Policy paper

UK–South Sudan partnership development summary, July 2023

Published 18 July 2023

Introduction

The Strategy for International Development (IDS) places development at the heart of the UK’s foreign policy. It sets out a new approach to development, anchored in patient, long-term partnerships tailored to the needs of the countries we work with, built on mutual accountability and transparency. This approach goes beyond aid and brings the combined power of the UK’s global economic, scientific, security and diplomatic strengths to our development partnerships. Our 4 priorities are to deliver honest, reliable investment, provide women and girls with the freedom they need to succeed, step up our life-saving humanitarian work, and take forward our work on climate change, nature, and global health. The Integrated Review Refresh (IR23) reiterates that sustainable development is central to UK foreign policy and sets out how the UK will go further and faster on development to reduce poverty and reinvigorate progress towards the SDGs. This Country Development Partnership Summary details how the IDS and IR23 will be put into practice with South Sudan.

Country context

South Sudan is the world’s third most fragile state (Fragile States Index, 2022), after Yemen and Somalia. A 2018 peace agreement ^{[footnote 1]} brought an end to 5 years of civil war (though significant sub-national conflict continues), established a transitional government ^{[footnote 2]}, and set out a path to the creation of national institutions and holding national elections.

The peace agreement should provide the basis for stability, lasting peace, and sustainable development, including being able to transition away from expensive humanitarian assistance towards investing in longer-term economic development and poverty reduction. One of the deliverables of the peace agreement was the Revised National Development Strategy (PDF, 4.1 MB) which sets out the vision of the transitional government for long-term sustainable development with peace as its foundation. However, progress against all elements of the peace agreement – including the development strategy – is slow, inconsistent, and significantly behind schedule. Elections are now due in December 2024 but the process is significantly behind schedule.

In this context, sustainable development remains extremely challenging and reliance on humanitarian support remains very high. South Sudan has some of the worst Human Development Index (HDI) indicators in the world, ranking 185 out of 189.

The United Nations (UN) estimates that 9.4 million people, about 75% of the population, will require humanitarian assistance in 2023. The scale of humanitarian need is due to violence and conflict, added to – and exacerbated by – climate shocks, causing widespread displacement and loss of people’s assets and livelihoods. Democratic and accountable institutions that can manage competition for power in peaceful and representative ways are needed to break this cycle and provide the conditions for sustainable development.

South Sudan has the worst maternal mortality rate in the world with 1,050 in 100,000 women dying in childbirth due to avoidable causes. Around one in 10 children will die before their fifth birthday. Limited access to sexual and reproductive health services means that the leading cause of mortality in girls aged 15 to 19 are complications related to childbearing.

More than half the school-age population are out of school (2.8 million of an estimated 5 million). The quality of education is poor and, as a result, even those children who are in school are likely not learning. With just 5,826 schools nationwide (more than 1,000 of which have been damaged by flooding and conflict), the system cannot meet demand – resulting in overcrowded classrooms.

Women and girls are disproportionately disadvantaged. South Sudan is ranked the sixth lowest performer globally in the 2021 to 2022 Women Peace and Security Index. Gender-based violence is widespread, over half of all girls are married before they are 18, and a third of girls fall pregnant before the age of 15. Gender inequality is rooted in entrenched patriarchal social norms and is made worse by high levels of extreme poverty and conflict. Whilst the constitution and statutory law promote equality irrespective of gender, the short reach of the formal legal system, and provision for traditions and customs to be a source of law, result in harmful and discriminatory practices governing the lives of women and girls.

South Sudan is highly vulnerable to climate change. Temperatures in South Sudan are rising faster than the global average, rainfall is increasingly intense and unpredictable with the result that parts of the country are entering a fourth consecutive year of flooding and others are highly susceptible to drought. Climate related shocks increase the prevalence of disease, impede access to services, and are an increasing driver of conflict as already vulnerable communities compete for natural resources. Over 90% of the population are dependent on climate-sensitive livelihoods and already vulnerable communities will need support to adapt agricultural practices to strengthen their ability to grow food.

