In South Sudan, Anticipating ‘Shocks and Stressors’
Photo: Policy LINK
Repeat participation in Policy LINK-organized town hall meetings speaks to the trust the program has earned among local communities, where other aid workers have tended to cycle out after a year or less.
The USAID Policy LINK program has completed a series of consultations with community leaders in Yambio, capital of one of South Sudan’s 10 states.
The effort — which included a wide-reaching survey and follow-up town hall meetings with leaders in civil society, traditional administration, local government, and the private sector — is part of an alliance of donors working to center community needs in their programming.
The Partnership for Recovery and Resilience, which includes the South Sudan NGO Forum, the United Nations, the Embassy of the Netherlands, USAID, and the bilateral agencies of the United Kingdom and other countries, seeks to reduce vulnerability, especially among rural populations coping with drought, conflict, and other “shocks and stressors” — all made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Launched at the height of the public health crisis, the consultative process was anchored in a November 2020 survey that mapped local institutions’ priorities and helped frame the subsequent community town hall meetings. Of the 183 respondents to the survey, 165 — or 90 percent — attended the community dialogues, which gave voice to community aspirations for responding to shocks and stressors.
That repeat participation, said Policy LINK Program Coordinator Jeffrey Campbell, speaks to the trust his team has earned among local communities, where other aid workers have tended to cycle out after a year or less.
With its key staff hailing from South Sudan themselves, Policy LINK is well-placed to gauge the priorities of local communities and, through the Partnership for Recovery and Resilience, galvanize donors to address them in a coordinated manner.