Scaling solutions through partnership – An assets-based approach to strengthening resilience in South Sudan

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday III)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Scaling up and sustainability in education

Proposal

The Partnership for Recovery and Resilience (PfRR) in South Sudan, initiated by USAID/South Sudan, is seeking to bring humanitarian and development solutions to scale. PfRR seeks to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience in Candidate Partnership Areas (CPAs) by establishing collective commitments to common results across agencies and sectors, including education. The aim is to figure out what works and bring these solutions to scale through Partnership.
As a result of war, South Sudan is facing a dire humanitarian crisis. Year-to-year (as well as season-by-season) comparisons reveal consistent and significant increases in vulnerability and food insecurity, despite the fact that nearly two billion dollars were spent in 2017 to prevent famine; the numbers of those vulnerable to famine in 2018 are projected to grow. At the same time, the concept of resilience has taken on increasing importance, both within USAID and the international donor community. Discussions on resilience in the context of civil war led donors in South Sudan to formulate ideas about focusing on hubs of stability and islands of peace. The idea behind identifying geographic targets was that even with a broken policy framework and conflict, it is still possible to work with communities to improve their conditions and save lives in a durable manner that lays foundations for peace and recovery. It is further believed that working across key sectors of education, health and nutrition, WASH, and basic services can engender substantial and sustainable resilience.
MSI's Monitoring and Evaluation Support Project (MESP) is playing a prominent role in this effort by supporting the Mission to create the Partnerships between international donors and local stakeholders, across USAID sectors and implementing partners, with communities at the center. Moreover, MESP is tasked with creating a CLA platform to provide evidence for multi-party decision-making and for joint learning about what works and what doesn't. Through this round table, MSI highlight the role of the education sector in this Partnership. We will also discuss how the PfRR reflects USAID’s core concepts of collaboration and adaptive learning in 2 areas, Yambio and Aweil. Specifically, MSI will discuss how we supported the Partnerships and field tested an approach for community consultations on topics such as the importance of uninterrupted, high quality education service delivery and resilience within communities. MSI worked to define resilience with traditional leaders, civil administration, women, youth, elders, private sector and faith based organizations. From these groups and launches of the resultant resilience profiles in each community, it is envisaged that Champions for Resilience will emerge. Each informant was asked to identify the shocks they have experienced since independence, and what they relied upon as individuals, households, and communities to get through and bounce back. Their answers revealed what resilience means in South Sudan and how to strengthen the education sector through partnership. MSI will also discuss successes and challenges associated with the intensive Partner coordination process and technical handover of key roles to ensure sustainability and broad ownership of the Partnership in the education sector.

Authors

• Daniel Deng, Management Systems International

• Munazza Siddiqui, Management Systems International

• Nitika Tolani, MSI