In 2018, UNHCR will continue to focus on strengthening partnerships and ensuring coordination with relevant stakeholders, including the Government, NGO and UN partners.
UNHCR works to develop principled and productive partnerships with relevant authorities both at the central and field levels. In particular, UNHCR will maintain close cooperation with the Commission for Refuge Affairs (CRA) and Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Immigration under the Ministry of Interior, the South Sudan Rehabilitation and Relief and Rehabilitation Commission under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, as well as other line ministries in charge of health, education and gender affairs. With the implementation of new administrative divisions, renewed efforts will be made to develop constructive cooperation with local authorities and raise their awareness of UNHCR’s work in the country.
UNHCR will continue to work with a wide range of humanitarian partners including UN agencies (particularly WFP, UNICEF, FAO, and UNESCO), NGOs and donors, and will actively participate in various coordination forums in the country. The Office has endeavoured to reach out to development actors in promotion of their possible engagement in refugee hosting areas as well as resilience building in IDP affected communities, including through the participation in the South Sudan Interim Cooperation Framework. However, the progress in this area has been hindered by the July 2016 fighting with most development actors yet to resume their activities in the country.
In cooperation with the CRA, UNHCR will continue to exercise its leadership and coordination role for the refugee response at national and field levels. Protection and multi-sectorial assistance delivery will be undertaken directly and in partnership with project/operational NGOs and in cooperation with the authorities, refugees and host communities. UNHCR and its partners work to maintain a synergy and necessary coordination with the Clusters/Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) in accordance with the Refugee Coordination Model. Regular coordination meetings will be held both in Juba and in the field.
On IDP response, UNHCR’s engagement will remain part of the inter-agency response where UNHCR leads the Protection Cluster across the country and co-leads the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster mainly at the national level. Close coordination will be maintained with UN agencies, NGOs as well as UNMISS. The Protection Cluster leadership involves the coordination of numerous NGOs, UN, and government partners. Coordination efforts are made to ensure the protection of civilians remains the primary focus of the Humanitarian Country Team and its relief efforts. Mentoring of national NGOs on field missions to support capacity building will also be a focus of the Protection Cluster role in building local partnerships. On CCCM, in close coordination with International Organization for Migration (IOM) and ACTED as co-lead agencies, UNHCR will focus on Cluster coordination at Juba and Unity levels, with no operational engagement in camp management. Close cooperation with and institutional development support for the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) will be maintained.
UNHCR’s partners have made continuous efforts to solicit support from various donors to compliment UNHCR-funded activities. However, in recent years, NGOs’ resource mobilization capacity has been reduced due to competing priorities nationally, regionally and globally. This has resulted in the continuous phasedown or phase-out of operational partners, necessitating UNHCR to fill gaps through re-prioritization of its programming especially for refugees. Against this background, UNHCR plans to carry out critical rationalization of project partners in the course of 2017, while making sustained efforts to enhance engagement of national NGOs where feasible.