Objectives

The proposed project in Unity State is designed to provide protection services through strengthening the protection capacity and resilience of the most vulnerable individuals in targeted communities of Koch and Rubkona Counties (including Bentiu PoC) of South Sudan. The project will have a 50% protection mitigation and response component and a 50% HLP rights component. The protection concerns of the communities across South Sudan and specifically in areas where there is little to no permanent protection actors remain high. Due to the ongoing intercommunal fighting and armed clashes between the opposition parties in Unity State coupled with issues of accessibility to remote areas, the communities in Koch County and specifically persons with specific needs are facing protection concerns. Through the proposed intervention, DRC intends to provide protection mitigation and response activities in Koch County in areas including Mir-mir/Bieh, Buaw, Chotchar and Ngony communities. The DRC protection team will conduct protection monitoring through regular protection missions and permanent protection desks located in Koch town. This activity will be complemented through the establishment of community-based protection networks (CBPNs) that will assist in the identification of vulnerable beneficiaries and the provision of support provided to individuals with protection concerns in their communities. DRC’s protection intervention will also include the following activities: identification of persons with specific needs (PSNs), provision of individual protection assistance (IPA), distribution of core relief items (CRIs), referrals to other humanitarian actors and service providers, and advocacy with relevant response actors and stakeholders. Housing, Land and Property (HLP) rights is becoming one of the most critical issues for IDPs in Rubkona County but also throughout South Sudan. With the revitalized peace agreement signed in late 2018 between the government and the opposition groups, DRC has observed a cautious change in intentions of IDPs living in collective settlements and refugees residing outside of South Sudan to start returning to their areas of origin. As a result, DRC believes that understanding and addressing HLP issues that are surfacing will ensure a more equitable and sustainable humanitarian response which will ultimately protect, support and strengthen the security and resilience of those affected by conflict and displacement. The lack of a comprehensive and conflict-sensitive understanding of HLP issues in Rubkona County ultimately impacts the larger humanitarian assistance including sectors such as education, health, and livelihoods. As a response, DRC aims to conduct a conflict and gender-sensitive HLP assessment, provide HLP awareness raising to IDP populations in Bentiu PoC, Bentiu and Rubkona towns, provide vulnerable returnees with access to land tenure documents, conduct HLP monitoring, and provide HLP trainings to local authorities and relevant government bodies in the state to enhance the legal knowledge of these government bodies.

Objectives

This project seeks to address the shelter and non-food item (S/NFI) needs of vulnerable conflict and disaster-affected populations in Panyikang County, Upper Nile and hard to reach areas across South Sudan. The intervention will directly target 16,900 individuals (3,380 men, 6,760 women, 3,380 boys and 3,380 girls) with S/NFI support. To do so, the project proposes a semi-static response team in Malakal and a mobile team based in Juba with rapid response capacity able to quickly deploy to hard to reach locations across Upper Nile, Jonglei, Lakes State, and other locations prioritized by the cluster. The DRC mobile response team based in Juba aims to support the most vulnerable and underserved populations in Upper Nile, Jonglei, Lakes and other hard to reach locations affected by conflict through the provision of multi-sector survival kits, non-food items, and emergency shelter support. All responses will be led by a protection-centered S/NFI analysis that will determine the exact nature of the responses. The Juba-based mobile team will quickly deploy to locations of Upper Nile where land access is limited for the Malakal-based mobile team and other priority locations in Jonglei and Lakes. By having response teams in both Malakal and Juba, DRC will be best placed to support new displacements and spontaneous returns across Upper Nile, Jonglei, Lakes and other hard to reach locations in South Sudan. The response from the Juba-based mobile team will focus on emergency distributions of survival kits, distributions of life-sustaining NFI and shelter kits to newly affected locations, while the Malakal-based team will target the most vulnerable conflict-affected communities through the distribution of emergency S/NFI materials in areas of Upper Nile where road and river access is feasible. Furthermore, following completion of a thorough market analysis in areas of Paniykang County with functional markets and available local resources, the Malakal team will implement cash for shelter activities. All S/NFI materials (with the exception of the cash for shelter activity) distributed by the Malakal and Juba-based response teams will be supplied through the cluster pipeline and will not be budgeted under the project. These items include survival kits, NFI kits, and emergency shelter items available through the pipeline supply. The proposed project is designed to be cost-efficient, and considers the cluster recommended ratio of USD/beneficiary, calculated at USD 13 per beneficiary for the emergency distributions and USD 25 for cash for shelter. In all project sites, DRC will operate mobile complaints desks to enable beneficiaries to flag concerns or complaints in person or anonymously, improving participation and accountability for all affected populations. DRC also has a toll-free hotline number that beneficiaries can call to register complaints or feedback. As standard project monitoring best practice, post distribution monitoring (PDM) will be conducted in areas where second-time access is feasible following the response mission. However, in hard to reach areas where access is limited, DRC will implement rapid monitoring tools alongside the response missions. The PDM and the rapid monitoring exercise will highlight any risks by the S/NFI intervention as well as lessons for considerations for future responses. Beneficiaries will be able to provide their opinions on how DRC and cluster interventions can be improved and they will be given the opportunity to provide feedback or make a complaint. A formal feedback mechanism will be fed through DRC’s hotline whereby complaints or queries may be logged and responded to remotely. Satisfaction Surveys will be conducted in areas where cash for shelter activities have been carried out.