Africa > East Africa > South Sudan > FAO has scaled up its emergency response operations in South Sudan

South Sudan: FAO has scaled up its emergency response operations in South Sudan

2014/06/09

As the rainy season begins in South Sudan, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has scaled up its emergency response operations with large-scale airdrops to provide remote communities with livelihood kits that will allow them to plant crops, fish waterways and protect livestock from fatal diseases.

The agency said on Friday that despite problems of access and insecurity in parts of the country, it has extended its emergency response for an additional three months to reach conflict-affected farmers, fishers and herders with the tools they need.

It stated: 'Along with targeting conflict-affected communities with large-scale distributions by truck, FAO successfully flew 21 tonnes of crop seeds to Pibor in Jonglei national in partnership with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).'

Subsequently, it said that FAO undertook an emergency airdrop with the support of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) logistics capacity, dropping packages from a plane to a partner on the ground who again distributed the seed to farmers.

'Although used only as a last resort due to their high cost, airdrops guarantee that farmers in the majority inaccessible areas receive support, enabling them to grow their own food and making the operation cost-efficient in the long run.

'Three tonnes of crop seeds were successfully air-dropped in Mayendit county in Unity National, and will enable 250 households to produce over 200 tonnes of crops inclunding maize, sorghum, cowpea and sesame,' the statement noted.

It quoted Ms. Sue Lautze, the agency’s Chief of Office in South Sudan and the UN’s Deputy
Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, as saying: 'FAO is doing everything it can to assist the highly vulnerable people of South Sudan, inclunding innovations in the delivery of seeds through airdrops.'

She said: 'Portability and flexibility are our watchwords right presently. FAO is grateful to WFP and the donors who facilitated these initial airdrops. We will continue to integrate this logistic option as part of the FAO-WFP-UNICEF rapid response partnership.'

The statement as well said that since the crisis began, additional than 110,000 emergency livelihood kits have been distributed, inclunding crop seeds, fishing kits, vegetable seeds and livestock health kits.

It noted that with US$42 million in funding received to date, FAO is supporting 1.3 million people.

'However, additional funding is urgently needed to reach out to vulnerable rural communities in the worst-hit areas while building resilience throughout the country and to prevent a further worsening of food insecurity,' the agency added.

Related Articles
  • UNWTO: International tourism – strongest half-year results since 2010

    2017/09/09 Destinations worldwide welcomed 598 million international tourists in the initial six months of 2017, some 36 million additional than in the same period of 2016. At 6%, increase was well above the trend of recent years, making the current January-June period the strongest half-year since 2010. Visitor numbers reported by destinations around the world reflect strong request for international travel in the initial half of 2017, according to the new UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. Worldwide, international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) increased by 6% compared to the same six-month period last year, well above the sustained and consistent trend of 4% or higher increase since 2010. This represents the strongest half-year in seven years.
  • H.E. President Alassane Ouattara and the theme of “Accelerating Africa’s Path to Prosperity

    2017/09/09 This year, under the leadership of H.E. President Alassane Ouattara and the theme of “Accelerating Africa’s Path to Prosperity: Growing Inclusive Economies and Jobs through Agriculture”, the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2017 is shaping up as a premier platform to showcase ongoing evolution in Africa’s agricultural transformation schedule and to scale up the political, policy, and financial commitments needed to achieve the Malabo Declaration and the world development schedule around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Following the launch of the landmark annual Africa Agriculture Status Statement (ASSR) at the AGRF taking place in Cote d’Ivoire from 4-8 September 2017, the major conclusion centres around the power of entrepreneurs and the free market in driving Africa’s economic increase from food production. This is owing to the fact that a lot of businesses are waking up to opportunities of a rapidly growing food market in Africa that may be worth additional than $1 trillion each year by 2030 to substitute imports with high price food made in Africa.
  • International Arrivals To Africa Reach More Than 18 Million In 2017

    2017/09/09 Market Research Company Euromonitor International revealed before this week the key trends shaping travel and tourism in Africa at the 41st Annual World Tourism Conference in Kigali, Rwanda. According to Euromonitor International’s new data, international arrivals to Africa grew by 6.5 % in 2017, to reach 18,550 million, up from 16,351 million in 2012. Key markets such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Cameroon, Mauritius and Tanzania accounted for 70 % of international trips to the Sub-Saharan African region.
  • U.S. warns South Sudan: Continued chaos is not acceptable, aid may be pulled

    2017/09/03 The top U.S. official for humanitarian aid has delivered a stern warning to South Sudan’s president that the Trump administration is reexamining its policy toward one of the world's poorest and most dangerous countries as the African nation slides into lawlessness. Mark Green, the administrator for the United States Agency for International Development, met Friday with President Salva Kiir Mayardit. Green said he raised U.S. concerns over the dangers humanitarian aid workers face in delivering food and medicine in the country as well as a pervasive climate of criminal activity by government forces, criminal gangs and opposition forces. Since civil war erupted almost four years ago, a third of South Sudan’s population has become internally displaced or fled the country in Africa’s worst refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
  • Africa: USA-Africa - No Policy? Bad Policy? or Both?

    2017/08/30 "Africa is terra incognita for the Trump Government: a continent it cares little - and understands even less - about. With no dyed-in-the-wool Trumpian Africa hands available, the government appears ready to cede Africa policy making to career civil servants and a few mainstream Republican appointees." - Matthew T. Page The headline to Page's article in Quartz Africa states that "Donald Trump could be getting his US-Africa policy right by simply not having one." His view is actually additional nuanced, in judging that no policy would likely be only "less bad" than explicitly "bad policy" that may result from better White Home interest in Africa.