Coordination

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.

In an effort to inform cash-based interventions and better understand market dynamics in South Sudan, the Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI) was created by the South Sudan Cash Working Group (CWG) in August 2019.

The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) of South Sudan is committed to a future that sees people being self-reliant. Sadly, evidence-based needs remain high, and the people of South Sudan will continue to require significant support from the international community throughout 2024.
An estimated 9 million people, including refugees in South Sudan, will experience critical needs in 2024. As the HCT, we aim to target 6 million of these people with some form of humanitarian support, depending on the resources available. This means that some people will experience needs that humanitarians cannot respond to.
The HCT’s two-year strategy, articulated in this document, seeks to maximise opportunities to address peoples’ needs in a collaborative and cooperative way with peace and development actors, leveraging opportunities to address the root causes and drivers of peoples’ needs. The strategy will be reviewed after one year or when the context changes.

More than one million dollars’ worth of humanitarian supplies and assets were looted and destroyed during armed attacks in May, impacting the delivery of assistance to an estimated 131,000 people in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA).
In May, FSL Cluster partners reached 224,000 people in GPAA with food assistance. This represents 49 per cent of the people targeted. It is part of a double distribution for May and June and will be completed in June. Sub-national violence led to the suspension of food distributions in Gumuruk in early May.
The FSL Cluster reached 107,000 households in the six priority 1 counties with dry season livelihood support in May. This represents 63 per cent of the people targeted.
WASH partners reached 81,700 people, out of 175,000 targeted, with WASH/non-food item kits and basic hygiene messaging in communities affected by high global acute malnutrition and/or high incidence of diarrheal diseases.
The Health Cluster provided consultations to 65,000 people in the six priority 1 counties in May. Trainings in comprehensive management of rape cases and integrated disease surveillance and response system were provided.
Nutrition partners treated 13,000 severe acute malnutrition, 30,000 moderate acute malnutrition children and 26,000 pregnant and lactating women, in the six priority 1 counties during the reporting period.
The Logistics Cluster transported 180 metric tons of humanitarian cargo by air in May to support partners in priority areas inaccessible by road, mostly in Akobo and Pibor. Some 480 square metre of common storage space was made available to the humanitarian community in Akobo.
In May, Protection Cluster partners reached 6,270 people with general protection interventions including through protection by presence, protection monitoring, awareness raising, protection and cash assistance. More than 9,200 people were reached with various gender-based violence services, including Women and Girls Friendly Space activities and 56 people received psychosocial support or case management. Dignity kits were distributed to 3,160 women and girls. Child Protection partners provided services to 10,250 people, including 3,700 girls and 3,630 boys through case management, family tracing and reunification services for unaccompanied and separated children, and community-based psychosocial support to children and caregivers.

JBVMM approval for movement of humanitarians along different routes.

This Annual Report presents information on the achievements of the South Sudan Humanitarian Fund during the 2020 calendar year. The humanitarian situation for people in South Sudan remains dire. By the end of the year, the number of people in need reached an all-time high of 8.3 million, compared to 7.2 million and 7.5 million at the same time in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The new caseload includes 8 million South Sudanese and 0.3 million refugees and asylum seekers.