The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved an African Development Fund (ADF) grant of $19.8 million for the Sudan Refugee Crisis Response Project in South Sudan (SRCSSP).
The total project cost is $22.23 million. The project is supported through ADF funds under the Bank's Transition Support Facility (TSF) and would be executed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which will contribute a further $2.43 million. The project, approved on 25 September 2024 at the Bank headquarters in Abidjan, will be implemented between November 2024 and October 2026.
The implementing agency for the project is the South Sudanese Ministry of Finance and Planning. The Refugee Affairs Commission of the Ministry of the Interior and the UNHCR are responsible for its implementation in Maban (Upper Nile), Jamjang (Ruweng administrative district), Aweil (Northern Bahr El Ghazal) and the city of Juba. It will target host communities, refugees, and South Sudanese residing in Sudan but fleeing conflict in their home areas.
The overall objective of the project is to build peace, inclusion and resilience in South Sudanese communities. More specifically, the project aims to support the inclusive and peaceful integration of refugees and returnees into communities, to strengthen social cohesion among refugees and host communities, and to improve the socio-economic well-being of these communities.
The components of the project are as follows: firstly, improving employment and livelihoods for refugees and host communities; secondly, restoring and improving basic social services and restoring the environment; and thirdly, capacity building.
"By deploying not only a humanitarian and a development-oriented intervention in key refugee and host communities, the project will help prevent a worsening of poverty levels among refugees and returnees, as well as in host communities," said Themba Bhebhe, Country Manager, African Development Bank's Country Office in South Sudan.
The project directly targets 26,180 households, and it is estimated that 160,375 people will indirectly benefit from the project's various interventions. The focus will be on employment and livelihoods, building the capacity of refugees, generating additional sources of income and shielding them from poverty.
South Sudan has a population of some 12.45 million people, 80 percent of whom live in rural areas and depend on agriculture, livestock, fishing and forestry products for food, energy and income. The large influx of forcibly displaced people in Sudan poses a threat to resources and a security risk, while the economic and humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.
