10 national working papers were
prepared by national experts in economic and social development and environment
conservation. The papers included topics related to the programme, such as resource
mobilisation, the role of decision-makers, and voluntary organisations in combatting
desertication.
The third phase was a national forum in which representatives from the affected
states and government ofcials participated. There had been active contributions from
the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Ofce to Combat
Desertication. The presence of state governors and representatives of constitutional
institutions was an expression of political commitment. The paper included six main
themes, including funding, capacity building, traditional knowledge, programme
priorities, institutional structures, follow-up and evaluation, as reected in previous
workshops.
In 2001, the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD) asked the
Minister of Agriculture to commission two national recruits to draft the NAP document
based on the information available from the workshops and the National Forum. The
two advisers prepared the National Action Programme in 2002, and submitted it to the
Secretariat of the International Convention to Combat Desertication in the form of
a draft in Arabic (Seedahmed, 2017).
The National Committee of Voluntary Societies working in the eld of desertication
has undertaken a parallel effort to complement the government’s efforts. The national
plan for civil society organisations in combatting desertication has been prepared
and integrated into the national plan.
In 2009, the Desertication Law was provided for the establishment of a national
council under the auspices of the President of the Republic.
In 2015, the task of combatting desertication became the responsibility of
the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Urban Development, with the
issuance of Presidential Decree No. 32. When the Presidential Decree No. 21 of 2017

Combating Desertification in Sudan
151
was issued, the National Council for Combating Desertication was included in the
Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Urban Development.
In 2016, a Secretary General of the National Council to Combat Desertication was
appointed.
The establishment of the Council is being carried out through the establishment of
a permanent headquarters in the national capital, followed by the establishment of
branches of the Council in the States, and the authorisation of an organisational and
functional structure for the Secretariat of the Council.
The Council will have the following powers and authorities (Seedahmed, 2017):
1. to formulate policies, plans and propose legislation to combat desertication in
cooperation and coordination with relevant parties;
2. to develop a long-term national programme of action for the optimal and
balanced use of land and natural resources;
3. developing human resources and providing necessary support in the elds of
desertication studies and desert culture in all relevant elds;
4. to follow up the implementation of the National Action Programme and endeavour
to develop and promote it;
5. to support the physical and human capacities of the National Action Programme
to combat desertication;
6. encourage scientic, economic and social research to support the National
Action Programme in coordination and cooperation with the educational and
research sectors;
7. encourage the use of technologies that help to protect land from degradation;
8. to establish a network of scientic research institutions to integrate physical
and human capacities to combat desertication;
9. to develop and implement comprehensive awareness programmes targeting land
users from agriculture, pastoralists, and others;
10. to review the policies, legislation and regulations of the Council periodically to
keep abreast of developments in combatting desertication.
11. to establish an effective national organisation from the bottom up, and develop
its material and administrative capacities to enable it to combat desertication
and achieve sustainable development;
12. to supervise the fund and approve its regulations, administrative structure and
reports;
13. to supervise the General Secretariat of the Board, approving its administrative
structure and approve its nancial and administrative regulations and reports;
14. to authorise the projects submitted by the fund to develop its resources;
15. to recommend the competence of delegations representing Sudan in relevant
fora, workshops and meetings internally and externally;

Sarra A.M. Saad et al.
152
16. to recommend to the competent authority the necessary studies in the eld of
desertication and its control and the parties entrusted with the preparation of
the study;
17. to prepare reports on any practices or irregularities that the Board considers to
exacerbate desertication.
Many projects were proposed to combat desertication in Sudan, e.g.:
1. Project for the reconstruction of the gum arabic belt (its three stages in Kordofan
and Darfur);
2. Project for the reconstruction of pastures (Kordofan);
3. Project for the Rehabilitation of Grassland for Carbon Absorption (Kordofan St.);
4. Projects for the provision of tree belts in the Nile and North Nile Governorates;
5. Kordofan Resource Development Project;
6. Sustainable Natural Resources Development Project (Green Belt Project);
7. Wadi Al-Kwa Project (North Darfur – UNDP);
8. Adaptation projects to the effects of climate change.
RESULTS
The review of the history of combatting desertication in Sudan revealed that serious
attempts were made many years ago to formulate regulations and legislations, and
to coordinate with international and regional agreements. Despite these efforts,
desertication is still dened as the major threat to sustainable development and
human lives.
Many conclusions and lessons emerged from the previous experiences of government,
NGOs, civil society and private sectors in implementing desertication programmes
in Sudan. The analytical review of Sudan desertication policies showed a lack of the
intersectoral approach that integrates forestry activities and land use into the social,
economic and developmental process of the country. They also lacked linkages to
other sectors that use and actually compete for the available natural resources.
Therefore, fast action should be implemented to stop sand movement and improve
soil quality. This is in addition to the interpretation of research results that dealt with
modelling and drought control.
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BIOGRAPHY
Sarra Ahmed Mohamed Saad was awarded a PhD in Soil Science in 2002 from the
University of Goettingen, Germany. She graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture,
University of Khartoum, majoring in Soil Science. Dr Saad was appointed to the
National Centre for Research, Department of Environment in 1992, and is currently
working as senior researcher of Soil Science. She is leading many research projects
dealing with the problem of food security, soil productivity and climate change,

