Country Programme Paper to end Drought Emergencies in the Horn of Africa

In response to the recurrent crises triggered by drought in the Horn of Africa region, and especially the effects of the 2011 drought that affected over 13 million people, Member States of IGAD agreed to develop a program to end drought emergencies. The IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative were launched and South Sudan, like all other IGAD countries, developed this Country Programming Paper (CPP). This CPP, which was developed through a consultative process, articulates South Sudan's 15-year strategy for ending drought emergencies and building resilient communities, outlining priorities, and a path for coordinated action and resource mobilization.
The goal is to break the cycle of emergency (food crisis and emergency, erosion of coping capacities, the decimation of livelihoods, incessant natural resource-based conflict), and structural poverty that has characterized areas recurrently affected by drought, while realizing the latent potential of the dry lands and ASALs to improve livelihoods, food and nutrition security and incomes, and foster economic growth and stability.
The overall goal will be supported by two more explicit objectives: (i) to institute well-coordinated and effective mechanisms for enhanced and timely response to drought and other climate-driven disasters, (ii) to develop strategies and investments that support growth, resilience, sustainability and integration of core natural resource based livelihoods in drought prone areas and diversification into other livelihood options.
To achieve this objective, the program proposes areas of interventions at the national level.
In order to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, the CPP envisages the following activities: (i) expand the land under agricultural production through mechanization technologies such as ox-ploughs and tractors and the production and manufacturing of intermediary technologies including ox-ploughs and other labor saving/ drudgery reducing implements, (ii) access to improved inputs through community seed production and distribution systems including seed voucher systems, development of improved drought resistant varieties and seeds, improved input distribution systems for agrochemicals based on appropriate disease and pest control services, adequate use of fertilizers and organic manure to enhance soil fertility and productivity and (iii) enhance advice to farmers through support to farmer training centers/ Payam Agricultural Offices as centers for farmer training and facilitation and promoting improved technologies and agronomic practices especially of drought-resistant grain cereals and root crops to enhance food security in the drought affected areas.
In the context of reducing rural poverty, the CPP plans to the development of community initiatives to provide income or consumptive transfers to the poor and vulnerable to protect against livelihood risks utilizing various approaches including food for work related to relevant public works that establish public assets that enhance agricultural productivity and the identification and establishment of productive public assets as the basis for consumptive transfers to the poor and vulnerable in drought prone areas.
To enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, this CPP plans to improve the integration of market access and to enhance the regional and domestic market. Within these broad goals, the major objectives are as follows: (i) development of infrastructure including climate-proofed feeder roads and rural market infrastructure, larger roads to main trade border points and development of border point infrastructure to facilitate cross-border trade, domestic markets including cash crop markets, livestock auction platforms, landing sites, satellite and export abattoirs and assembly markets, (ii) support to marketing activities through: (i) the development of policies and laws governing marketing in the crop, fisheries and livestock sectors, which should promote the integration in the market, (ii) the rationalization of tariffs and non-tariff barriers and transboundary harmonization to enhance regional trade, (iii) the promotion of innovative mechanisms such as cooperative marketing, warehouse receipt system and their linkage into the regional warehouse receipt system, and, (iv) improving communication &dissemination of crop, livestock and fish markets information to all stakeholders, the exploration of new markets and review of informal trade and marketing channels so as to enhance the involvement and benefits to primary producers and the poor in marketing and export.
To increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the interventions of the CPP will focus on: interventions to prepare communities and institutions for drought, early warning and enhanced response capacity based on institutionalized mechanisms and information systems, coordination of efforts to manage and mitigate the effects of drought and enhance resilience.
In the context of governance, because of the multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder nature of the EDE initiative and the CPP, a Common Programming Framework (CPF) is needed to bring all actors into alignment with the CPP and MTP, and for harmonization of interventions. The CPF will increase operational efficiencies including compliance to partnership agreements, provide a platform for complex decision making, and making budgets and targets more precise through eliminating duplication and redundancies in efforts and expenditure by government, development partners and non-state actors.