Daily Inspiration Quote by Jan Egeland

The sentence is built like a damage report delivered in a calm voice: first the blunt admission of failure, then the carefully rationed consolation. “Although” does heavy lifting here, asking the listener to accept a grim reality - inadequate access to Darfur - while pivoting to a narrower, more defensible success. That rhythm matters. Egeland is speaking as a senior humanitarian official, and this is the bureaucratic art of acknowledging catastrophe without sounding defeated, panicked, or politically accusatory.

The subtext is a negotiation with multiple audiences at once. To donors and UN headquarters, “we do fortunately have humanitarian personnel” signals presence, credibility, and a minimum operational footprint - enough to justify funding and continued engagement. To the Sudanese government and armed actors controlling roads and airspace, the phrasing avoids naming obstruction as obstruction. “Do not have adequate access” is diplomatic understatement: it implies restrictions, insecurity, or deliberate denial without assigning blame in a way that could get staff expelled.

The line “including staff from my own office” is not incidental. It’s a quiet accountability move, a way to say: I’m not armchairing this from Geneva; my people are exposed too. It also functions as institutional self-protection - if the situation deteriorates, Egeland has already established that the UN is present where it can be.

Contextually, Darfur was a theater where “access” was the real currency: convoys blocked, visas delayed, areas declared off-limits, and civilians trapped beyond the reach of aid. The quote’s intent is to keep the humanitarian project legible in public - limited, compromised, but still alive.