Why and how: the UK’s development offer with South Sudan

We have been supporting South Sudan since its independence in 2011. The UK’s development offer focuses on supporting the most vulnerable, particularly women and girls.

Our integrated diplomatic, humanitarian and development activities support and reinforce each other. Our approach is built around supporting the most vulnerable through humanitarian assistance; reducing conflict; supporting the establishment of democratic and accountable institutions; and, providing essential services. We will continue to look for ways to better align our humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding activities – and encourage others to do the same – to support the transition from humanitarian aid to sustainable development.

We will deliver the commitments in the UK’s IDS by: continuing to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people in South Sudan and, where possible, strengthen their resilience to conflict, climate, and economic shocks; continuing to deliver quality health and education services (focussing particularly on women and girls); and, through our support to strengthen public financial management and democratic accountability.

We will work with partners to reduce the impacts of climate shocks for the most vulnerable people, conserving and protecting the natural resources and the environment as the basis for livelihoods and economic potential. We continue to look for opportunities to support communities to rebuild livelihoods, reducing dependency on emergency food aid. We will consider how our education and health programmes can build climate resilience in these sectors. Increasing access to climate finance will be an important part of this. As with all our development objectives, progress will be dependent on lasting safety, security, and peace.

The FCDO’s International Women and Girls Strategy sets out 3 priority themes that apply to all of our activities in South Sudan. We continue to prioritise girls’ education, including for the most marginalised, and to empower women and girls by supporting their health and rights (focusing on primary health care, which helps women and girls the most, and as a priority country for the UK’s Ending Preventable Deaths agenda). We will work to end gender-based violence by delivering on UK commitments in the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) Strategy and the UK’s Women, Peace and Security National Action Plan, under which South Sudan is a priority country. We know that focusing on these areas lowers the risk of violent conflict, helps to build social cohesion, and strengthens individual and community resilience to climate shocks.

Who we work with

The UK will continue to work in patient partnership with, and for, the people of South Sudan. Our partnerships in South Sudan encompass the full spectrum of the diplomatic, humanitarian, and development community. As a member of the Troika (Norway, UK, US) and P5 member, our long-term development and diplomatic support to South Sudan, both before and since independence, provides the bedrock of our relationship with the Government of South Sudan. We have significant diplomatic and development influence.

We work closely with the UN, non-governmental organisation (NGO) partners and private sector organisations to deliver better life-saving and sustaining humanitarian and development assistance. We work with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to help shape its political engagement in-country on the constitution, elections, security, and the peace process. We advocate on behalf of, and ensure participation of, a broad range of South Sudanese voices, including those advocating for human rights, media freedom, and political participation.

Our membership and in-country partnerships with the International Finance Institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) help us to influence the direction of reforms efforts. Our in-country partnerships with the global funds such as the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), GAVI the Vaccine Alliance, Global Fund, Global Partnership for Education, and Education Cannot Wait, help us to ensure that we maximise impact of UK and international assistance, avoiding duplication and increasing value for money.

The UK is playing a leading role in shaping coordination amongst donors and between donors and government. The UK chairs the Health Donor Partners Group and will co-chair (with government) the Education and Health Sector Working Groups. Our leadership of the Humanitarian Donor Group is enabling us to work with partners to determine how best to prioritise increasing needs in a context where rising demand is outstripping available resources.

As an influential partner, our engagement with the transitional government is robust. We will continue to push for accelerated progress in implementing the peace deal and building democracy and accountability, and to set out our expectation that the transitional government will increasingly use more of its own resources to deliver for its citizens. We will recognise and support progress that helps to achieve lasting peace and the conditions to progress towards the sustainable development goals. Where we see actors undermining this goal, we will provide constructive challenge.

Key programmes

In financial year 2023 to 2024, we have 7 live bilateral programmes in South Sudan delivering against the following sectors (in order of volume of investment): Humanitarian assistance; Women and Girls; Climate, nature, and global health; and, Reducing conflict and building security.

