Strategy for Sweden's development cooperation with South Sudan 2018-2022

Strategy for Sweden’s development
cooperation with South Sudan
2018–2022

             Strategy for Sweden’s development cooperation with South Sudan   1

1. Focus

The objective of Sweden’s international development cooperation is to create
opportunities for people who live in poverty and oppression to improve their
living conditions. Development cooperation will be based on the principles of
aid and development effectiveness, and the new agreements reached by the
international community in 2015: the 2030 Agenda, the Addis Ababa Action
Agenda and the Paris Agreement.

Within the framework of this strategy, Sweden’s development cooperation with
South Sudan will contribute to a peaceful and inclusive society, improved access
to equitable and gender-equal health and education services, and improved living
conditions for people living in poverty. The strategy will apply for the period
2018–2022 and provide a total of SEK 1 500 million.1

1
    This strategy governs the use of funds under appropriation item 9 ‘Africa’ in the appropriation directions
    for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) for each budget year.

2     Strategy for Sweden’s development cooperation with South Sudan

Activities will contribute to the following objectives:

Peaceful and inclusive societies

• More inclusive processes for peace, community building and accountability.

• Improved conditions for the empowerment of women and girls.

Basic public services and livelihood opportunities

• Improved conditions for health, focusing on sexual and reproductive health
  and rights.

• Improved access to good quality education.

• Improved opportunities for sustainable livelihoods.

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2. Country context

South Sudan is one of the world’s                  the population’s needs and been
poorest and most fragile countries.                unwilling to tackle the root causes of
Both before and after South Sudan                  the conflict. Women and girls have
gained independence in 2011, society               been hit particularly hard by the
was marked by protracted armed                     conflict, which has been marked by the
conflicts at different levels, extensive           systematic use of sexual and gender-
violations and abuses of human rights,             based violence. Women have also had
and a lack of national unity. The armed            difficulty making their voices heard in
conflict that has been under way since             peace negotiations.
2013 has had a devastating effect on the
civilian population. More than half the            South Sudan’s weak institutions, its
country’s 13 million inhabitants need              economic collapse during the conflict,
humanitarian aid or protection. Food               and the government’s unwillingness to
insecurity affects large parts of the              prioritise social issues have resulted in a
population. Many women and girls lack              general inability to deliver basic public
access to basic public services and have           services. This lack of public services is
no opportunity to enjoy or assert their            weakening the population’s resilience
human rights.                                      to conflict, crises and disasters, as well
                                                   as conditions for sustainable
The armed conflict is the biggest                  development and peace. There is no
obstacle to sustainable development in             effective national system for delivering
South Sudan. The conflict has caused               health care or education. A deeply
great suffering, increased the                     patriarchal society and high incidence
population’s vulnerability and                     of child marriage impair access to
undermined society’s resilience. South             health and education services,
Sudan’s leaders, both in government                particularly for women and girls.
and opposition, bear primary                       Education levels among children,
responsibility for the outbreak of the             young people and adults are among the
conflict and continued acts of violence.           lowest in the world. Opportunities to
The parties have deliberately ignored              work and make a living are extremely

4   Strategy for Sweden’s development cooperation with South Sudan

limited, impacting the situation of
young people, and women’s economic
empowerment and access to economic
resources. Child labour and forced
labour are common.

South Sudan is affected by tensions in
the surrounding region and ongoing
conflicts in several neighbouring
countries. The instability in the region
is partly due to transnational causes,
such as competition for natural
resources, easy access to weapons and
vulnerability to climate change. Major
population movements have occurred
in the region over time. The conflict in
South Sudan has forced 4.3 million
people to flee their homes; 2.4 million
of these have sought refuge in
neighbouring countries.

                             Strategy for Sweden’s development cooperation with South Sudan   5

3. Activities

Sweden’s development cooperation                   circumstances of people and societies.
with South Sudan will be based on and              The guiding principle is that economic,
characterised by a rights perspective              social, and environmental conditions
and the perspectives of poor people on             and processes are to be understood and
development. The rights perspective                managed in an integrated context.
means that human rights and                        Gender equality and the empowerment
democracy are regarded as fundamental              and rights of women and girls are both
to development. Such an approach                   goals in themselves and a prerequisite
involves giving visibility, ahead of each          and a means for achieving sustainable
contribution, to individuals and groups            global development. Violence and
who are discriminated against, excluded            armed conflict are among the greatest
or marginalised so that all people,                obstacles to economic and social
regardless of gender, age, disability,             development, and development
ethnicity, religion or other belief, sexual        cooperation is an important part of
orientation, or transgender identity               conflict prevention. For this reason, an
or expression, can enjoy their rights.             environmental and climate perspective,
The perspectives of poor people on                 a gender perspective, and a conflict
development means that the situation,              perspective will be systematically
needs, circumstances and priorities of             integrated into Sweden’s development
poor women, men and children must                  cooperation with South Sudan.
be the starting point for poverty
reduction and the promotion of                     The internationally agreed principles
equitable and sustainable development.             on development effectiveness are to
                                                   be applied in Sweden’s development
Sweden’s development cooperation                   cooperation with South Sudan and
must be economically, socially and                 adapted to the local context.
environmentally sustainable, and                   Ownership should be understood in
gender-equal. Development                          a broad, inclusive perspective which,
cooperation is based on a holistic                 in addition to state actors, includes
approach to the challenges, needs and              relevant parts of civil society. Primary

