South Sudanese NGOs not directly funded, report says

South Sudan is facing the world's most severe food insecurity crisis, yet the local groups most effective at delivering aid are not directly funded, according to a new report.

According to the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, only 0.4% of the humanitarian funding allocated for food is directed towards South Sudanese NGOs despite the fact that 7.7 million people are suffering from severe food insecurity, according to a new research by Cafod and the Anti-poverty group Development Initiatives.

Humanitarian funding for South Sudan has been cut by 38% since 2020, with the UK government cutting its budget for South Sudan by 59% in 2021, according to the report.

There have been floods, droughts and conflicts that have fuelled the crisis and local organisations have been best placed to serve hard-to- reach populations, according to Cafod. Even after international organisations withdraw, they tend to work in high-risk areas, while building more trust with the populations they serve.

Local organisations that are on the frontline in responding to crises in areas where no one else can go are too often ignored. Gloria Modong Morris of Titi Foundation in South Sudan said that if we are going to tackle humanitarian crises, we need to fund those on the frontline.

The UN and international NGOs talk about the best way to respond to a crisis being as local as possible, but the reality couldn't be more different. Local NGOs are usually given short-term grants, which makes it hard for them to plan projects with lasting impact or invest in staff and systems for delivering support, according to Cafod. The report said that NGOs have only limited involvement in decision-making, despite the fact that they are often asked for information on conditions. It concluded that this played a role in humanitarian responses failing to create long-term resilience.

Howard Mollett, Cafod's head of humanitarian policy, said that international aid groups should have given more say to local NGOs in the 11 years since South Sudan's independence.

Local organisations can't reach international agencies in the most dangerous parts of South Sudan. Instead of having their backs, it feels like local groups willingness to take on the risk of getting aid to these areas is being taken advantage of, said Mollett.

Prof Dennis Dijkzeul, who focuses on humanitarian studies at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, said local organisations deliver aid effectively because they often live closer to the people that they are supporting, building trust, and a better understanding of the conditions.

Localisation is about working with the people, for the people. Local expertise, local acceptance or local trust can help and that can lead to higher efficiency or quality, said Dijkzeul.

He said that more money and power should be given to local organisations to build their capacities, but this does not happen because of a power imbalance between the richer global north and developing countries and lack of incentives to shift away from relying on international groups.

The piper pays the tune, and most of the money comes from the global north. It is hard to change the incentives of the global humanitarian system even though there is a lot of lip service to localisation.