• Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) programme

South Sudan is a fragile state, with food and conflict insecurity and weak governance structures. Communities and individuals are vulnerable to flood and drought events. Few institutions have the capacity to support community-based mechanisms to address such shocks. The project predominantly aims to improve agriculture and diversify livelihood opportunities using wild and commercialized drought and flood tolerant seeds, offer improved irrigation opportunities, whilst employing innovative methodologies on ethnographic research, climate and disaster management plan formation and community participation.  Ultimately the project will increase individual’s, communities’ and government’s resilience and capacity to increase their ability to adapt to climate induced disasters.

This project addresses two key climate extreme hazards in South Sudan’s Western Flood Plains (Northern Bhar el Ghazal and Warrap): flood and drought. Preparing for such events is currently addressed in an ad-hoc and a reactionary manner (AO10). Changing patterns of these hazards is hard to quantify, as high-quality climate information (a crucial foundation for effective climate risk management and adaptation) is not widely available in South Sudan. Satellite data provides the bulk of meteorological data and makes downscaled predictions on flood and drought development of climate hazard indicators difficult and subjective. These climate shocks contribute to existing stresses and vulnerability for men, women and children, which include, but are not limited to, climate-related hazards (e.g nutritional deficiency, food insecurity, conflict).

SHARP was used as a baseline assessment in late 2015 and is being integrated into the FFS activities to help better understand resilience and assist in learning. Follow up training for SHARP in South Sudan will take place in mid 2016.