December 20, 2011

Though significant humanitarian needs in South Sudan continue, the government of the world’s newest nation wants international aid to shift toward long-term development efforts, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudan’s minister of information, told an audience at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on December 13.

“The NGO [nongovernmental organization] approaches will have to change to fold into the development agenda of the country,” said Benjamin, who appeared at the panel event, “NGO Engagement in South Sudan.”

Despite the legacy of more than two million people killed through 50 years of conflict, “we have managed to put down the pillars of government,” Benjamin said. “The money which has gone to the south…has been effectively used.” As examples, he cited the building of roads in the capital Juba and the dramatic expansion of primary education from about 200,000 children a few years ago to 1.5 million to 2 million today. Access to electricity and public sanitation services is also spreading, he said.

The Republic of South Sudan was officially born on July 9, breaking off from Sudan after nearly 99 percent of voters favored independence in a referendum that was part of a peace process launched by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The USIP event included a summary of a recent report from a consortium of international NGOs working in South Sudan: “Getting it Right from the Start: Priorities for Action in the New Republic of South Sudan.” Ivor Morgan, who coordinated the report for the Juba-based South Sudan NGO Forum Secretariat, outlined its policy recommendations, which include efforts to more deeply involve South Sudanese communities and strengthen civil society; ensure that aid is distributed equitably across social groups; strengthen the South Sudanese government’s capacity to manage aid and deliver services; and improve the coordination of programming among NGOs. “Over the coming years, donors have a window of opportunity to support the fledgling government to tackle chronic poverty and insecurity,” according to the report.

It also anticipates that humanitarian needs will persist for years to come and that humanitarian aid will need to be balanced with development help. “We can’t afford to have one at the expense of the other,” said Morgan.

Andrew Rosauer, the country representative for Catholic Relief Services in Juba, said there is a growing drive among donors to move to multiyear development funding but the shift should proceed with caution. “The transition does need to be slow,” Rosauer said.

Kevin Mullally, the mission director for South Sudan at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), described “a very complex environment” for aid operations and urged “holistic planning” to coordinate future development aid. He noted that USAID is assisting some 300,000 South Sudanese who have returned from the north, as well as internally displaced people within South Sudan, where some areas are still plagued by armed conflicts.

USIP is running state-building and conflict-management programs in South Sudan as well. The Institute is organizing dialogues between police and communities in conflict-prone areas, an effort that follows a series of workshops in 2010 and 2011 on preventing violence before both South Sudan’s elections and the historic referendum on independence. In addition, USIP is supporting groups that are seeking to peacefully manage tensions arising from the movements of people and livestock across the volatile border areas between Sudan and South Sudan. The Institute has also been providing technical legal advice to Juba in support of the new republic’s constitution-writing process.

Explore Further

• NGO Engagement in South Sudan
  USIP Event | December 13, 2011
• Statebuilding in South Sudan
  Special Reports
• Statebuilding and Capacity Development in South Sudan