RTL Campaign - improving food security in Warrap and Unity South Sudan has been facing unprecedented multi-dimensional nature of crises for many years. In 2020, South Sudan was severely affected by conflict (national, intra/inter communal in nature), food insecurity (famine and economic depletion), public health crises (cholera outbreak and emergency of covid-19 pandemic), bad governance (political crises with the governorates of the states) and natural disasters (flash floods). Torrential rains in 2020 led to severe flooding in large areas of South Sudan, and OCHA estimates that more than 900,000 people have been affected (Update #3, 5 November 2020). The population, who are primarily dependent on small-scale farming, has seen their livelihoods been flushed away: granary stores are damaged, fields are destroyed and livestock have drowned in large numbers. Alarmingly, 53% of the flood-affected counties were already in IPC 3 (critical) or IPC 4 (emergency) before the floods hit these areas (IPC Acute Food Insecurity & Malnutrition Assessment distributed through WFP, August 2020). This has been compounded with desert locust swarms, COVID-19 and recent spike in commodity prices mid-2020. According to the HNO 2021 people’s physical and mental wellbeing, living standards and coping mechanisms are expected to further deteriorate in 2021. Some 8.3 million people in South Sudan are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2021. These include 8 million South Sudanese women, men, girls and boys and 310,000 refugees and asylum seekers. South Sudan is also ranked the most vulnerable country to COVID-19 in Africa and food security is a major concern in the country. According to the IPC Acute Food Insecurity analysis conducted from October 26th to November 16th, 2020 in South Sudan, 48% of the population will be in IPC3 or worse from December 2020 to March 2021 and 60% (7.2M) will be in IPC3 or worse as from April 2021. 

In Warrap State, sub-national violence continues to drive humanitarian needs in 2021, which comes on top of the floods that affected large parts of the State in 2020; over 50% of the population is in need of assistance. Tonj East County is located 100km from Tonj Town, and has a total population of 179.000 (61% PIN). Tonj East is one of the counties projected to be in IPC phase 5 (IPC report Dec 2020).
According to the HNO 2021, the needs of IDPs living in Unity State are amongst those who have seen the largest increase in needs in 2020, and at the same time Unity state remains a major hotspot of conflict related sexual violence. The counties Guit and Rubkona counties are especially hit by the crises. Rubkona has a total population of 333.400 (60% PIN), and Guit has 68.200 inhabitants (65% PIN) (HNO 2021). Between April and January of 2019, inter-communal violence occurred in Rubkona, leading to the displacement thousands of civilians, but some return movements have been taking place since (HNO 2020). The HNO 2020 already indicated that both counties have amongst the highest humanitarian needs, and the latest IPC report (Dec 2020) indicated both countries to be amongst those with the most severe acute food insecurity conditions. The projection for the current lean season (April-July) is that Rubkona will remain at IPC4, while Guit is predicted to be at IPC3. 
More than 70% of the population are women and children, who are already extremely vulnerable because of the high levels of food insecurity to IPC4 and worse. The number of vulnerable people is likely to increase as the rainy season is starting again and people have not yet been able to recover, further worsening people’s food insecurity. The unprecedented floods and continued violence is affecting children disproportionately. 
3. NEEDS ANALYSIS (max. 0.5 page)
Populations in Guit, Rubkona and Tonj East were already vulnerable due to multiple shocks, amongst which violence, floods and Covid-19, while entering into the lean season (April-July). Cordaid’s assessment in Guit and Rubkona revealed that the assessed HHs demonstrate multiple and high levels of vulnerabilities: more than 50% of the population is female, and over 60% are children, more than three-quarters of the HH is headed by a female, with an average HH size of more than 10 people. 70% of the assessed HHs in Rubkona and 81% in Guit is facing moderate hunger (Hunger Scale), most people live off what they produce at home; people in Rubkona mostly live of agriculture (43%) and livestock (50%) and in Guit this is 96% and 69% respectively. In Rubkona more than half of the HH (53%) is using ‘emergency’ livelihood coping strategies (LCS) and in Guit is this even higher, 69% of the HH is making use of emergency strategies, such as selling one’s land, also affecting future productivity and more difficult to reverse or more dramatic in nature. The high level of food insecurity is affecting PLW, elderly/ chronically ill and children under 5 disproportionately and may increase the risks on GBV for which there are no services available.
High WASH needs exist in both areas: over 90% do not have sufficient access to water for drinking, cooking and bathing, and around half of the population uses an unprotected source, and 50% or more than to travel more than 30min to fetch water. 90% in Rubkona and 77% in Guit practice open defecation, increasing protection risks for women and girls as they have no safe place to defecate. There is also the need for hygiene promotion. The lack of safe water sources/ use of treated water and ODF is a public health risk, affecting the most vulnerable including PLW, children under the age 5, and elderly/ ill people as they are more susceptible to waterborne diseases. Even more so with the currently high levels of acute food insecurity.
Health services are limited despite the fact that most people have access to a Health Facility (HF) at less than 2 hrs walk. The limited health services is affecting women, children and elderly/ ill people more as they are seeking health care more often. 

The population in Tonj East is facing as well high levels of food insecurity. In the beginning of 2020, conflict in the county was severely violent and affected almost the entire country according needs assessment done. Many houses were burnt down, properties and households belongings destroyed or looted, water points were destroyed and it resulted in displacements.  This aggravated the vulnerability of the already vulnerable population, and the Dec 2020 IPC report classified Tonj East as a facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC phase 5); the county was identified as a Priority 1 county at the beginning of 2021. Assessments and response of humanitarian actors was hampered due to renewed violence in February, resulting in more displacements. As limited partners are working in Tonj East, and needs are very high, Cordaid has started food distribution in Tonj in June 2021, which should be complemented with additional activities. Objective: To enable 9,000 vulnerable people in IPC4+ in South Sudan to meet their basic food needs and access WASH services, to reduce malnutrition. In consultation and coordination with UNOCHA, RRC, and WASH and FSL clusters, Cordaid will target the most vulnerable households, who are in IPC4+. Besides this, other criteria that will be considered include:  
•	Female headed households;
•	Child headed households;
•	Elderly headed households;
•	Households with persons with specific needs (PSN) including chronically ill, PWD, PLW;
•	Households with no basic items /or those who have lost most of their properties;
•	Households without income/livelihood opportunities