Health

In the oil fields of Thar Jath, South Sudan, increasing salinity of drinking water was observed together with human incompatibilities and rise in livestock mortalities. Hair analysis was used to characterize the toxic exposure of the population. Hair samples of volunteers from four communities with different distance from the center of the oil field (Koch 23 km, n = 24; Leer 50 km, n = 26; Nyal 110 km, n = 21; and Rumbek 220 km, n = 25) were analyzed for altogether 39 elements by inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry. Very high concentrations and a toxic health endangerment were assessed for lead and barium. The concentration of lead increased steadily with decreasing distance from the oil field from Rumbek (mean 2.8 mg/g) to Koch (mean 18.7 mg/g) and was there in the same range as in highly contaminated mining regions in Kosovo, China or Bolivia. The weighting materials in drilling muds barite (BaSO4) and galena (PbS) were considered to be the sources of drinking water pollution and high hair values. The high concentrations of lead and barium in hair demonstrate clearly the health risk caused by harmful deposition of toxic industrial waste but cannot be used for diagnosis of a chronic intoxication of the individuals.

South Sudanese people have extensive knowledge of infectious diseases and experience of organizing responses to epidemics during wars and other crises. There are multiple, locally-specific methods used by communities for interrupting infection transmission and managing epidemics. This report documents these community infectious disease management strategies, based on sustained investigative research in the Yei, Juba, Wau, Malakal, Aweil West and Rubkona areas in 2020. The research encourages collaborative engagement with local knowledge and community healthcare leadership.

This is the final report from the Rift Valley Institute’s research project, Community Approaches to Epidemic Management in South Sudan (CAEMSS). The project, which began in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, was designed to document how communities across South Sudan have created systems and structures to control the spread of epidemics and infectious diseases in the country. A summary briefing can be found here.

This report was written by Nicki Kindersley, Peter Majiek, Stephen Othur, Deng Barjok, Emmanuel Luga, Elizabeth Nyibol, Alex Miskin, Chirrilo Madut and Joseph Diing Majok.

In recent times, there has been an increasing drive to demonstrate value for money (VfM) for investments made in public health globally. However, there is limited information on practical insights and best practices that have helped implementing organisations to successfully embed VfM in practice for programming and evaluation.

In this article, the authors discuss strengths and weaknesses of approaches that been used and insights on best practices to manage for, demonstrate, and compare VfM, using a health pooled fund programme implemented in conflict-affected South Sudan as case study supported by evidence reported in the literature while critiquing adequacy of the available approaches in this setting. An expanded and iterative process framework to guide VfM embedding for health programming and evaluation is then proposed. In doing so, this article provides a very relevant one-stop source for critical insight into how to embed VfM in practice. Uptake and scale-up of the proposed framework can be essential in improving VfM and aid effectiveness which will ultimately contribute to progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Background: Decades of war left the Republic of South Sudan with a fragile health system that has remained deprived of resources since the country’s independence. The authors describe the coverage of interventions for women’s and children’s health in Upper Nile and Unity states, and explore factors that affected service provision during a protracted conflict.

Methods: The authors conducted a case study using a desk review of publicly available literature since 2013 and a secondary analysis of intervention coverage and conflict-related events from 2010 to 2017. During June through September 2018, they conducted 26 qualitative interviews with technical leads and 9 focus groups among health workers working in women and children’s health in Juba, Malakal, and Bentiu.

Results: Coverage for antenatal care, institutional delivery, and childhood vaccines were low prior to the escalation of conflict in 2013, and the limited data indicate that coverage remained low through 2017. Key factors that determined the delivery of services for women and children in the study sites were government leadership, coordination of development and humanitarian efforts, and human resource capacity. Participants felt that national and local health officials had a limited role in the delivery of services, and financial tracking data showed that funding stagnated or declined for humanitarian health and development programming during 2013–2014. Although health services were concentrated in camp settings, the availability of healthcare providers was negatively impacted by the protracted nature of the conflict and insecurity in the region.

Conclusions: Health care for women and children should be prioritized during acute and protracted periods of conflict by strengthening surveillance systems, coordinating short and long term activities among humanitarian and development organizations, and building the capacity of national and local government officials to ensure sustainability

Decades of conflict in South Sudan, pre and post-independence in 2011, poverty and poor access to services have increased the rate of disability and rendered people with disabilities more marginalised and excluded as a result of the numerous attitudinal, environmental, and institutional barriers they face, and the lack of concerted efforts to include them. This rapid review identifies the available evidence on the experiences of people with disabilities living in South Sudan. There are still numerous evidence gaps in relation to the experiences of people with disabilities living in South Sudan as very little research has looked at disability in South Sudan and the available evidence base is extremely limited. Much of the available information focuses on Juba rather than the rest of the country. Further research with people with different types of disabilities, and in different areas of South Sudan is needed to more fully understand the experiences of people with disabilities living on South Sudan, the barriers and challenges they face, and how they and their families have responded to them.

This rapid evidence review provides an assessment of negative and positive coping mechanisms of different groups (based on wealth (below the poverty line/elites), gender, age, (dis)abilities, geographies (rural/urban), and ethnicity of people in South Sudan in relation to different types of shock. It draws predominantly on a range of grey literature from multinational and bilateral institutionsas well as non-government organisations (NGOs) and think tanks. The report highlights that coping strategies are varied and multifaceted, they are a product of the vulnerability of particular individuals, households and communities and are the product of responses to shocks and stressors. These shocks(?) may be acute or chronic. It is also important to note that coping strategies in the South Sudanese context have often been developed in response to food insecurity, climatic change and conflict and that new shocks may undermine these existing strategies, necessitate evolution of these or the adoption of new strategies. It is also important to note that these may have both negative and positive impacts that may differ over short, medium and long term time horizons.

This rapid review focuses on identifying evidence on the secondary impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It aims to enable a greater understanding of the unique circumstances of women and girls in the region, which could assist with the provision of effective support throughout the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath. Guided by available evidence, the review explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls in SSA across various issues. These include some of the following – girls’ education, social protection, unintended pregnancies, access to health services, poverty, livelihood, land rights, women’s and girls’ informal employment, food security and nutrition, female health workforce, and access to WASH. The review touches upon, but does not thoroughly investigates the following topics as they are considered in other reviews - Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), girls’ and women’s rights, child marriage, harmful social norms, and women’s political participation, leadership and empowerment. Despite the limited data, the review found that based on emerging evidence and lessons from past health crises, there is strong evidence to suggest that women and girls in SSA will suffer from extreme and multifaceted negative secondary impact as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Some of which may include higher poverty rates, increase in unplanned pregnancies, a surge in school dropout rates and child labour of adolescent girls, loss of income and reduced financial empowerment, increased household work, reduced access to healthcare and WASH alongside increased maternal deaths, and greater food insecurity and malnutrition.