The civil conflict in South Sudan is now entering in its fourth year. Exacerbated by a severe economic crisis, it has resulted in the worst humanitarian situation since independence. The South Sudan Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) technical working group has estimated that at the height of the 2017 lean season almost 5.5 million people will be severely food insecure: this is one of the worst humanitarian crises that the international community has had to deal with.
In 2016, the World Food Programme (WFP) provided assistance to 4 million people in South Sudan. However, the increasing insecurity along the country’s backbone trade route – the so-called western corridor – has caused WFP to rely on expensive air drops on a scale that is not financially sustainable over the medium period.
Against this backdrop, the purpose of this report is to evaluate the feasibility of alternative ways of providing food security support through cash or vouchers – if markets are functional enough – in some areas of the country where the security situation is still acceptable, namely in Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBEG) and Warrap, both bordering Sudan.