Coordination

Joint key messaging on the threats against humanitarian workers in South Sudan.

MED Blue Press Statement to clarify a media publication alleging issuance of wrong COVID-19 results to travelers.

CCCM Cluster South Sudan daily labour wage rates, November 2022 for different categories of casual workers inside IDP Camps/protection of civilian sites (PoCs). The official UN exchange rate of 1 USD for the month of November 2022 is 611.082 SSP.

Communities across South Sudan, especially women and children, were hit hard in 2020 by the multiple shocks of intensified conflict and sub-national violence, a second consecutive year of major flooding, and the impacts of COVID-19 related restrictions on livelihoods.
Humanitarian organizations worked tirelessly to meet people’s priority needs, guided by three strategic objectives set in the 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). Among the more than 200 HRP partners operating across the country, nearly 60 per cent were South Sudanese non-governmental organizations.
By the end of the year, some 7.3 million women, men and children were reached with some form of assistance or protection through the plan.
The humanitarian response was hampered by sub-national violence, violence against humanitarian personnel and assets, bureaucratic impediments, operational interference, and COVID-19 related restrictions on movement.
The response achievements were enabled by generous donor contributions. The response plan was 65 per cent funded, with US$1.2 billion received toward the $1.9 billion appeal.

The deterioration of people’s physical and mental well-being, living standards and coping mechanisms is expected to leave 9.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023, higher than the 8.9 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022. This increase is largely driven by compounded shocks triggered by continued conflict, widespread flooding, deepening food insecurity, inflation, high food prices and lack of access to basic services.

The inter-sectoral analysis conducted using cluster people in need (PiN) revealed that there are needs in every county of the country. Of the 9.4 million people in need, an estimated 56,325 people will experience catastrophic need in Panyikang county. Moreover, there will be 7.6 million people experiencing extreme need in 66 out of 78 counties and 1.7 million people in severe need in 10 out of 78 counties. Upper Nile and Western Equatoria States will contain the highest number of counties in critical need. In the Abyei Administrative Area, 212,000 people will be in extreme need of humanitarian assistance.

List of members of the South Sudan NGO Forum eligible for elections as Substantive and Alternate Members of the CCM South Sudan.

Due to the continuous flow of returnees and asylum seekers to Paloch and to avoid camping of returnees at the Paloch airport, a transit site was identified and established by the government in Paloch to accommodate the returnees and asylum seekers who continue to come from Renk to Paloch and then to their places of origin. Currently, the transit site is hosting over 12,000 returnees, and the humanitarian situation in the transit site continues to deteriorate. A significant number of children are malnourished, and others are sick with measles, respiratory infections, acute watery diarrhoea, and malaria. The returnees at the transit site are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in terms of transportation, food, shelter, health, and WASH.

South Sudan’s refugee population stands at 2.2 million, the highest on the continent despite the signing of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) in September 2018. The Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity of South Sudan was established on 22 February 2020. While this event marks an important development to improve prospects for viable comprehensive solutions for the millions of South Sudan’s forcibly displaced, several critical issues are still to be resolved during the pre-and transitional phases prescribed by the R-ARCSS.

While some spontaneous returns have been recorded, these are in large part pendular movements prompted by a different set of factors which include dwindling livelihood opportunities in countries of asylum and changing perceptions about security in South Sudan. Over 70 per cent of these returnees have not been able to return to their prior places of habitual residence. UNHCR and its partners in South Sudan do not have access to many return areas due to insecurity. Sample intention surveys conducted in 2019 in all asylum countries have shown that a majority of South Sudanese refugees do not intend to return in the near future. In fact in 2019, over 74,000 South Sudanese new arrivals were recorded in Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.

People in South Sudan continue to experience multiple crises including conflict, intercommunal violence, food insecurity, mass displacement, economic turmoil and more. Communities lack access to basic services and dependency on humanitarian action remains high. Local and national actors’ play a key role in the humanitarian response. However, there are challenges when these local and national actors form partnerships, including multiple due diligence, administrative, and reporting processes. They lack access to direct funding and lack Capacity strengthening support to help them overcome these challenges.
Recognizing the critical role local actors play in humanitarian action, the Secretary-General at the World Humanitarian Summit of 2016 highlighted the need for humanitarian response to be “as local as possible and as international as necessary”. \t is critical to shift towards a localisation approach which aligns with Grand Bargain’s commitments. This approach must embrace any opportunity to enable local communities to build their resilience and coping mechanisms to mitigate and prevent the impact of any crises.
In early 2022, the IASC undertook a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) review of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) in South Sudan and recommended a revised approach to localisation and partnership. They noted gaps in equitable partnerships, capacity strengthening, inclusion of local actors in decision-making, and a lack of common understanding of localisation which was often reduced only to funding. Whilst funding remains a significant factor, localisation is and must be understood more broadly if resilience and leadership of local actors is to be achieved.
The HCT agreed to develop a South Sudan localisation vision, strategy and associated targets and timelines. A small group of agencies drawn from UN and the NGO Forum - FAO, the NGO Forum, CHIDDO, CAFOD & Trocaire, and DCA —was tasked to develop the strategy on behalf of the HCT, through a process of consultation with numerous stakeholders from local actors, government, donors, UN system members and NGOs. Additionally, the HCT agreed to establish a new framework for partnership between UN agencies, INGOs and NNGOs, as recommended by the P2P. Combining these approaches, a framework for partnerships is a critical enabler to support meaningful localisation with sustained outcome.
The South Sudan HCT vision and strategy on the localisation of humanitarian response is accompanied by an action plan with targets and timelines? which can be updated, adapted, and revised as needed, reflecting the HCT commitments. These targets and timelines must be supported by measurable indicators that are agreed upon by all HCT members. Progress towards these targets should be kept track of periodically during HCT meetings and discussions should be held regarding reaching these targets in the allocated timeframe.