South Sudan Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) Protection Strategy – 2023-2024 (January 2023 – Endorsed by the HCT on 13 April 2023)

Background

Since South Sudan’s independence, the HCT has had two protection strategies in place (2015 and 2020). In 2022, the P2P mission identified the need to renew the effort to centralize protection and revisit the previous strategy. This was further underscored at the protection roundtable convened by the DSRSG/RC/HC in June 2022 and reiterated in the recommendations of the International Protection Expert Group (IPEG).

‘Simplicity is key, as centrality of protection is too often made unnecessarily complex or too broad. These priorities need not involve the nexus, root causes or even innovation; they should be practical, achievable and make best use of the comparative advantages of members of the humanitarian community to make a concrete gain on protection.’ IPEG, 2022

This HCT Protection Strategy was developed to give effect to the IASC Principals’ Centrality of Protection Statement (2013), the IASC Protection Policy (2016) and the IASC terms of reference for HCTs (2017), which stipulates the collective approach toward the centrality of protection and the development and implementation of the ensuing HCT Protection Strategy as a mandatory priority of an HCT.

HCT commitment to the centrality of protection

The following is the HCT’s commitment toward the centrality of protection:

1. In light of the pervasive protection crisis, persistent and compounding protection risks as well as unresolved underlying causes of protection risks in South Sudan, the HCT recognizes the need to utilize all the tools at its disposal to enable and strategically lead a response to which protection is central.

2. This HCT accepts this Protection Strategy as an accountability tool for collective action on protection with identified milestones, toward which the HCT, through its members and as a whole, under the leadership of the HC, will contribute within the timeframes indicated.

3. This HCT recognizes the primary responsibility of the Government for the protection of civilians and through this Protection Strategy seeks to support and reinforce this primary national responsibility.

4. This Protection Strategy re-affirms that the HCT and its members have roles to play in ensuring that protection is at the core of the response, and that all actions of the HCT and its members are based on the humanitarian principles and protection principles, including conflict-sensitive and do no harm approaches.

HCT Protection Strategy: Framework for Action 2023

This HCT Protection Strategy envisions to contribute to an improved protection environment in South Sudan as its overall outcome and pursues three strategic objectives to centralize protection:

1. Enhance system-wide change for protection outcomes by introducing sector-specific risk reduction strategies or systematic protection mainstreaming as part of the Humanitarian Programme Cycle.

2. Pursue protection priorities with a system-wide impact by enhancing strategic advocacy to reinforce the primary responsibility and role of the Government to provide protection,

3. Enable the operational protection response coordinated through the Protection Cluster - by taking collective and strategic-level action to facilitate the Cluster’s 2023 priority to strengthen protection service delivery.

Addressing the above strategic objectives is the key to this strategy. Through this strategy the HCT aims to focus the entire humanitarian system on the identified key protection issues. In addition to the commitments outlined above, the HCT will also priorities cross-cutting issues, which need to be addressed to contribute to the aim of this strategies. These are:

1. Strengthened Protection Mainstreaming, Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), and Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) across all sectors of the Humanitarian response.

2. Protection of civilians: Need to increase the availability of quality protection services to communities and the capacities of community actors in conflict areas.

A Framework for Action detailing these strategic objectives for the year of 2023 accompanies this strategy and sets forth the required actions and milestones with assigned responsibilities for implementation.

Implementation modalities Accountability for ensuring the centrality of protection, and the implementation of this Protection Strategy and its Framework for Action lies with the HCT and the HC as the owner of this strategy. This includes at a minimum:

1. Holding quarterly HCT meetings devoted to taking stock/reporting on progress against the Framework for Action, and as necessary adjust and course correct to ensure the implementation stays on track.

2. Providing updates on advocacy undertaken to implement the framework for action (including who the message was delivered to, how, by whom, and the uptake/reception to the advocacy) to enable them to nuance, adjust, revise, or rethink targets of advocacy or messengers or messaging.

3. Revising the Framework for Action for 2024 to ensure a continuum of the centrality of protection by the HCT.

4. Setting the HCT agenda, informing the discussion at the HCT and ensuing decision-making by protection considerations, as needed guided by the Protection Cluster leads and coordinators and the four Areas of Responsibilities to ensure an ongoing protection dialogue in the HCT.