South Sudan

The Flagship Initiative

South Sudan is one of the four countries globally piloting the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) 's Flagship Initiative. The Flagship Initiative is being piloted in Upper Nile, Unity, and Northern Bahr el Ghazal states since the beginning of 2023. The Flagship Initiative is facilitated by decentralization of coordination through Area-Based Leads (ABL) to ensure leadership is taking place as close to affected communities as possible and to leverage various areas of work, including humanitarian, peace, development, and working with affected communities and the local authorities for greater impact. The Flagship Initiative resonates with the HCT commitment and strategy on AAP that encourages humanitarian actors to ensure a people-centered approach that gives crises affected people a voice in identifying and addressing their priorities and needs.

The Flagship Initiative addresses the pressing challenge of escalating humanitarian needs that outpace available resources. To effectively respond, the initiative emphasizes the importance of community engagement and resilience building to prepare the affected communities for future shocks. The primary goal is to shift from a reliance on short term humanitarian aid to fostering self-sufficiency, dignity, livelihoods, and independence to maximize impact among affected populations.

The initiative identifies four strategic focus areas that require attention:

1. Reducing food insecurity,
2. Increasing returns of internally displaced persons and refugees,
3. Delivering basic social services, and
4. Mitigating the impact of climate change.

The Flagship Initiative takes a holistic and community-centered approach to addressing humanitarian challenges in South Sudan. By fostering collaboration, empowerment, and resilience-building, the initiative aims to achieve sustainable durable solutions and to reduce dependency on humanitarian assistance.