In January 2018, an estimated 48% of the population remaining within South Sudan was classified as severely food insecure (over 5 million individuals) under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). To provide humanitarians in South Sudan with a better understanding of Famine risk in South Sudan, REACH gathered information on recent and historical experiences of severe hunger, “famine,” and the shocks that cause these circumstances, as told by South Sudanese. Using a qualitative and exploratory approach, 36 FGDs were conducted, yielding indicative findings for 22 counties across all regions of South Sudan.
Across South Sudan, numerous populations across different livelihood zones have experienced Famine within one or two generations, most recently in Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Greater Upper Nile. The risk of Famine within the current crisis can be better understood by considering how affected communities experienced and responded to the processes that led to Famine and the experience of Famine once it began. Respondents consistently reported that unusually severe natural shocks, such as flooding or a large – scale outbreak of crop pests, were the proximate cause of historical Famines in assessed areas. However, these events followed or happened alongside extended periods of asset loss during armed conflict, with vulnerability to natural shocks, human disease outbreaks, market shocks, and other shocks reportedly increasing as livelihoods were eroded. In many assessed areas, communities reportedly shifted reliance from agriculture to livestock, wild foods, and kinship and social support networks in widely varying ways to bridge growing gaps in food consumption during periods of severe. While these periods were commonly noted by respondents from 1980 to the present, a collapse into Famine only occurred when continued shocks, individually and in combination, further eroded or suddenly removed these food sources and blocked other ways of coping with food insecurity.