South Sudan: Consultancy, Evaluation of a JPF-Funded Project

Jan 9, 2022 | Japan Platform
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The Japan Platform (hereinafter referred to as "JPF") is an international emergency humanitarian aid organization which offers the most effective and prompt emergency aid in response to humanitarian needs, focusing on issues of refugees and natural disasters. JPF conducts such aid through a tripartite cooperation system where NGOs, business communities, and the government of Japan work in close cooperation, based on equal partnership, and making the most of the respective sectors' characteristics and resources.

Since 2006, JPF has been funding Japanese NGOs responding to the chronic humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, predating South Sudan’s independence in 2011. JPF remained engaged in the face of the political unrest of 2013 and the ensuing period of instability. The 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCRSS) paved the way for the formation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity in February 2020. Nonetheless, the humanitarian situation in South Sudan remains dire. As of January 2021, more than two-thirds of the South Sudanese population and some 300,000 refugees2 and asylum seekers in South Sudan are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection, as the country continues to experience the cumulative effects of years of conflict, a surge in sub-national violence, unprecedented flooding and hyperinflation, further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. JPF repeatedly renewed its annual funding commitment to the South Sudan refugee programme[1] in South Sudan and its neighboring countries. The annual funding of the fiscal year 2020 stood at JPY480 million. In FY 2021, JPF funded 8 projects in WASH, protection and education implemented by 6 agencies across 5 countries. JPF’s South Sudan refugee program set the following priority objectives that are identified by its member agencies in line with the 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) COVID 19 Addendum[2].

1. Prevent and control the spread of COVID 19
2. Reduce morbidity and mortality for people vulnerable to protection risks.
3. Support delivery of basic services across sectors.
4. Build resilience for vulnerable communities

World Vision Japan (WVJ) is one of JPF’s member agencies active in South Sudan. Under JPF’s South Sudan program, WVJ had been implementing an education in emergencies (EiE) project in Upper Nile State, South Sudan. Since March 2021, WVJ has been implementing “COVID-19 prevention project for vulnerable communities in Malakal city” for a year, with an aim to strengthen resilience against COVID 19 for children and their communities in areas hosting internally displaced people (IDP) within Malakal city. The project intends to achieve this goal by providing water supply systems and hand washing stations in three target schools and a health center (activity 1.1), training school teachers on COVID 19 prevention and psychosocial care (activity 1.2), and mobilizing school children, teachers and PTA/SMC to continue sensitization on COVID 19 prevention in and outside schools (activity 1.3).

JPF annually conducts evaluations on selected projects under the South Sudan program. Some of the key issues emerged from the past evaluations on WASH and EiE are as follows. Those are learning needs for JPF in evaluating this project.

WASH

• Insufficient resources: Access to water was improved for the target population but fell short of meeting the Sphere standards given the population in target areas much exceeded the water points provided by the project.
• Maintenance & repair: There had been greater needs for repair of water points than the project could have responded to. Consider ease of repair and locally manageable operations and maintenance in choice of water systems.
• Scope of WASH services: A project met critical WASH needs that no other agencies had addressed such as solid waste management and desludging of toilets.
• Behavior change: Hand washing behavior, use and cleanliness of toilets required continuous follow up.

Education

• Gender: Address gender gaps in education.
• Child-centered approach: Awareness raising by children’s drama clubs was effective. Club members also improved their group cohesion and self esteem.
• Inclusion of parents: Parents are sometimes perpetrators of violation of child rights for their own children. Children missed to access relevant social services partly due to lack of awareness of their parents.
• Behaviour change: Awareness of importance of education boosted demand for education.
• Coordination with other agencies and services: Improve internal case management skills. Strengthen information sharing and referral networks with other service providers.

WASH & Education

• Sustainability: Capacity building for the project-installed committees required ongoing follow up support. Lack of incentives for committee members threatened their continuous engagement beyond the project period. Communities could not self-finance activities funded by a project.

In addition, JPF is keen to explore how it may advance the localization agenda called for since the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. Although JPF has not consciously taken the localization agenda into account in developing the program strategy, its portfolio or financing modalities, it hopes to revisit the current ways of working vis-à-vis the localization agenda and explore how it delivers on the localization agenda in moving forward.

Purpose of the evaluation

The purpose of the evaluation is to evaluate WVJ’s “COVID-19 prevention project for vulnerable communities in Malakal city” against the program and project goals as well as the OECD DAC evaluation criteria and the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS), and draw recommendations and lessons learnt for WVJ’s future project and JPF’s program strategy.

The evaluation also retrospectively review the current implementation and financing modalities in light of the localization agenda.[4] It explores opportunities and potential for advancing localization agenda, and hence informs JPF’s dialogue with member agencies and other stakeholders on its positioning and strategy towards localization.

The primary audience of the evaluation is WVJ and JPF. The evaluation report will be also communicated to the wider audience in South Sudan and in Japan to share relevant lessons learnt for the broader sector and as a means to hold JPF accountable to its supporters and stakeholders.

* For full details on the terms of reference and how to apply, please visit link provided. *

Proposals due January 16, 2022