South Sudan

The EU supports South Sudan in increasing agricultural productivity, strengthening rural resilience, and improving food and nutrition security. To achieve a modernised, sustainable, resilient, and competitive agricultural sector, our common actions focus on:

• Improving food and nutrition security for rural smallholders by promoting sustainable agricultural practices enhancing livelihoods, while strengthening local institutions at state, county, and community levels to better prevent and respond to crises and deliver integrated support services.
• Fostering climate-resilient pastoral systems by improving livelihoods in pastoral communities and strengthening adaptation to climate change.
• Increasing smallholder agricultural production through technical assistance and monitoring of individual projects to enhance productivity and sustainability.
• Strengthen community resilience by improving natural resource management, promoting peace building and conflict prevention.
• Developing value chains and supporting micro and small enterprises (MSEs).
• Boosting market access and connectivity by constructing 171 km of feeder roads, supporting rural communities in Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal states, and enhancing food security and economic stability in the Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Greater Upper Nile regions.

Providing employment opportunities and vocational training is essential to strengthening South Sudan’s workforce and promoting economic resilience. Key initiatives include:

• Creating jobs in agriculture and trade by improving MSME competitiveness in the fruits and vegetables value chains in Central and Western Equatoria.
• Expanding access to technical and vocational education (TVET) by increasing training opportunities for youth and supporting CSOs and local authorities to improving national TVET management and coordination.
• Improving the quality and relevance of graduate training, through digitalisation and internationalisation. Universities in South Sudan participate in Erasmus+ and DigiGradAfrica.
• Supporting girls' education and community reintegration by providing financial assistance, and expanding education access for displaced children and adult learners.
• Enhancing teacher training to improve the quality of education, particularly in marginalised regions.

The EU and South Sudan collaborate to develop government capacity for health sector stewardship and improve access to essential healthcare services, focusing on maternal and child health, communicable diseases, and emergency preparedness. 

Interventions in basic health care target the biggest causes of morbidity in South Sudan: neonatal disorders, critical pregnancies, communicable diseases (e.g. malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia), endemic tropical diseases, epidemics and pandemics.

Support to internally displaced population and their host communities has been reinforced following the influx of returnees and refugees from Sudan. The EU assists South Sudan by:

• Strengthening national authorities' capacity to manage displacement and address human trafficking.
• Facilitating the inclusion of refugees, returnees, and host communities by expanding and strengthening national service delivery systems, improving planning and access to settlement, education, health, WASH, and livelihoods.
• Supporting returnees and host communities in "Pockets of Hope", high-return areas, by facilitating registration and access to national documentation, enabling access to social services, and improving access to safe housing, land, and property.

To strengthen the rule of law and to support peace and reconciliation through mechanisms for peace building, conflict resolution and human rights, our common efforts focus on:

• Enhancing the legal capacity of constitution-making bodies, judges, and legal professionals to support the permanent Constitution-making process and judicial reform.
• Contributing to social cohesion by strengthening the economic resilience and community engagement of survivors, empowering them as agents of change in their communities, and helping to create functional grass root level structures – school peace-clubs, inter-church committees etc. – to promote peace, enhance conflict sensitivity and build trust between communities.
• Strengthening electoral and political rights, supporting civil society organisations in promoting democratic participation and human rights and increasing inclusion and participation of underrepresented groups in democratic processes, with a special focus on women and youth.
• Ensuring access to independent information and enhancing media freedom to counter misinformation and hate speech through initiatives like Raising Civil VOICES, which facilitates civic engagement, and Radio Tamazuj, which provides independent information to support democratic debate in South Sudan.
• Countering transnational organised crime and terrorist groups by targeting Illicit Financial Flows in East, Southern, Central Africa & Yemen.
• Supporting the ceasefire transitional security arrangement monitoring and verification mechanism (CTSAMVM and R-JMEC) and supporting peaceful borderlands to address causes of instability and conflict and contribute to strengthened capacities on conflict prevention and mitigation by cross-border communities.

The EU works with South Sudan to improve access to energy and transport infrastructure, supporting economic growth and regional integration. Efforts focus on:

• Expanding access to clean energy, including a green energy telecom initiative replacing diesel power with solar solutions to reduce emissions and enhance network reliability.
• Constructing/expanding? the South Sudan-Uganda Power Interconnection, promoting cross-border electricity trade to address South Sudan energy deficits and utilise the Ugandan surplus of hydroelectric power.
• Facilitating transport investments support regional economic integration, by improving the infrastructure and the automation for processing cross-border trade procedures at Nimule post border to enhance trade efficiency and connectivity in the region.

The EU also collaborates with South Sudan to strengthen environmental conservation efforts and promote sustainable landscape management. Together, we work towards improving governance of natural resources, biodiversity and wildlife protection especially in the in the Boma-Gambella and Kidepo landscape, through the establishment of cooperation frameworks between wildlife authorities, communities and local/regional administrations and fostering resilience in vulnerable ecosystems.