Community-led flood preparedness and anticipatory action in South Sudan

Partner (s): UNHCR, WFP, FAO and humanitarian partners

Type of Organization: Non-governmental organizations

Country of Operation: South Sudan

Climate Adaptation Sector Thematic Area: Community-Based, Participatory Climate Action

Activities:

As the risk of climate events continues to increase, community-led initiatives in South Sudan are leading action to address climate risks using community coordination mechanisms with dedicated focus on area-specific needs to identify, engage and coordinate arrangements for flood preparedness and anticipatory action. Five area-based task forces are taking the lead in the overall coordination of anticipatory actions to reinforce community preparedness and resilience to flooding events in collaboration with other humanitarian actors.

The community-led interventions on flood preparedness activities strive to strengthen community capacity to prepare and anticipate appropriate action in a coordinated way towards managing flooding events through community-led, area-based management teams for timely and effective anticipatory action. Five task teams with area-specific focus were set up to lead community interventions. The activities undertaken are identified in consultation with the member of the community to solve area-specific needs and can include both structural measures such as construction and improvement of dykes and drainage channels along the critical breakaway points on the river and within the community and non-structural measures including early warning information dissemination.

The community actions included:

• The planning and identification of actions that could reduce the severity of the flood impact on the local population and their assets;
• Collaboration towards fundraising for both material and financial resources and volunteer labor works;
• Activation of a flood preparedness coordination forum and active communication among stakeholders regarding the risk of flooding;
• Dissemination of information on the rainfall and flood forecast on the Baro-Akobo-Sobat River sub-catchment shared form the ENTRO Nile Basin initiative; and
• Set up and support two early warning networks upstream of river Yabus points in Shata and Gismalla villages to monitor and timely share information on the flooding risk and runoff-triggered flooding to the downstream communities so they can effectively prepare and enhance community adaptation capacity including advisory information sharing to the communities to move to high ground and flood safety awareness to the community.

Maban Refugee camps host over 180,000 refugees in four refugee camps (Doro, Gendrassa, Kaya and Gendrassa) and over 70,000 members of the host community. Community contributions and humanitarian partners include UNHCR, WFP, FAO and humanitarian partners. Other stakeholders and partners include members of the forcibly displaced and host community members, including youth, men and women, humanitarian agencies, local authorities and traditional leaders. Community members are at the centre of the implementation of the activities and volunteer their time and resources. The local authorities provide community leadership and issue permissions for land access and earth material utilization.

There are a number of structural activities that have been completed. These include a 1.7 km of embarkment (dykes) along the seasonal stream on the flood breakout points were completed, and a total of 118m of culvert rings were installed on 8 flood- prone road sections on community roads. A total of 105 (66 Female 39 Male) members participated in the excavation of drainage improvement channels in key sections around camp roads and households and a total of 1.85 km of drainage channels have been dug using community-led actions.

There were also a number of non- structural activities completed, including the establishment of five community-led, area-based task force groups to coordinate activities and also raise community awareness and information sharing on flood risks and hazards (these include host community task team (35 members), Doro refugee camp task team (24 members), Batil refugee camp task team (18 members), the Gendrassa refugee camp task team (19 members), and Kaya refugee camp task team (20 members)). Tools include 10,000 empty bags, 150 hoes, 301 spades 16 pickaxes, 4 pickaxe handles, 31 shovels with Hand, 295 crowbars and 500 hammers have been made available to support community-led activities across the refuge and host community locations with the support of humanitarian partners. The project has also distributed tree seedlings to the community to engage in reforestation/ afforestation programmes to restore the vegetation cover within the camps. In addition, Disaster Risk Reduction Committees have been set up within the refugee camps to raise awareness on flooding preparedness and information sharing.

Partners completed early prepositioning of medical supplies at multiple health facilities across the camp. Established community-led early warning systems to coordinate efforts on information sharing in Gismalla, Sheta and across the refugee camps. A mobile phone and airtime have been provided for each location for communication. The project ensures the safety of the most vulnerable members of the community and the participation of both forcibly displaced persons and members of the host community. These include women, men, youths, the elderly, and persons with disabilities with over 50% female participation.

The project presents an opportunity for strengthening community governance and accountability for actions that directly address climate risks. Its sets up a whole community, cost-effective and collaborative model, that can be replicated in other locations with full participation of local population taking responsibility and accountability for their role in addressing climate challenges. It presents opportunities for scale-up of the structural measures and early warning systems to mitigate or prevent flooding, for human and ecosystem safety against floods and climate hazards.

Adaptation Good Practices:

• Involvement of community members in identifying activities to be undertaken ensures that the activities solve area-specific needs;
• Having community members at the centre of the implementation of the activities and to volunteer their time and resources leads to higher level of ownership and acceptance of intervention activities;
• Engaging local authorities provide community leadership and issue permissions for land access and earth material utilization critical for project activities;

Further information:
For more information: https://www.unhcr.org