South Sudan: US$1.5 billion needed to address the humanitarian needs of 5.6 million people in 2020

Response Plan Overview

The cumulative effects of years of prolonged conflict, chronic vulnerabilities and weak essential services have left 7.5 million people – more than two thirds of the population – in need of humanitarian assistance. Nearly 4 million people remain displaced:

1.5 million internally and 2.2 million as refugees in neighbouring countries. Limited availability and a lack of access to health services have largely contributed to one of the highest under-five mortality rates (90.7 deaths per 1,000 live births) and maternal mortality rates (789 deaths per 100,000 live births) worldwide. The country remains in a critical period of unprecedented severe food insecurity with 6.4 million people considered food insecure, and with malnutrition rates of 16 per cent – surpassing the global emergency threshold.
Protection concerns remain significant, with affected populations expressing fear over persistent insecurity, protection threats, human rights violations and gender-based violence (GBV).
In 2020, the humanitarian operation will focus on three overarching strategic objectives (SOs) aimed at responding to the needs of 5.6 million vulnerable populations as a result of the crisis: (1) Reduce morbidity and mortality, as well as suffering from protection threats and incidents; (2) Facilitate safe, equitable and dignified access to critical cross-sectoral basic services; and (3) Enable vulnerable people to recover from crisis, seek solutions to displacement and build resilience to acute shocks and chronic stresses through targeted programming in specific geographic locations.
To fully meet these objectives, the humanitarian community will need US$1.54 billion in 2020. This Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) is based on an enhanced, intersectoral analysis of needs across population groups. A rigorous prioritization approach has been applied in identifying the geographical areas and activities included in the scope of the plan. As per the previous 2019 HRP, the Humanitarian Country Team has agreed to focus on activities that can be scaled up, depending on the availability of funds.
The response approach strengthens multisectoral planning and delivery, mainstreams protection activities across the strategic objectives and focuses on strengthening accountability to affected people (AAP). A robust intersectoral mechanism has been put in place to ensure that targeted populations and beneficiaries feel informed and consulted throughout the entire humanitarian programme cycle. Through a targeted community communication and engagement plan, it aims to protect vulnerable communities in high risk areas from sexual exploitation and abuse. A focused approach to incorporating age, gender and diversity considerations will be applied in all aspects of partners’ response. This includes prioritizing vulnerable population groups such as female-headed households, providing safe spaces for children and taking into account the needs of the elderly and persons with disabilities during the response. Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) will be used by a number of sectors as a modality of response aimed at improving livelihoods of local communities and businesses and strengthening local markets.
In 2020, partners are enhancing their efforts in intersectoral collaboration and impact monitoring. The intersectoral severity analysis provided for the identification of prioritized geographic locations displaying the highest severity of need. Regular situation and response monitoring will provide the Humanitarian Country Team with timely evidence for operational decision-making.
Through consolidated humanitarian hubs, humanitarians will provide secure access to hard-to-reach locations and enable consistent delivery of quality integrated basic services to underserved and vulnerable populations. Subnational inter-agency coordination will enable operational decentralization of response activities and facilitate the involvement of affected populations.
In support of the humanitarian-development nexus, partners will aim to ensure that humanitarian activities are aligned and contribute to the shared objectives and collective outcomes of development programming through the United Nations Cooperation Framework (UNCF) (2019–2021).