16 April 2013 -- Seeking shelter from the sweltering sun, tens of ex-combatants sat under mango trees across the Greater Bahr El-Ghazal region on a recent afternoon. The trees were heavily laden with fruit that would soon ripen, an apt symbol of the process that the ex-combatants are about to undergo as members of the initial group of South Sudanese to participate in their country's first disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme.

About 500 members of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and South Sudan National Police Service (SSNPS) will enrol in the pilot training programme, which officially commenced on Monday 15 April at a DDR training facility in the Western Bahr El-Ghazal state community of Mapel.

Nearly two years in the making, the new programme has been allocated a budget of USD$1.5 Million and will run for three months.

"The Government has committed itself by (facilitating) the transportation of the ex-combatants to this centre ... and providing food," said William Deng Deng, the chairperson of the South Sudan DDR Commission. "It underscores (the importance) of this programme."

The process of disarming ex-combatants and reintegrating them into civilian life isn't unknown to South Sudan. A DDR programme was launched in 2009 in what was then called southern Sudan as well as the Sudanese states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and over the ensuing two years 12,525 ex-combatants were processed under that DDR exercise.

That figure fell way short of the 90,000 who were supposed to be demobilized during the transition from civil war to independence, and that DDR programme was halted in April 2011.

As part of an overhaul of the programme, a National DDR Council was formed and instructedto design new policies that would transform the previous DDR program into one that would be sustainable for many years.

About 80 per cent of the ex-combatants who have been chosen for the pilot programme cannot read and write or have limited literacy skills. In order to acquaint them with the DDR programme in advance, outdoor meetings were held last month in six locations scattered across the states of Warrap, Lakes, Northern Bahr El-Ghazal and Western Bahr El-Ghazal.

The teams who organized those informal introductions to the DDR process were drawn from national and state DDR bodies, representatives of South Sudanese security services and staff members of the UNMISS DDR section.

"We are poor people in a rich country, let's work to make money for ourselves," SPLA Col. Martin Ring Malek Aguek told one such gathering of ex-combatants. "We don't even use our cows for business, we use them for prestige. We can learn how to use cows for commercial purposes."

Participants will receive training in a wide variety of economic activities ranging from agriculture and carpentry to automotive repair and the operation of a small business. More specialized training will be available after the ex-combatants have completed the initial 90-day phase and rejoin their families in their respective communities.

The SPLA is promoting the DDR programme as an opportunity for its ex-soldiers to acquire skills and a steady source of income, however modest that might be.

"After training, you should be able to earn a minimum of 20 to 30 South Sudanese Pounds a day," Col. Kella Dual Kueth told one group of DDR candidates. "This is much better than being in the military and waiting three months for your salary."