Soon after armed conflict began in South Sudan in late 2013, humanitarians began raising questions about the risk of famine should the crisis endure, especially if compounded by natural disaster. Only 15 years prior South Sudan experienced a particularly virulent man-made famine, worsened by poor rainfall, while under the watch of the largest coordinated humanitarian… Read more »
Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS) was designed in 2012 during a period of great hope and optimism for newly independent South Sudan. The programme represents a significant investment (£60 million) by the UK Aid in increasing girls’ enrolment, retention and completion rates, and improving learning outcomes in primary and secondary schools nationwide. South Sudan has… Read more »
A common refrain from international staff working in South Sudan is talk of crises: humanitarian crises, economic crises, political crises, violent crises. Even in the period after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which by comparison with recent years seemed relatively stable, the UN still spoke in 2009 of a ‘humanitarian perfect storm’ resulting from high… Read more »
In 2015, South Sudan overtook Afghanistan as the country with the highest number of violent attacks against aid workers. Amid a brutal three-year conflict, aid workers have been both caught in the crossfire and directly targeted by state, criminal and militant groups. Notwithstanding the devastating impact the conflict has had on civilians in South Sudan,… Read more »
The World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) marked a watershed moment as 15 major donors committed to channel 25% of humanitarian funding to national and local organisations. This ‘Grand Bargain’ acknowledged that the humanitarian deficit, combined with an increase in the number and severity of crises, requires a new approach to humanitarian response. Yet in protracted conflicts… Read more »
In May 2013 we published an edition of the Humanitarian Exchange entitled ‘South Sudan at a crossroads’. Despite the challenges facing the world’s newest state, the tone was optimistic. Following the outbreak of conflict in December 2013, that sense of hope has turned to shock and despair: more than 3 million people have been displaced… Read more »
The development of productive and sustainable agriculture in South Sudan has been severely constrained by persistent armed conflict, post-harvest losses, livestock diseases, lack of tools and machinery and weak institutions. As a result, the country’s agricultural production is far from sufficient to feed the growing population, including the many internally displaced people (IDPs) forced from… Read more »
The last issue of the Humanitarian Exchange dedicated to South Sudan, published in May 2013, was entitled ‘South Sudan at a Crossroads’. Although that edition noted the challenges facing the world’s newest state – food insecurity, communal violence, displacement and the slow progress in building state institutions – its tone was upbeat. That optimism has… Read more »
As violence continues in South Sudan, the protection of civilians has become the central issue. With millions of people displaced from their homes, sheltering in Protection of Civilians (POC) sites on UN bases and in remote villages and swamps across the country, providing effective protection programming is the ultimate Sisyphean challenge. Despite a billion-dollar UN… Read more »
