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Faculty, Students Gauge Impact of Aid in Darfur
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Research by USF faculty and students measures impact of Darfur refugees on urban food and housing prices, as well as the environmental impacts.
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University of San Francisco professors of sociology, economics, and environmental science have combined their expertise to assess the impact of humanitarian food aid, a flood of internally displaced persons, and the influx of foreign aid workers on the daily lives of city dwellers in war-torn Darfur.
Anne Bartlett, assistant professor of sociology and director of the Darfur Centre for Human Rights and Development, Jennifer Alix-Garcia, assistant professor of economics, David Saah, assistant professor of environmental sciences, and Abdelbagi Elsadig Elawad, formerly of the Western Sudan Development Project, are leading the first comprehensive look at the effectiveness of aid in the region.
The study will analyze the connection between local economies, social well-being, and the environmental effects of the conflict. To date, little empirical data have been collected about the impact of the ongoing genocide to city residents, with most of the attention being paid to the forced removal of rural populations from their land and the wholesale destruction of their communities by marauding bands of militants. Those who flee often seek shelter in camps near cities such as Nyala, al-Geneina, and al-Fasher - where the study will concentrate - driving up urban housing and food costs, degrading the surrounding environment, and straining government and aid organization resources, Bartlett said.
Establishing the impact of refugees to the cities that host them is critical because many urban residents, themselves, survive at a subsistence level, Alix-Garcia said. "This study will help us understand how humanitarian assistance affects poor (urban) populations who do not receive the aid; and these populations vastly outnumber those who do receive it."
Analyzing the unintended consequences of the largest humanitarian effort in the world could help aid organizations improve the efficiency of their work, while avoiding criticizing them for their current efforts, Bartlett said.
"There is now an abundance of evidence (showing) that poorly directed aid can often do more harm than good, and that it is imperative to have a thorough understanding of the dynamics of a local situation before sending money and technical assistance," Alix-Garcia said.
By correlating the economic and social conditions on the ground with the ensuing city morphology and environmental degradation using maps and satellite imagery, the group intends to show the impact of past policy decisions and, hopefully, impact future decisions for the better, Saah said.
In addition to tracking the economic costs of food and housing, and using satellite imagery to assess city changes and environmental damage, researchers plan to conduct face-to-face interviews with 1,100 individuals in the three main urban centers of the region -- Nyala, al-Fashir, and al-Geneina -- as well as another 300 among the refugee population in camps outside of Nyala in the coming months.
For junior Angela Lucia, one of a group of undergraduate and graduate students involved in data interpretation and analyzing the historical context of the conflict, the Darfur project has piqued her interest as an international studies major and African studies minor. She is looking forward to continuing the work into her senior year and beyond, possibly taking advantage of USF's study abroad program to South Africa in 2009. "I hope to work on the ground in Africa, if possible," Lucia said.
The interdisciplinary nature of the research not only results in wider faculty and student involvement, but also makes the work more powerful than if only one department was undertaking the effort, Alix-Garcia said. Beyond Darfur, such data has the potential to be used as a general template in similar conflicts worldwide, including Central Africa, Pakistan, Burma, and Bosnia. 
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