Despite the fact that humanitarian agencies have been operating in South Sudan for over thirty years, there has been an absence in understanding how the aid community and the assistance it provides are perceived by affected populations. The lack of nuanced information on community perceptions regarding humanitarian assistance is a global issue and a key driver for the strengthening of Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) initiatives across the humanitarian response. This failure to capture the attitudes, experiences, perceptions, and opinions of the South Sudanese population in relation to aid poses a collective ethical challenge to the humanitarian community as a whole.
Beginning in mid-2019, REACH collaborated with severalhumanitarian partners3in South Sudan to develop a research project aimed at addressing this information gap. Funded by the UK Department of International Development (DFID), “Accountability to Affected Populations: Community Perceptions of Humanitarian Assistance in South Sudan” provides a snapshot overview of community perceptions across the country. This information is designed to serve as a benchmark so that implementers of humanitarian assistance can draw from the findings to strengthen programming based on a wide range of direct community perspectives and perceptions.