UNITED NATIONS, Aug 13 (IPS) – Thirteen years after independence, South Sudan is facing major humanitarian challenges. South Sudan’s first Independence Day was filled with a great sense of hope.
I remember the crowds cheering in the streets and waving the country’s new flag high. Thirteen years later, the world’s youngest nation, still barely in its adolescence, faces major challenges.
At the heart of South Sudan’s challenges is a humanitarian crisis of staggering proportions. With seven million of the country’s 12.4 million people expected to experience crisis-level hunger this year, and nine million in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the gravity of the situation cannot be overstated.
One in ten people do not have access to electricity. Seventy percent do not have access to basic health care. These are fundamental human rights that the vast majority of people are deprived of.
I saw the dire humanitarian situation in South Sudan firsthand when I visited the country in March. I met women and children displaced by conflict—some for the second time in their lives—at a transit center in Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile State. They had nothing and were completely dependent on aid. Their plight still lives on in my mind and heart.
As South Sudan celebrates its 13th independence day, the country finds itself at a turning point in its national building.
Humanitarian aid alone cannot untangle the complex web of challenges facing South Sudan. A holistic approach is needed, one that lays the foundation for self-reliance, peace and sustainable development.
With the constitutional process underway and elections approaching, the efforts we make today will determine the course of the country for generations. We must strengthen institutions, promote stability and empower the youth, the driving force behind the nation’s aspirations for progress and prosperity.
Humanitarian aid alone cannot untangle the complex web of challenges facing South Sudan. A holistic approach is needed, one that lays the foundation for self-reliance, peace and sustainable development.
Central to this is the empowerment of women and girls, who face disproportionate challenges and vulnerabilities in the face of conflict, displacement and climate change. Gender-based violence (GBV), child marriage and maternal mortality rates are alarmingly high, underscoring the urgent need for targeted interventions that prioritize the rights and dignity of women and girls.
When I visited Malakal, I met young women whose stories vividly depicted the obstacles they face every day. They fear for their safety, feel unable to talk about their hopes and aspirations, and are denied employment opportunities.
That shouldn’t be the case.
Our team on the ground is working hard to improve the lives of women and girls in South Sudan. I was impressed by the courts in Juba, set up with UNDP support, which focus on addressing violence against women. We are also working to ensure the inclusion of women in peacebuilding processes, promote gender equality and create opportunities for women and youth to thrive.
But there is still so much more to be done.
With 75 percent of the population made up of young people, they are both South Sudan’s greatest challenge and its most promising asset. Failure to invest in the youth is to neglect the future of the country itself – a risk we cannot afford to take.
Their voices must be heard, their ambitions must be nurtured and their potential must be realised.
South Sudan is at a crossroads.
With the right support, the country has the potential to create a future defined by hope, greater prosperity and stability for all. The alternative is a deepening of an already deep and long-standing crisis.
South Sudan cannot walk this path alone. It needs support that transcends borders to overcome the myriad challenges it faces. More development cooperation, the kind that helps people break the cycle of crisis and build safer, more stable, more resilient and more sustainable lives, is urgently needed.
I hope to return in 10 years and see that the families I met at the Malakal Transit Centre have settled in peace, that their children are grown and thriving, that they have a stable existence and access to all the services they need to stay alive and nurture their hopes and aspirations for the future.
This is what development looks like.
Shoko Noda is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Director of the UNDP Crisis Office
Source: Africa Renewal, a digital magazine of the United Nations that reports on economic, social and political developments in Africa, plus the challenges facing the continent and the solutions that Africans themselves are finding, also with the support of the United Nations and the international community.
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