SDC-HA's WASH project in South Sudan: Moving from emergency aid to capacity building

SDC-HA’s WASH project in South Sudan: Moving from emergency aid to capacity building

By Christian Scherer, programme officer, SCO Juba

In northern South Sudan where migrating pastoralists, resident communities and internally displaced persons (IDPs) struggle over access to water SDC is implementing a WASH project. In this fragile setting, continuous context analysis is crucial and influences the course of the project.

Sharing an international border with Sudan’s conflict-ridden East Darfur and South Kordofan States, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State (NBeG) is a fragile context with immense humanitarian and development needs. Climate change and the recent influx of returnees from Sudan add pressure on the already scarce water sources. Tensions over access to water are further aggravated by the traditional migrations of Sudanese pastoralists who seasonally cross with their cattle into NBeG. SDC’s WASH project in NBeG has started in 2011. So far, it has focused on the direct delivery of emergency WASH infrastructure and services to rural communities supported by efforts to build institutional capacities at the State Ministry of Water. Thus, SDC has ensured a high quality standard of implementation and assisted the local authorities to fulfill their responsibility as WASH service providers. The project’s phase 2 will conclude by the end of 2013. In the planning process for the final phase 3, continuous context analysis has proven decisive.

SDC is regularly monitoring the context in South Sudan with the MERV instrument. In order to detect changes in SDC’s project area specific chapters for NBeG were introduced in autumn 2012. Towards the planning for phase 3, SDC has additionally commissioned an internal review on the project progress and two external studies by swisspeace and Concordis International on the local conflict dynamics and the impact of water interventions in NBeG. The swisspeace study has also scrutinised in detail the conflict-sensitivity of SDC’s approaches and instruments.

The studies have confirmed that SDC’s direct action is on the right track. It tackles problems which both the communities and the Government regard as critical. Its strategies are largely in line with the recommendations regarding conflict sensitivity. However, the studies have also supported SDC’s own observation that the post-war emergency period is over and the time is ripe in NBeG to include longer-term development approaches into humanitarian programming. In this respect, the context analysis will fundamentally influence the design of the project’s phase 3: the institutional capacity building in the Ministry of Water will become much stronger while SDC’s direct implementation component will gradually be handed over to the state authorities and other local actors.