Our top 3 spending programmes in financial year 2023 to 2024 are:

• Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience programme, up to £26 million to save lives, alleviate suffering, and protect dignity of the most vulnerable people
• Health Pooled Fund 3, up to £19 million to reduce maternal and child mortality, improve health facilities to support pregnancy and childbirth, and treat children under 5 for childhood diseases
• Girls Education in South Sudan, up to £1.4 million to increase girls’ enrolment in primary and secondary school

Over the medium term, our ambition is to increasingly balance our direct delivery of services with a greater focus on strengthening the systems that will allow for longer-term government led delivery of these services. We will do this by working closely with government institutions in our priority sectors, by assessing opportunities to support the transitional government to deliver on its Public Financial Management reform commitments, and by exploring further options to help strengthen the accountability of public institutions and bodies involved in the delivery of core state functions.

We will continue to invest in peacebuilding and conflict prevention, working at community level to build resilience to conflict drivers with those that are most vulnerable to mobilisation as well tackling the root causes including poverty. We will continue to make niche interventions in support of greater accountability, especially for survivors of Gender Based Violence (GBV).

In financial year 2022 to 2023, UK support provided humanitarian assistance (including shelter, mental health and psychosocial support, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and health) to nearly 1.5 million people. We also provided over 70,000 women and girls with support on prevention and response to GBV.

Our health and education investments have helped to leverage over £200 million from other donors across the lifetime of the programmes. In the case of education, as Coordinating Agent, we provide technical support in-country to global education funds that receive significant central UK investment (Education Cannot Wait and Global Fund for Education) to ensure coherence and coordination across the sector. Our work has directly supported more than 880,000 girls with cash transfers to help them start and stay in school.

Last year, the Health Pooled Fund which the UK manages on behalf of several donors provided 6.7 million outpatient consultations, vaccinated 317,000 children, and supported 95,000 births attended by skilled birth attendants.

We will continue to review lessons from our programmes and build on these as we adapt to the changing challenges in South Sudan. We will strengthen our approach to monitoring and evaluation through a dedicated programme that will provide independent monitoring of our largest programmes.

Financial information

Initial allocations have been set internally to deliver the priorities set out in the International Development Strategy (May 2022) and the Integrated Review Refresh 2023, based on the FCDO’s Spending Review 2021 settlement.

The department’s spending plans for the period 2022 to 2023 to 2024 to 2025 have been revisited to ensure HM Government continues to spend around 0.5% of Gross National Income (GNI) on ODA. This was in the context of the significant and unexpected costs incurred to support the people of Ukraine and Afghanistan escape oppression and conflict and find refuge in the UK, and others seeking asylum. The Government provided additional resources of £1 billion in 2022 to 2023 and £1.5 billion in 2023 to 2024 to help meet these unanticipated costs. The Government remains committed to returning ODA spending to 0.7% of GNI when the fiscal situation allows, in line with the approach confirmed by the House of Commons in July 2021.

The country development partnership summaries include the breakdown of programme budgets allocated to individual countries for 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025. These allocations are indicative and subject to revision as, by its nature, the department’s work is dynamic. Programme allocations are continually reviewed to respond to changing global needs, including humanitarian crises, fluctuations in GNI and other ODA allocation decisions.

It should be noted that these figures do not reflect the full range of UK ODA spending in these individual countries as they do not include spend delivered via core contributions to multilateral organisations, or regional programmes delivered by the FCDO’s central departments. Other UK Government departments also spend a large amount of ODA overseas. Details of ODA spent by other UK government departments can be found in their Annual Report and Accounts and the Statistics for International Development.

FCDO Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocation

Figure 1. 2023 to 2024: Humanitarian Preparedness and Response, 44%; Women and Girls, 32%; Climate, nature and global health, 21%; Reducing conflict and building security, 3%.

Allocated ODA budget financial year 2023 to 2024: £48 million.

Indicative ODA budget financial year 2024 to 25: £111 million.

Of ODA spend in financial year 2022 to 2023, 38% is marked as being principally or significantly focused on promoting gender equality, and 9% is marked as being principally or significantly focused on disability inclusion.

1. RARCSS: Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan. ↩

2. RTGNU: Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity. ↩