6   Strategy for Sweden’s development cooperation with South Sudan

responsibility for a country’s                with further opportunities to
development lies with its government          contribute to sustainable peace and
and other national actors. However,           more inclusive societies, based on
South Sudan’s current regime cannot           Security Council resolutions 1325
claim to represent the population,            and 2250 and subsequent resolutions.
which is why it should only to a limited      Activities will combat discrimination
extent be considered a legitimate             and violence against women and girls,
counterpart in development                    as well as destructive gender norms and
cooperation.                                  values that fuel the conflict.

Sweden’s development cooperation              To strengthen the population’s
with South Sudan will help create             resilience against conflict, crises
peaceful and inclusive societies at local     and disasters, Sweden will contribute
and national level. Activities will           to increasing access to basic public
contribute to improving the situation         services, focusing on health care and
for people subjected to violence and to       education. Development cooperation
strengthening the protection of women         can also support multi-sectoral
and children. Experience shows that           initiatives, not least in situations where
preventive and peacebuilding activities       there are links to humanitarian aid.
in local communities can help reduce          The focus of activities should be at
inequalities, social exclusion and other      local level to directly address the
causes of conflict, and counter the           needs of vulnerable people. Through
escalation of violence at national level.     increasing access to basic public
Development cooperation will                  services, development cooperation can
strengthen civil society and support          contribute over time to strengthening
free and independent media, not least         cohesion in society, thus improving the
to promote inclusive peace processes,         conditions for sustainable peace.
community building and accountability.        Sweden will particularly prioritise
Sweden will give special priority to          sexual and reproductive health and
providing women and young people              rights efforts, not least to combat the

                             Strategy for Sweden’s development cooperation with South Sudan   7

high rate of maternal mortality and                development cooperation with South
widespread sexual and gender-based                 Sudan should be international and
violence. Sweden will contribute to                multilateral organisations, and civil
equitable, inclusive, high-quality                 society organisations. Cooperation with
education for girls and boys, women                public administration may be carried
and men, paying particular attention               out to a limited extent as a complement
to marginalised and vulnerable groups.             to work with other actors. The chances
Activities should emphasise lifelong               of success are greatest when change
learning to enhance the ability of                 agents at national and local level are
children, young people and adults to               included and strengthened.
support themselves, and strengthen                 Development cooperation will support
their resilience and confidence in                 reform-oriented forces that seek
society. Development cooperation                   peaceful and sustainable social
will strengthen the conditions for                 solutions, promote greater respect for,
sustainable livelihoods and meaningful             and protection of, human rights,
employment for women and men living                democracy and the rule of law, and
in insecurity, including internally                support increased gender equality.
displaced persons. Activities should
help strengthen agriculture to improve             Great importance should be attached
food security and create employment.               to following developments in South
It is important that agriculture is                Sudan and the surrounding region.
sustainable in the long term. Including            Because the situation in South Sudan
environmental and climate change                   is changeable and complex, a level of
measures in activities will improve                preparedness must be maintained to
conditions for sustainable livelihoods.            flexibly and appropriately adapt
                                                   activities based on new conditions.
The focus of activities and the specific           Preparedness must also be maintained
context will govern the choice of                  to be able to carry out strategic
partners and forms of cooperation.                 activities in critical phases.
The main partners for Sweden’s

8   Strategy for Sweden’s development cooperation with South Sudan

Sweden will promote coherent and             humanitarian aid to South Sudanese
effective development and donor              refugees in the region. Support via
coordination in South Sudan, including       multilateral organisations should be
by leading or taking part in relevant        compatible with Sweden’s overarching
coordination groups. Sweden should           priorities and approaches in
also play an active role in EU aid           cooperation with multilateral
coordination and possible joint              organisations. Sweden’s support,
programming. The Swedish                     including through multilateral
International Development                    organisations, should form a basis
Cooperation Agency (Sida) will help          for dialogue. Sida will ensure that
ensure improved collaboration between        an integrated approach is taken to
actors in long-term development              Sweden’s overall support to South
cooperation and humanitarian actors,         Sudan and to the surrounding region.
in line with the New Way of Working
adopted by the UN and the donor              This strategy will be followed up
community, and examine the possibility       according to the principles and
of collaborating with peacebuilding          processes set out in the Government’s
operations.                                  guidelines for strategies in Swedish
                                             development cooperation and
Synergies must be harnessed between          humanitarian aid.
the different areas of the strategy and
with activities within the framework
of other strategies, such as relevant
bilateral strategies for South Sudan’s
neighbouring countries, the strategy for
sustainable peace, the regional strategy
for sub-Saharan Africa, the regional
strategy for sexual and reproductive
health and rights, and the strategy
for humanitarian aid, including the

                            Strategy for Sweden’s development cooperation with South Sudan   9

Ministry for Foreign Affairs
103 33 Stockholm
government.se

12   Strategy for Sweden’s development cooperation with South Sudan