South Sudan
HIGHLIGHTS
In 2022, South Sudanese women and children experienced high levels of violence, climatic shocks, and disease outbreaks which further stretched existing capacities with limited resources.
In 2022, UNICEF scaled up multi-sectoral localized services to meet the needs of 4 million people, half of whom are children impacted by crises across the country.
2,885,395 individuals (738,766 boys, 839,171 girls, women 731,937, and 575,521 men) were provided with safe drinking water, including flood-resilient WASH infrastructure solutions.
UNICEF reached 119,401 children (52,266 girls) out of school with access to learning opportunities and emergency education services.
A total of 11,112 children (5,593 boys and 5,519 girls) received psychosocial support (PSS) in child-friendly spaces (CFS), nutrition sites, and communities.
2,477,316 children aged 12 to 59 months received vitamin A supplementation and deworming tablets to reduce the risk of malnutrition.
FUNDING OVERVIEW AND PARTNERSHIPS
In 2022, UNICEF required US$183,580,574 to deliver an integrated package of WASH, Nutrition, Education, Child Protection, Health, and Social Behavioral Change services to address the needs of 4.7 million children impacted by humanitarian emergencies. Of the total requirement, UNICEF received US$ 65,703,859, with a funding gap of 56 percent ($102,591,206). UNICEF is thankful for the resources from donors that help provide services to the children. However, in one of the most complex humanitarian environments in the world, there is an urgent need for flexible multi-year donor funds to deliver integrated packages of support for children’s survival; and protect and educate children while concurrently building resilience and community-based systems.
SITUATION OVERVIEW AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
South Sudan is going through the worst humanitarian crisis since independence driven by extreme weather events fueled by climate change, a deepening economic crisis, as well as Sub-National and political violence. Considerable internal and cross-border displacement has further strained scarce resources, livelihoods, and basic services and increased protection risks and inter-communal tensions, with the biggest impacts felt by children and women. In 2022, 8.9 million people, including 4.7 million children, and 1.3 million people with disabilities required humanitarian assistance.
Home to the second largest wetland in Africa, combined with the last four years of consecutive widespread flooding has amplified children’s exposure to climate change and environmental shocks. In 2022, 1 million people, including over 600,000 children were affected by floods across the country. Unprecedented and residual flood waters damaged or destroyed homes, crops, water infrastructure, and essential services. Flood damage was reported across 50 health and 95 nutrition facilities, which restricted access to curative and preventative services for over 100,000 children. Floods also caused the temporary closure of 877 schools, disrupting learning for 427,743 children and further increasing the protection risks of children.
Hundreds of thousands of families were forced to flee their homes, losing their assets and livelihoods, were forced into negative coping strategies, including child marriage, child labor, exploitation and abuse. Floods caused major access challenges for both populations and humanitarians alike, with Upper Nile, Unity, Jonglei, Warrap States, and a few counties of Western Equatoria State especially hard hit.
In August 2022, The Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) was extended for 2 years, postponing elections until 2024. The slow implementation of the plan remains a trigger for violence across much of the country, where sub-national and political violence remained the primary source of violence, accounting for over 60 percent of civilian casualties. Armed conflict and inter-communal violence were the most significant types of violence in 2022, recorded in seven out of ten states, as well as Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) and Abyei Administrative Area (AAA).
Over the year 350,000 individuals were newly displaced by conflict, of whom 70 percent were children and women. Thousands of children and women fled their homes, leaving behind schools, health provisions, livelihoods, and often family members. Since February 2022, armed conflict in AAA has displaced over 80,000 people and continues to cause access constraints, drive humanitarian needs and cause insecurity. In August, conflict erupted in Tonga, Panikang, and spread to Fangak, Canal/Pigi, and Fashoda, and caused major displacement, cutting off populations from essential services, and resulting in severe protection incidents and violations against children. In December 2022, large-scale violence also erupted in the GPAA area that led to the displacement of an estimated 42,000 civilians, resulting in significant loss of life, abduction of women and children, and widespread burning and looting of villages and humanitarian assets. Children have been continuously and disproportionately affected by the conflicts across the country, facing unbearable trauma and violence, and losing the essential safety nets of the home, community, and basic services. Children in 2022 were further exposed to exploitation, abuse, neglect, recruitment by armed groups, psychosocial distress, and family separation, whilst women and girls especially have faced widespread gender-based violence.
The South Sudanese economy remained vulnerable to shocks, which in 2022 included unprecedented floods and the impact of the Ukraine crisis, which compounded unaddressed root causes of need. With a GDP per capita at US$230, and 91.9 percent of the population experiencing multidimensional poverty, the increased costs of fuel and staple foods, caused by the depreciation of the South Sudanese Pound (SSP) and global supply chain disruptions, further exacerbated vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, Government budget allocations on basic care and protection remained vastly inadequate, and liquidity issues hampered timely disbursement, thus impacting negatively the delivery of critical services, including salaries of frontline workers. The combined proportion of budget allocations for health, education, and the social and humanitarian pillar, however, rose to 27.93 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2021/2022 from 14 percent in FY2020/2021. Despite steps to progress achieved, the protracted nature of need and low levels of development investments, combined with the global economic crisis, and declining humanitarian funding continue to create large disparities in the service coverage to meet the basic needs of women and children.
In 2022, the prevailing vulnerability of populations combined with disruptions to health services, due to conflict and floods continued to drive significant levels of life-threatening disease which mostly affected children. In 2022, malaria was the leading cause of morbidity, accounting for 36 percent of total primary healthcare consultations, followed by diarrhea (13 percent), both of which are major contributors to malnutrition. An estimated 6.31 million people experienced high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3/Crisis or above), with 33,000 people projected to be in IPC Phase 5/Catastrophe in Akobo and Fangak, Jonglei State; and Pibor County in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) from December 2022 to March 2023. Moreover, in 2022, measles outbreaks were confirmed in more than 22 counties, with a total of 2,745 cases, including 299 lab-confirmed and 31 deaths, reported across the country. In Rubkhona county, due to poor conditions in displacement camps, a cholera outbreak was confirmed on 14 April 2022, and by November 2022, 424 cumulative cases and 1 death (CFR 0.2%) had been reported in Unity State and Ruweng Administrative Area, with 89 percent of cases from Bentiu IDP camp. 62 percent of all cases were in women, whilst 32.3 percent were in children ages 0-4 years. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) transmission also continued to be reported in the Bentiu IDP camp, with significant spikes in cases at the start of the year. Cumulatively in 2022, 1,948 cases were reported. Furthermore, on 22 September 2022 bordering Uganda declared an outbreak of The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), which represented a very high risk of transmission to 14 counties of South Sudan. The Ministry of Health activated emergency coordination mechanisms and an initial preparedness and response plan with the support of partners.
Humanitarian access impediments challenged humanitarian operations in 2022, as a result of active conflict, bureaucratic impediments, operational interference, and violence against humanitarian personnel and assets, combined with the challenging physical environment due to flooding and poor road networks. In 2022, according to OCHA, 248 security incidents directly impacted humanitarian organizations, with 12 humanitarian personnel killed, 22 injured, and 22 abducted. South Sudan continues to be one of the most dangerous places to be an aid worker globally. Despite this, significant collective efforts continue to be made, in engaging authorities at all levels to enable a conducive environment for populations and humanitarian operations
South Sudan
South Sudan
South Sudan
South Sudan
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