Annual Learning Forum Centers Community Priorities
At a just-concluded learning forum co-organized by Policy LINK, community members from four rural counties in South Sudan voiced their priorities for resilience programming directly to officials from the government, the United Nations, and various donor agencies working in the country.
The event, drew more than 200 participants over two days, earning plaudits from government officials and the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan.
That kind of direct interaction was a first for the annual gathering, according to the Honorable Pia Philip Michael, Undersecretary at South Sudan’s Ministry of Peacebuilding, who addressed the closing plenary of the Partnership for Recovery and Resilience event. The Partnership, which brings together government, donors, community representatives, and the private sector, drew on Policy LINK expertise to plan and execute the virtual event.
Thanks in part to that effort, the event, which drew more than 200 participants throughout the two days, earned plaudits from the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Alain Noudéhou, who said that the PfRR, as the Partnership is known, is itself “showing a lot of resilience.” He joined the peacebuilding ministry’s undersecretary as well as the chair of the PfRR taskforce in thanking Policy LINK for its leadership and facilitation.
Echoing that thanks was USAID/South Sudan Acting Deputy Mission Director Antoinette Sullivan, who said the event was “a great way to reconnect with partners and communities” that have been largely off-limits due to pandemic restrictions. To share recent developments in the four “partnership areas” served by the PfRR, Policy LINK aired a series of videos it had produced as part of a “Faces of Resilience” series.
The Feed the Future-funded program is now planning a series of learning briefs to capture outcomes from this week’s event, including its focus on “the three Cs” of coordination, co-location, and collaboration. Taken together, these principles lead to convergence between community needs and donor resources, said USAID Policy LINK Country Director Daniel Deng, who stressed that the PfRR’s approach to resilience can inform post-pandemic recovery well beyond South Sudan’s borders. A video of the event will be available to the public soon.