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in addition to organic farming and its applications in Sudan. She is a member of
many scientic societies inside and outside Sudan and has been awarded prizes for
scientic achievements in Sudan. She also holds patents for producing compost
from organic waste. Dr Saad has supervised many postgraduate students at the
MSc and PhD level, and has offered consultancy to both government and private
sector about organic food production and fertilisation strategies, especially in
poor fertile soils. In addition to Arabic, Dr Saad speaks German, English, French
and Spanish.
Adil M.A. Seedahmed graduated with a BSc in Forestry from the University
of Khartoum; has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Development Planning, ITC, the
Netherlands, and an MSc in Agriculture, from the University of Western Australia.
He worked in the Desertication Unit, Ministry of Agriculture, then the Dinder
National Park Project, the Nile Transboundary Environment Action Project and
the NAPA Implementation Project (with the Higher Council for Environment and
Natural Resources in the rst phase and the UNDP in the second phase). He is a
member of the Executive Committee of the Sudanese Environment Conservation
Society.
Allam Ahmed (www.allamahmed.org) obtained his MSc/MBA from the Royal
Agricultural University, UK and awarded the RAU Scholarship and Prestigious
Book Prize for Best MSc/MBA Dissertation. He completed his PhD in Economics
(Technology and Knowledge Transfer for Development) in two years at Edinburgh
Napier University, UK. He is a Fellow and Chartered Marketer of the Chartered
Institute of Marketing, UK. Allam is based at the Science Policy Research Unit –
SPRU (world leader in research, consultancy and teaching in the eld of Science
and Technology Policy) University of Sussex, where he established and lead the
postgraduate programme MSc International Management. Visiting Professor
at the Royal Dock School of Business and Law, University of East London, UK
(2016–now) and Visiting Professor at Brighton Business School, University of
Brighton, UK (2012–2015). Allam has an extensive background in academia,
public and private sectors, specialising in KM, technology transfer, SD, business
process re-engineering, change management and organisational transformation.
He is the Founding President of World Association for Sustainable Development
and all its journal; Founding Director of Middle Eastern Knowledge Economy
Institute; and Founder of Sudan Knowledge. In 2009 Allam led the Government of
Abu Dhabi major and rst of its kind in the Middle East Knowledge Management
Framework (Musharaka). His work featured and archived by major international
institutions and top universities such as World Bank; UN; EU; DFID; Government
of St Lucia; WFP; Imperial College; Cambridge; Oxford; Princeton; Yale; Harvard;
MIT; Stanford; Toronto; etc. Expert Advisor to the European Commission on
International Scientic Cooperation (2006–2008); International Co-ordinator

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UNESCO Chair on Transfer of Technology (2008–now); and Advisor African Capacity
Building Foundation (2011–2013). He is listed in the WHO’S WHO IN THE WORLD
2009–2017.
Ahmed Mohmed Adam Eldoma has a BSc in Forestry (Honors) from the University
of Khartoum, Faculty of Agriculture, an MSc in Natural Resources Management,
from the Faculty of Science, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, and a PhD in
Tree Physiology and Genetics from UPM, Malaysia. He is currently an Associate
Professor at the College of Forestry and Range Science, Sudan University for
Science and Technology. Dr Eldoma has worked as an ACF at The Forestry
National Corporation, Sudan, as Production Control Ofcer seconded to the
Sudan Gum Arabic Company for two years. He has worked in different capacities
at the College of Forestry and Range Sciences including, Head Department of
Silviculture, Dean of the Faculty, Head of the Research Unit, and Secretary of
University of Sudan Research Council. Dr Eldoma has worked as a coordinator
for The Sudan Finland Forestry Program, and The Sudanese-Japanese Dry Land
Research Group, sponsored by the Institute of Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan.
He has conducted several research projects and supervised many Postgraduate
students at the MSc and PhD level. He is currently working as the Project Manager
of the Natural Resources, Land Use Database and map for Darfur implemented
by GAF AG Company based at Munich, Germany. He has authored two books and
22 journal articles.
Sufyan Abd Elrzig Mohmmed Ossman is currently working as Head of Agricultural
Unit in Khartoum Renery Company in Khartoum-Sudan. He was awarded a BSc
in Forestry and Range Sciences, and MSc in Environment and Forestry from
Sudan University of Science and Technology in 2002 and 2013; respectively.
He has participated in many workshops inside and outside Sudan related to
disaster management; quality control of water and wastewater; management of
petroleum installation; compost production and uses; proliferation of orchards,
production of medicinal and aromatic plants; COP 21 in France 2015, COP 22 in
Morocco and COP 23 in Bonn.