Getting it Right from the Start - Oxfam New Zealand

1 Support emergency humanitarianneedsSix years on from the signing of the CPA, much of South Sudanremains a humanitarian crisis. This is due in part to chronic underdevelopmentfollowing decades of war, in part to ongoing conflict, andin part to the frequent recurrence of droughts and floods.The statistics are well known. One in eight children die before their fifthbirthday, less than half the population has access to safe drinking waterand more than half the population live below the poverty line. Thematernal mortality rate is among the highest in the world, with one inseven women dying from pregnancy-related causes and a 15 year oldgirl more likely to die in childbirth than finish school. More than 80 percent of women are illiterate, less than 20 per cent of the population willever visit a health facility and fewer than two in ten children are fullyvaccinated against disease. 2 Last year nearly half the populationrequired food assistance or a food-related intervention at some pointduring the year. 3Droughts, floods and conflict compound the problem. More than220,000 people were forced from their homes last year as a result ofconflict and more than 100,000 were affected by seasonal flooding –and most required some form of humanitarian assistance. 4 Alreadythis year, inter/intra-communal conflict, fighting in the disputed Abyeiregion, political opposition from armed groups, and attacks by theLord‟s Resistance Army (LRA) have resulted in the displacement of anestimated 274,000 people in South Sudan. 5 Women and girls aredisproportionately affected, with particular needs that are easilyoverlooked when resources are stretched. The situation isexacerbated by restricted movement across the northern border, highfuel prices, a continuing influx of returnees and regional shortages infood stocks due to the drought across the Horn of Africa. All of thiscontributes to a substantial increase in food prices - and the likelihoodthat the 2.4m people who last year suffered moderate food insecuritycould be pushed into severe food insecurity without substantialhumanitarian assistance. 6In the aftermath of independence, a number of donors are looking tomake a shift from humanitarian to development assistance. Such ashift must not come at the cost of attention to immediate humanitarianneeds. The UN‟s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA) has only recently scaled-up and still has insufficient regionalpresence to reach all of the states, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairsand Disaster Management is less than a year old, the responsecapacity of implementing agencies is poorly spread across the states,and community resilience has been weakened by decades of war.The potential for humanitarian need to suddenly outstrip availableresources has been highlighted already this year. As one NGO staffsaid following the mass displacement from Abyei in May, „look howmuch trouble we‟ve had coping with Abyei. Imagine how we‟d go7