Attachments
Foreword
The current crisis in South Sudan is one of the world’s most challenging humanitarian operations.
This makes for a difficult environment for gathering and analyzing data: The country is large, population is widely dispersed, and limits on transportation and telecommunications are severe.
The IPC system has been able to address many of these challenges, and it has also learned from its experience. This learning has not always been easy, and many challenges remain.
This study was motivated in part by the authors’ intensive engagement with the IPC Technical Working Groups in South Sudan over several years beginning in 2014. To be very clear from the outset, the two main researchers (Maxwell and Hailey) served on the Emergency Review Committee (ERC) for IPC analysis that was mobilized every time a famine or near-famine situation resulted from an analysis and thus had an unusual vantage point from which to observe the analysis—and the challenges to which it was subjected. This was also a motivation for the study. However, this study was conducted independently of the ERC, and interviewees were made aware that this research was not conducted for or on behalf of the ERC or the GSU.
This research—and particularly the uptake of the research—has proceeded in a manner that was as participatory and engaged as possible. This relatively high level of engagement with the topic, and with many of the analysts and agencies involved, has meant that some of the recommendations growing out of the research have already been taken on board before this report could be published. Particularly notable was the “Lessons Learned” workshop in May 2018, but other less headline-making changes were made along the way as well. The report is still issued is full, but with progress on particular issues noted.
Many challenges remain. It is in the hope of continuous learning and the collective addressing of these challenges that this research report is offered.
The Authors
Nairobi, Kenya
June 7, 2018