By Rebecca Athiang Bol
The Organization of Children’s Harmony (TOCH) appeals to the donor communities to support aid agencies in order to tackle the growing humanitarian needs in the country.
Mr. Marko Madut Garang, the Executive Director for TOCH, said despite the mounting crisis, donor partners no longer prioritize the country’s population’s needs, with large funding cuts since 2022.
“Funding for food insecurity has seen little change in the last three years, while needs continue to grow, leading to a reduction in available resources from donors,” Mr. Garang said in a statement.
TOCH boss also said donors prefer larger international organizations as they perceived them to have less risks, and when local NGOs are funded, they have a hesitancy to cover overhead costs in capacity building.
“There is reluctance to cover overhead costs, capacity strengthening costs, and security costs, which are essential in contexts like South Sudan,” he added.
The Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2010 provides a world-leading and data-driven assessment of the global financing landscape for humanitarian response.
It also comprehensively highlights key issues and emerging trends for those working to improve financing responses to crises, especially food insecurity. Instead, donors are concerned with other global crises and skyrocketing inflation.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase 3 Classification (IPC) 2022, South Sudan faced its fourth consecutive year of unprecedented flooding going into 2023.
The report also underlined that an estimation of 7.7 million people are likely to face severe acute food insecurity during the lean season between April and July.
However, the child rights activist lamented that climate change continues to worsen agricultural productivity in East Africa, and even community infrastructures like schools and health centers are frequently submerged in water.
“The current crisis in Sudan has already started to see an influx of refugees and returnees to various states in South Sudan, which can only exacerbate the food crisis,” Mr. Garang stressed.
He added that “amidst concerns that the climate crisis, including extreme flooding and the economic aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, will worsen the situation.”
Moreover, the country is still heavily dependent on imported food supplies, ongoing crises in Ukraine and now Sudan continue to inflate the market and threaten whatever coping strategies families already have.
According to the child rights activist, local and national organizations like TOCH are on the frontlines of responding to the food crisis in the world’s youngest nation.
“Having worked with these communities for years, they understand the context and needs and have good relationships to be able to deliver a high-quality response, including in locations where international NGOs are unable to access,” he said.
The 129-page report shows how humanitarian needs changed in 2022 and the repercussions for 2023 in the face of escalating food insecurity, the compounding impacts of climate change, and the continued fallout from the war in Ukraine.
The report further provides analysis on the figures for the total amount of international humanitarian assistance contributed last year, including key changes and trends in the behavior of public donors as well as private donors.
It also examines flows of official development assistance for development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding responses reaching crisis-affected countries.
TOCH, in partnership with the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and Trocaire, urgently responded to the food crisis in Gogrial West and East in Warrap State with funding from Caritas Norway and Secours Catholique.
“Through this support, TOCH was able to tackle food insecurity through the distribution of ox ploughs, local seeds, and vegetable seeds.
“18 agricultural extension workers provided technical skills to local farmers to increase productivity and adapt to climatic changes in the environment,” Madut wrote in the GHA report.
He said that through the project, there has been an increase in productivity among local farmers.