Background

On January 9th, 2005, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed between the Government of Sudan (GoS) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The civil war has had a devastating toll in terms of loss of human life, displacement, and destruction of infrastructure and social fabric. Now the people’s expectations for better lives are high and there is an historic opportunity to overcome the devastation of war and the neglect of human development in policies and programmes, and on this basis address the potential for renewed tensions throughout the country. This opportunity comes with substantial domestically-generated oil revenues as well as the expectation of increased donors’ assistance and international support.

The Joint Needs Assessment carried out by the World Bank and the UN led to the formulation of a Framework for Sustained Peace and Development and Poverty Eradication and identified many challenges that required support by domestic efforts and the resources of development partners.

The overall financing needs amounted to US$ 7.9 billion (US$ 4.3 billion for the north and US$ 3.6 billion for the south). Two Multi-Donor Trust Funds (MDTF) were established, one each to support the reconstruction, capacity building, and policy framework activities for the Government of National Unity (GoNU) and Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS). A Technical Secretariat, managed by the World Bank, has been established to provide technical support and assume fiduciary responsibilities for each MDTF.

As part of this initiative, UNDP commenced activities on the Rapid Impact Emergency in Southern Sudan project in Southern.

Objectives
The project’s main objective is to increase the quality of basic services in Southern Sudan and build the capacity of local organizations as well as communities.

Outputs:
• Provide basic services to urban populations, while generating temporary employment for the communities in the 10 states in Southern Sudan over the next 12 months.
• Increase community awareness on the issue of the provision of basic services.

Snapshots of the project's major achievements
• In improving livelihoods in conflict sensitive areas, public works activities have commenced in all Southern Sudan 10 States, with the 5 Grant Management Agents planned to implement 141 sub-projects in collaboration with the Local Government, CBOs/CSOs and contractors in support to developing sustainable capacity for local and community level structures in planning, monitoring and implementation.
• Each of the 10 States were allocated US$ 1 million for the public works and basic service projects to be implemented in the selected capital towns/counties;
60 sub-projects valued 2,749,421 have been completed and additional 64 sub-projects valued 3,797,982 are being implemented by the GMAs;
• This labour-intensive “Cash for Works” project created temporary employment opportunities for low-income men and women, and generated over 180,000 daily wage person days;
• UNDP has disbursed a total of US$ 8,364,722 as advance payment amongst all the 5 Grants Management Agents to undertake the implementation of public works projects in their respective States.; and
• UNDP has partnered with UN-HABITAT to increase community awareness on the provision of basic services and conduct a survey/mapping and rapid assessment of non-state sectors involved in CDD/CDR type interventions in all the 10 States of Southern Sudan.