Attachments
Regional Overview
Executive Summary
The 2024 South Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP) is a collective, multisectoral endeavour involving 123 partners, including United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other civil society actors. It is designed to address the complex needs of over 2.3 million South Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers alongside approximately 2.38 million members of host communities in five asylum countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda.
Aligned with the Refugee Coordination Model, the RRP offers a cohesive approach, integrating individual country plans while maintaining a regional outlook on protection risks, vulnerabilities, and critical needs. The strategy is anchored in core national and regional policies, centring on four main objectives for refugees and asylum seekers: maintaining access to territory and to the right to seek and enjoy asylum and enhancing the protection environment and the realization of the rights; providing quality, efficient and timely protection and other multisectoral assistance; inclusion into national systems and enhancing durable solutions. A commitment to enhancing accountability to affected people and protecting refugees from sexual exploitation, abuse, and other risks is a cornerstone of the RRP.
Covering nine sectors, the plan includes coordinated activities in protection, including gender-based violence (GBV) and child protection, education, food security, public health and nutrition, livelihoods and economic inclusion, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), settlement and shelter/housing and basic needs, and logistics and operational support.
Each sector's approach is tailored to the unique context of the respective countries. The regional chapter also outlines the cross-cutting themes of age, gender and diversity, which includes disability inclusion and youth, the theme of accountability to affected people, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, localization, climate action and cash assistance. Given the urgent need for energy and the environmental impact, the related budget implications have been indicated alongside the sectors. The regional chapter provides an overarching summary of the overall protection risks analysis, the strategy and the related sector interventions, underscoring collaborative efforts, coordination, and financial needs. The plan's country-specific responses are further detailed in individual country chapters.
Part 1: Current Situation
Situation Overview
South Sudan's displacement crisis is one of Africa's most significant in recent times, with 2,278,420 million refugees spread across neighbouring countries (the DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda) and another 2.2 million internally displaced within South Sudan. As of 31 December 2023, Uganda hosted 41 per cent of the South Sudanese refugees in the region, Sudan hosted 30 per cent, Ethiopia hosted 18.5 per cent, Kenya hosted 8 per cent, and the DRC, 2.5 per cent of the refugees.
The crisis has been fuelled by a prolonged and brutal civil war, further compounded by the impacts of climate change and food insecurity. In particular, four consecutive years of flooding have destroyed homes and livelihoods, exacerbated food shortages and weakened the economy. The majority of the South Sudanese refugees considered in this plan have been in asylum for over a decade, evidence of the deep-rooted and longstanding nature of the crisis and resulting displacement.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda, have implemented varying protection regimes to receive South Sudanese refugees. Uganda stands out for its progressive approach, offering prima facie refugee status to South Sudanese, which allows for immediate recognition of refugee status without individual adjudication, in addition to granting significant rights like access to land and services. Ethiopia and Kenya have also extended prima facie status to South Sudanese refugees, providing immediate protection and support. However, in 2023, the Government of Ethiopia issued a communication reconsidering the prima facie status for the South Sudanese from Pochalla county resulting in a caseload of South Sudanese asylum seekers pending resolution of their case. The DRC, facing its own internal challenges, has a more complex and less uniform approach, often requiring individual adjudication. Sudan has complex historical relations with South Sudan and offers a mix of prima facie recognition, allowing many South Sudanese to reside in the country without officially being registered as refugees.
On solutions, the period between 2021 and 2022 saw the self-organized return of 525,360 South Sudanese refugees mainly from Uganda (255,000). In 2023, 527,206 spontaneous returns recorded mainly from Sudan (399,000) with a spike from April 2023 due to the crisis in Sudan. In December, there were 53,408 returns despite the adverse conditions in South Sudan. As the conflict in Sudan persists, this trend of high return rates might continue into 2024. These recent returns, often hasty and unplanned, confront returnees with the dire humanitarian and developmental challenges in South Sudan. Nine million South Sudanese require humanitarian aid, with ongoing insecurity and climate-related challenges like flooding2. In 2021, only 1,015 South Sudanese were resettled to third countries, and in 2022, this number decreased slightly to 994 individuals, representing less than 1 per cent of the global resettlement admissions.
Regional efforts to address the South Sudan displacement crisis involve the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the East African Community (EAC). These organizations are key in advocating for the integration of refugees into national systems and exploring regional solutions. This includes promoting local solutions for the protracted displacement of South Sudanese refugees, with consideration also for the needs of the hosting communities, such as the Shirika Plan in Kenya3. The joint initiative by IGAD and EAC of June 2023 at Munyonyo, Uganda, saw a landmark Ministerial Declaration aimed at fast-track solutions for refugees within the East and Horn of Africa region. The Declaration intensified the current dialogue for progressive asylum and solutions in the East and Horn of Africa region by reinforcing and aligning regional policy frameworks on refugee protection and solutions. Tangible requisite actions, however, are yet to be taken to translate the Munyonyo policy declarations into measurable regional results for refugees. A priority is the pending adoption of the EAC draft Regional Refugee Management Policy, which would usher in progressive regional asylum and solutions frameworks and possibilities for freedom of movement, local integration and commitment to sustainable return within the EAC. South Sudan will become the chair of IGAD in July 2024, presenting an opportunity to continue championing solutions for the displaced. It should also be noted that at the Global Refugee Forum in December 2023, the Government of South Sudan committed “…by 2027 to creating enabling conditions for sustainable returns of South Sudanese, enhancing peacebuilding, and provision of basic services through inclusive re/integration and participation of refugees, returnees, IDPs, and host communities…”. 4 Unfortunately, the situation in South Sudan remains a humanitarian crisis with violence, conflict, and insecurity aggravated by the adverse effects of climate change, triggering recurrent hydrological hazards and high levels of food insecurity. As a result, most South Sudanese refugees will likely remain in countries of asylum through 2024 and beyond, with numbers that may even increase by as many as 50,000 due to both natural population growth and the possibility of increased civil conflict. Unfortunately, most organizations have been affected by chronic underfunding and scaled back their budgets for 2024 despite massive needs across the population.