MapAction has been working on a long-term project with humanitarian partners to establish settlement datasets for South Sudan to facilitate relief efforts since March, and is now entering the final stage of monitoring the impact of the work.
South Sudan is one of the world’s poorest countries, recovering from a long-standing conflict. It is also one of the most volatile. According to the United Nations, conflict has resulted in approximately 1.6 million people being displaced within South Sudan’s borders and more than 600,000 fleeing to neighbouring countries. This instability is also taking a devastating toll on food production, with more than 4.6 million people considered to be suffering from severe food insecurity. Ongoing security incidents affect communities and the ability of humanitarian teams to reach them with assistance.
MapAction has been working with the South Sudanese National Bureau of Statistics and humanitarian partners to help create the first ever harmonised datasets, establishing the locations of communities which, amongst other objectives, facilitates the effective delivery of humanitarian aid.
MapAction volunteers have undertaken a series of missions in recent months. The first, in May, was to establish which datasets were most important to support relief efforts. Two volunteers subsequently deployed in August to help collect the relevant data and create appropriate tools to enable effective data analysis.
Whilst MapAction works to complete the support tool, feedback from our partners so far has been extremely positive. Anecdotal feedback highlights that the data and tools made available will not only support the planning and implementation of humanitarian operations, but also help protect the safety and security of humanitarian workers in the field.
A third MapAction mission is planned for November 2015 to understand where improvements can be made, evaluate the usefulness of the project and capture lessons learnt. It is anticipated that much of the methodology could be replicated and built upon for other humanitarian contexts.
