HAP in South Sudan

In response to members’ requests, the Field Representative visited Juba and Luonyaker in South Sudan from 3rd to 12th October 2007. The agreed objectives for the deployment were:

To improve awareness of HAP member agency staff (and other agencies as appropriate) of humanitarian principles.
To respond to any immediate requests for support from member agencies in setting up new or strengthen existing quality and accountability systems.

At the time of the visit, twelve (12) HAP member agencies were working in South Sudan: CARE, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, DanChurchAid, Danish Refuge Council, Medair, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK, Tearfund and World Vision International.

The following activities took place during this brief deployment:

In Juba, individual briefings and consultations with:
- Members: CAFOD, CARE International, Concern Worldwide, DRC, Medair, Tearfund, Save the Children UK;
- Non-members: Catholic Relief Services, UN OCHA, Local Government Board.
Presentation and discussion at ACT Juba forum for HAP member and non-member agencies: DanChurchAid, Norwegian Church Aid, CEAS and Christian Aid.
Coaching and work plan development for newly recruited Medair Capacity Building Coordinator in Juba
In Luonyaker, staff training and focus group discussions with extension workers and beneficiaries of World Vision’s Food Programme as part of the process for developing complaint-handling mechanisms.

A brief report on the deployment to Kenya and South Sudan is available here.

Highlights from the visit

Key contextual challenges evolve around:

Lack of local capacity: limited skilled labour, nascent civil society, and limited government support/infrastructure.
A humanitarian legacy; when communities are asked of their needs “they speak the language”.
Breaking the “participation routine:” much consultation takes place, though there is no documentation or tracking of what decisions are influenced by such consultation processes.
Difficulty to convey to communities and local authorities alike the logic of limited resources.
Mobilising local communities to engage in project implementation.
Lack of clarity about community rights, entitlements and responsibilities.

Humanitarian Accountability overview:

Staff interviewed had limited knowledge of quality and accountability initiatives, their agencies’ commitments to external codes of conduct and standards or the implication of these to their own roles and responsibilities.
There is insufficient monitoring of the CHF process; with the CHF weakening and the emergence of a new funding mechanism, some of the members interviewed suggested that the new funding mechanism provides an opportunity to include accountability principles alongside a mechanism for monitoring their implementation.
UN planning to hire two PSEA Officers from which NGOs would also benefit; elements of humanitarian accountability would be integrated into their job descriptions.
Many of the NGOs visited are starting to use village development committees as a first step in enabling community participation in project design, implementation and monitoring. Such committees become entry points to the community – they disseminate information, build a level of community ownership for the project and enable NGOs to raise awareness of limited resources, community roles and responsibilities in the rehabilitation and development process.
Where community development plans have been used from the start of any programme, there is apparent evidence of higher impact – for example, amongst communities that have been involved in the planning of education programmes through school management committees, attendance and literacy rates are higher than communities where no participatory planning took place.
In some cases, community targeting has been very effective, with communities themselves deciding on vulnerability criteria “…when communities prioritise their needs and see these addressed by the NGO, then it is quite a positive overall response both from communities, local authorities and NGO staff themselves” [NGO senior manager]
Much work remains to be done in terms of integration of staff and staff communication with communities. One of the biggest challenges remains staff (from extension workers to expatriate staff) lack of demonstrated understanding of the need to build sustainable projects
Some HAP members are piloting complaint-handling mechanisms for beneficiaries.

Recommendations / Next steps

The trip to Southern Sudan was overall successful though the short time did not allow for an interagency meeting. There is much scope for HAP to provide further support (direct or remote). Three main potential areas for (joint) action emerged from consultations or were suggested directly by members:

Set up a Peer Support Group (PSG) where HAP members can meet to share practice on a regular basis; members suggested that this was necessary and would provide a good starting point to map out existing quality and accountability practice amongst them. HAP Field Team could provide support to the PSG, though this would need to be set up and coordinated under the leadership of one of the members in Juba.
Integration of accountability indicators into work plans at field level; two complementary approaches were discussed at different members’ suggestions:
- develop accountability objectives in field work plans, linked to the Accountability Work Plans that member agencies develop every other year. This will need to be supported by members’ Head Offices.
- include accountability indicators into the project sheets that NGOs in Southern Sudan need to submit to UN OCHA for the integrated work plan. This will need to be taken forward by the PSG.
Following a meeting with UN OCHA and DRC, the HAP Field team drafted a project proposal on building the capacity of local partners (Southern Sudan NGOs) to deliver better quality and more accountable programmes. This fits in well with the priorities of some of the HAP member agencies to build capacity of local NGOs, with OCHA plans to recruit a Humanitarian Standards Officer, and most importantly with requests from local NGOs to improve their understanding of humanitarian standards and their management systems. The draft proposal was submitted DRC; DRC will be the lead agency on this and will continue to liaise with OCHA and other HAP members that show an interest in the proposal, should it be successful. HAP Field team will provide remote guidance if and as needed. For more details on this, please contact Melissa Philips directly at Melissa.Phillips@drc.dk or Jean Christophe Goussaud (DRC Programme Representative) at drc.ssudan@drc.dk.
Any matters relating to the NGO Forum/Steering Committee, please contact the Steering Committee at jubaNGOforumSC2007@googlegroups.com

For more details, contact Monica Blagescu, HAP Field Representative, mblagescu@hapinternational.org

Updated June 2008