Attachments
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
In the context of South Sudan, accountability to affected populations (AAP) remains of paramount importance to the overall humanitarian response, propelled by the twin operational responsibilities to promote a rights-based approach and to improve aid effectiveness across humanitarian programming.
Leadership is one of the five commitments endorsed in the December 2011 IASC Principals meeting. This commitment requires leadership at all levels to support and proactively take steps to mainstream AAP across the humanitarian response. The Grand Bargain Signatories commitment (2016) reinforces the critical role of response leadership through improvement of the engagement of HCT and cluster/sector leadership with AAP being one of its core commitments. In South Sudan, the HCT has demonstrated its commitment to AAP by including AAP as one of its Accountability Areas underpinned by priority areas in the HCT Compact. In addition, most clusters and agencies have developed their own systems of accountability within their respective spheres and operational domains.
Furthermore, AAP is a key focus area in the HCT’s strategy on the Centrality of Protection (CoP) in South Sudan. While programmatic gaps and challenges remain at these levels and warrant close scrutiny and strategic action, a collective, response-wide approach is necessary to systematically centralize the role of affected communities’ perceptions, feedback and complaints in response design and planning, with full respect to the diversity of the population, across the totality of the response.
In recognition that ‘affected people’ include not only direct beneficiaries of programming but also involve those who may have been unintentionally excluded, or who may be incidentally impacted by interventions, the necessity of a response-wide review of AAP gaps and priorities cannot be overstated. Importantly, ‘affected people’ should not be understood as a homogenous entity. Rather, understanding and capturing the differences among population groups and their experiences across South Sudan, particularly with respect to gender, age, ethnicity, and disability, is critical for ensuring an effective approach to AAP.
This strategy is intended to support the operationalization of the IASC Commitments on AAP and PSEA at the response-level in South Sudan. It is guided by the call of the signatories to the Grand Bargain for a participation revolution, an obligation undertaken by humanitarians to ensure the systematic participation of affected populations in decisions that affect their lives.