The top priority for FAO in South Sudan is to save lives by saving livelihoods. FAO’s large-scale procurement and pre-positioning of crop seeds enables communities to grow their own food during the main planting season.

Urgent flexible funding needed as communities remain in critical situation  

Three United Nations organizations in South Sudan - the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) - said they had scaled up their responses in counties most affected by food insecurity and malnutrition in Jonglei, Warrap and Bahr El Ghazal States as well as in the Greater Pibor Administrative area.

But they warned that South Sudan is in one of its worst humanitarian crises in years and the situation remains dire in many communities in South Sudan. So, there is an urgent need for continued funding by donors for the humanitarian response. 

Since the end of 2020, FAO, UNICEF and WFP in a joint effort with the humanitarian community have stepped up their interventions in agriculture, food, nutrition, health and water, sanitation and hygiene to reduce food insecurity, malnutrition, disease burden and mortality.

Food insecurity is the highest since South Sudan gained independence ten years ago. Some 60 percent of the population is extremely food insecure with families unable to feed themselves because of the compounded effects of conflict, displacement, massive flooding and rising poverty.

The top priority for FAO in South Sudan is to save lives by saving livelihoods. FAO’s large-scale procurement and pre-positioning of crop seeds enables communities to grow their own food during the main planting season. However, inadequate funding resulted to only 5 000 tons positioned in the first three months of 2021, which is half of the planned amount.

In counties facing catastrophic levels of hunger such as the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, Akobo, Aweil South, Tonj East, Tonj North and Tonj South, FAO is distributing crop and vegetable seeds, hand tools and fishing kits to 77,000 households. During the main planting season, FAO along with 35 implementing partners aims to distribute emergency livelihood kits to 2.3 million people. Limited funding has already led to cuts in emergency livelihood support, whereby FAO will be able to reach only 31 percent of people facing hunger. 

“Flooding, the economic crisis and the effect of the pandemic have worsened food insecurity and increased humanitarian needs”, said Meshack Malo, FAO Representative in South Sudan. “FAO urgently needs support to procure supplies, including seeds and tools, to secure livelihoods and save lives.”

 FAO assists farming and agro-pastoral communities to increase production and preserve their livelihoods. Between March and April 2021, FAO vaccinated and treated over 2.5 million animals, assisting 52 000 families.

UNICEF continues to scale up its response to the most vulnerable communities with critical levels of malnutrition. UNICEF and partners are now supporting over 150 nutrition sites to treat children with severe acute malnutrition.  UNICEF has also deployed additional emergency staff in health, nutrition, water and sanitation to rapidly support the scale up in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, one of the most affected counties. Moreover, essential supplies for nutrition, health, water, and sanitation have been pre-positioned in the priority and hardest to reach areas to ensure continuity of activities to prevent malnutrition and treat children suffering the most severe form of malnutrition. 

With more than 70 000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition having been successfully treated throughout the country between January and April 2021 with a recovery rate of more than 95 percent, results are hopeful. But a recent survey found the prevalence of global acute malnutrition to be at 21.6 percent in Pibor, 19.0 percent in Akobo West and 18.4 percent in Tonj North county, rates which are far higher than the internationally agreed upon emergency threshold of 15 percent.

 “The worrisome prevalence of malnutrition in several counties throughout the country calls for a continued scale-up of life-saving interventions to address the immediate causes of acute malnutrition and tackle morbidity and mortality among young children, especially in the upcoming rainy season,” said Hamida Lasseko, UNICEF Representative in South Sudan.

With hunger reaching emergency and catastrophic levels in remote areas in South Sudan, WFP began prioritizing 10 hard-to-reach counties where food insecurity is extremely dire. These areas are Pibor, Akobo, Tonj North, Tonj South, Tonj East, Aweil South, Bor South, Twic East, Duk and Ayod. To do so, WFP has had to cut rations for refugees and internally displaced people living in less precarious conditions.

“The scale and severity of acute food insecurity in South Sudan will continue to rise as July and August are the peak of the lean season, when families have no harvest left and are therefore highly dependent on food and nutrition assistance, without which many living in remote locations are likely to face famine,” said Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Representative and Country Director in South Sudan. 

WFP runs a robust livelihoods and resilience-building programme in areas where people can grow their own food and access local markets. So far 600 000 people have benefited from WFP’s livelihoods activities. In 2020, WFP reached more than five million food insecure people in South Sudan with food assistance, nutrition support, cash stipends and livelihoods opportunities to build the resilience of communities, prioritizing the most vulnerable and conflict-affected women, children and the elderly.

As the situation continues to be extremely worrying in many counties, it is essential to continue scaling up efforts to support affected populations with multi-sectoral life-saving food and nutrition interventions.

As South Sudan enters the season of increased rains, potential floods and accompanying compromised road access, the three UN agencies are appealing to the donor community to ensure urgent flexible funding to assist the communities most in need.

For more information, contact:

FAO: Mattia Romano, Communications Specialist; FAO South Sudan; [email protected]; +39 327 5349557

UNICEF:  Yves Willemot, Chief Communication; UNICEF South Sudan; [email protected]; +211 91 216 2888

WFP:  Marwa Awad, Head of Communication; WFP South Sudan; [email protected]; +211 92 622 1460