SUMMARY
South Sudan’s independence in 2011 launched a wave of optimism among South Sudanese and international observers alike. In the intervening years, however, many South Sudanese have known only hardship, as the gains of independence have failed to materialize. Political instability frequently turns violent, despite continuous efforts to broker peace. Recurrent setbacks have eroded trust among the population while raising concerns of state collapse among international partners.(1) Thirteen years on, the population in South Sudan faces an unbridled humanitarian crisis. Prevailing trends suggest the outlook is dismal, and signs of relief are few.
This research focuses on the behaviours – otherwise known as “coping strategies” – that households in various parts of South Sudan use when they do not have enough food or money to buy food. In contexts of acute food insecurity, these strategies are a backstop that hunger-stricken households can use to bridge consumption gaps, small and large. Amid protracted and recurrent food crises in South Sudan, coping strategies are often a final buffer against catastrophic food shortages.
In some parts of the country, erratic weather patterns, economic crises and simmering political tension have combined to systematically disrupt households’ livelihoods and, hence, their access to food. Activities that people once depended on for food – mainly, cultivation and cattle rearing – have become dangerous, difficult and otherwise impossible.(2) In parallel, the coping strategies that sustained households through historic food shortages have all but collapsed. These changes amount to a fundamental transformation in local livelihood systems.
The title of this report, “We survive through the water”, was voiced several times during data collection. It reflects the impact of catastrophic flooding on people’s livelihoods and access to food in recent years. It also underlines the relentless pressure that residual flood waters – present for multiple years in some areas – have placed on households, who are forced to eke out a living at considerable risk to their physical wellbeing. Ultimately, then, it foregrounds the continuous precarity of life in areas affected by immense and sustained crises.
This precarity cannot be understated. Humanitarian assistance in South Sudan – on which many people depend for food – is declining rapidly. At the time of writing, the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan is 11% funded. (3) The impacts are likely to be widespread. Most critically, funding cuts will force people to depend increasingly on their own means to access food, at a time when their ability to do so is at its lowest. In a new funding landscape characterised by dwindling resources, humanitarians must make informed decisions that prioritise the most vulnerable households. Updated information on coping strategies can support this process. So too can it assist humanitarian agencies to facilitate and reinforce positive coping mechanisms, when appropriate.
Despite their importance to food security analysis and humanitarian prioritisation, recent data on coping strategies in South Sudan is limited. Following discussions with multiple partners, including the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), and a review of the literature on coping strategies in South Sudan, REACH aimed to understand the coping strategies used by acutely food insecure households in three diverse livelihood systems, so as to provide updated information that supports livelihood coping analysis in-country. REACH visited three locations in the Greater Upper Nile region (Fangak, Leer and Rubkona counties) between December 2023 and March 2024. In each location, data collection followed a qualitative approach involving Focus Group Discussions and Households Interviews. Findings are indicative and specific only to those counties that the team visited.