S. Sudan: Child rights activist calls for increased donor funding
June 27, 2022 (JUBA) – South Sudan is embroiled in a cycle of conflict and food insecurity with growing humanitarian needs, yet donor funding is drastically dwindling, a child rights activist has said.
Despite the mounting crisis, donor partners no longer prioritize the population’s needs, with large funding cuts in 2022, Marko Madut Garang, the Executive Director of The Organization of Children’s Harmony (TOCH) wrote in the Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) Report launched on June 20.
Annually published since 2010, the GHA report provides a world-leading and data-driven assessment of the global financing landscape for humanitarian response, while comprehensively highlighting key issues and emerging trends for those working to improve financing responses to crises, especially food insecurity.
“Funding towards food insecurity has seen little change in the last three years, while needs continue to grow, leading to a reduction in available resources from donors. Preference still goes to funding larger international organizations perceived to have less ‘risk’, and when L/NNGOs [local/national NGOs] are funded, there is reluctance to cover overhead costs, capacity strengthening and security costs, which are essential in contexts like South Sudan,” Madut observed.
Instead, donors are concerned with other global crises and skyrocketing inflation.
In 2022, the Integrated Food Security Phase 3 Classification (IPC) noted, South Sudan faced its fourth consecutive year of unprecedented flooding and, going into 2023, an estimated 7.7 million people are likely to face severe acute food insecurity during the April-July lean season. The IPC is an innovative and multi-partner initiative to improve food security, nutrition analysis and decision making.
According to the child rights activist, climate change continues to worsen agricultural productivity in the East African nation and even community infrastructures like schools and health centers are frequently submerged in water.
“The current crisis in Sudan has already started to see an influx of refugees and returnees to various states in South Sudan, which can only exacerbate the food crisis,” he said, amid concerns that climate crisis, including extreme flooding, and the economic aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, will worsen the situation.
Additionally, South Sudan is still heavily dependent on imported food supplies, and ongoing crises in Ukraine and now neighbouring Sudan will continue to inflate the market and threaten whatever coping strategies families already have.
TOCH, in partnership with the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and Trocaire urgently responded to the food crisis in Gogrial West and East in Warrap State with funding from Caritas Norway and Secours Catholique.
“Through this support, TOCH was able to tackle food insecurity through distribution of ox ploughs, local seeds and vegetable seeds. 18 agricultural extension workers provided technical skills to local farmers to increase productivity and adapt to climatic changes in the environment. Through this project, they have seen an increase in productivity among local farmers,” Madut wrote in the GHA report.
According the child rights activist, local and national organisations like TOCH are on the frontlines of responding to the food crisis in the world’s youngest nation.
“Having worked with these communities for years, they understand the context, needs and have good relationships to be able to deliver high quality response, including in locations where international NGOs are unable to access,” he said.
The 129-page report shows how humanitarian needs changed in 2022 and the repercussions for 2023, in the face of escalating food insecurity, the compounding impacts of climate change and the continued fallout from the war in Ukraine.
The report further provides analysis on the figures for the total amount of international humanitarian assistance contributed last year, including key changes and trends in the behavior of public donors, as well as private donors.
It also examines flows of official development assistance for development, humanitarian and peace building responses reaching crisis-affected countries.
South Sudan obtained its independence from Sudan in July 2011 but civil wars and continued intercommunal clashes have overshadowed this achievement. This violence drives displacement and feeds into the country’s state of extreme hunger. Today, 2 million people are internally displaced and over two thirds of its population or about 8.9 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance.
(ST)