South Sudan border states experiencing “severe food shortage”
May 4, 2012 (JUBA) – South Sudan on Friday expressed concerns over soaring food prices, pointing out that five states that border Sudan are experiencing “severe” food shortages allegedly due to closure of border in May last year.
“The five states bordering Sudan are experiencing severe food shortage. It is believed that around 3 million, seven hundred and eighty thousands are living in areas experiencing severe food shortage”, Duer Tut Duer, chair of relief and rehabilitation commissioner said on Friday.
In London last week Pagan Amum, South Sudan’s chief negotiator with Sudan, said that a trade emargo had been in place from May 2011 before the independence of South Sudan.
“And these days the government of Sudan has also even taken draconian measures to shoot to kill Sudanese citizens who want to do trade with South Sudan”, he said, referring to the policy announced by Sudan first vice president Ali Osman Taha.
“It is actually a net loss to Sudan, as they are forced now… they have lost the entire market of South Sudan, which was traditionally a market monopolized by Sudanese traders, historically.” Amum said at Chatham House in London.
At a press briefing in Juba on Friday Duer said that in response to the declaration of severe crop failure and the subsequent appeal launched by the government for assistance, the UN Country Team responded by mobilising resources through the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to respond to the food crisis in the areas of food security and livelihoods, health and nutrition as well as water and sanitation and emergency rehabilitation of the productive capacities of farmer households.
Duer estimated that among the vulnerable population, 85,900 are children under the age of five years, with 93,000 in the most affected areas and 24,300 in the borderline affected areas. He however revealed that it was not only borderline areas that were seriously affected, but almost the entire country nearly declared emergency crop failure.
“There was an issue drought in some places last year. Rains started late even here in Juba rains as late as May instead of March as usual. They stopped raining even though they started late in May”, Duer explained
The senior relief officer said that a joint multi-sector needs assessment was conducted in order to quantify the people affected in terms of households, gender, age, pregnant and women with young dependents and other important parameters to facilitate a transparent and accountable distribution of emergency assistance to the right households.
“The joint assessment was coordinated by the World Food Programme in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management involving all critical partners in this exercise.”
He explained further stated that according to the Post Harvest Assessment Report, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap, Western Bahr el Ghazal, Unity State, Upper Nile and Jonglei States were found as some of the most affected states by the assessment team.
“Therefore, the World Food Programme (WFP) approved an Immediate Response Emergency Operation to provide 1,706 metric tons of food aid for 62,500 beneficiary households in Jonglei area for a period of one month at a total cost of USD1, 347, 287,” he said.
“The distribution of the food rations for the first month have just concluded in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, which is just one of the five affected areas in the country.”
WFP will provide food assistance to a total number of 206,000 people to cover the food needs during the lean season until the next harvest in September 2012. He explained that the food distribution is being done jointly by WFP and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
He explained that prior to the start of the distribution, a Joint Logistic and Capacity Assessment Mission was conducted countrywide by WFP, specifically to identify appropriate stores and distribution centres.
Duer said in addition to this, a pre-distribution training programme for States Disaster Management Committees, storekeepers and food management committees was conducted by the ministry of humanitarian affairs to adequately prepare those who were to do the distribution with the basic skills and techniques involved in food distribution. He said this was designed to ensure equitable, transparent and accountable distribution process.
He also disclosed that the governors of the border states were asked by the ministry of humanitarian affairs to conduct regular meetings to adequately sensitise local authorities to fully understand the distribution formula, concept of operation for their full involvement to further enhance accountability and transparency in the distribution process based on evidence-based data and information from the needs assessment exercise.
He further said that a verification mission comprising of the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President and his commission were deployed to witness the distribution in order to verify the distribution process. According to him, findings from this mission revealed that in overall, the distribution has been very satisfactory. He was, however, quick to state the constraints were encountered relating to beneficiaries submitting their identity cards, right spelling of names on the beneficiary lists and the few omissions of some names due to human error. “But these constraints were adjusted as the distribution progressed,” he said.
He commended the full involvement of women, local authorities and the visible collaborative partnership between government and the WFP. For instance, Emergency and Disaster Management Committees worked alongside the WFP in a coordinated manner. He applauded the leadership role of the state governors, describing it as commendable. He also hailed the leadership role at national level played by the Disaster Management Governing Council under the chair of the Vice President.
He said that due to inadequate global resources to respond to the food crises, the resident coordinator of the UN in South Sudan, working closely with Humanitarian affairs and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning approached the Country of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to provide technical assistance including a field mission to Juba to finalise an advocacy strategy which will be used for additional resource mobilisation to fill the funding gaps in the response to the food crisis. He revealed that overall sectoral needs will be reflected in the strategy for presentation to donors, a process, which he said will commence on 3 May for early conclusion and subsequent resource mobilisation.
Of significant importance, he went on is the need for more innovative and comprehensive approach that builds on both humanitarian and development assistance so as to increase resilience and promote long-term sustainability. He also stressed that operational single resilience-based approach to the food insecurity and nutrition crisis in the country needs the full support of the United Nations.
“There is therefore an urgent need, concerted and rapid action to meet the immediate emergency needs of the population in the country, while at the same time also addressing the underlying structural causes of food insecurity by building the resilience and address chronic vulnerability in the country,” he said.
“We therefore need to collectively move forward on the resilience agenda by ensuring closer integration of humanitarian and developing programming to address chronic vulnerability and build resilience more effectively.”
(ST)