Emergency Mobile Response to Protection Needs in Conflict Affected areas of South Sudan In response to the worsening humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, NP remains ready to engage in emergency frontline programming in underserved and well-known areas across the country where armed conflict and instability are putting civilians in danger. NP proposes a rapid mobile response to address the high protection risks and needs for life-saving experienced by communities in areas directly affected by conflict and displacement. The overarching aim is to alleviate the suffering and reduce the prevalence and impact of violence. The two key objectives are to 1) increase the safety and security of civilians at imminent risk of violence, including GBV, exploitation and neglect 2) strengthen the community capacity for protection and response to violence.
With protection threats intensifying in scale and scope, the approach to these mobile responses will have to be suited to the complexities at stake and adapt to the environment’s volatility. 
The project’s core components are:
- Rapid protection assessments: NP will conduct 6 protection assessments to identify major protection concerns and provide recommendations to the protection cluster and other agencies, with the overall goal of increasing the protection footprint across South Sudan as well as mainstreaming protection activities across the country’s humanitarian response. NP will provide context and protection updates to the Protection Cluster within three days of the start of the assessment. NP will share initial recommendations that impact the protection response or delivery of life-saving assistance with the Protection Cluster within one week of return. Within two weeks of returning from the field, NP will have submitted a general protection assessment report with recommendations for protection and other sectoral partners for response.
- Rapid response mission deployments: NP will conduct 3 deployments (of up to 8 weeks each) to fill gaps or provide surge capacity to support partners on the ground. These deployments will focus on responding to the most pressing protection concerns the Team encounters on the ground by conducting direct protection activities: protective accompaniment, proactive presence, patrols, and safe referrals. Wherever possible and with longer deployments of up to 8 weeks, NP will also engage in training and building the capacity of communities in early warning/early response, conflict prevention and mitigation. The intention behind this is to support the resilience, adaptive capacity and recovery of communities from conflict and insecurity. Wherever possible and appropriate, NP will support existing community-based protection mechanisms such as youth groups, women’s congregations and elderly’s councils. Capacity development of local structures and community members, including youth, is increasingly important at a time when fewer agencies are able to operate on the ground and directly implementing with a static presence. For instance, one way NP has been doing this in mobile response missions to Southern Unity, is by identifying community focal points in areas where services are sporadic or non-existent. These focal points are people who can easily liaise with the NGOs when they come for mobile missions or who have some background in the sector that allows them to help with screening and prioritizing vulnerable individuals.
The project will be grounded in Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP), an innovative, evidence-based methodology with a demonstrated track record of reducing violence against civilians all over the world, including in South Sudan. UCP combines a variety of strategies to create the social space and structures needed for people to transform their own conflicts and advocate for their security. 
Importantly, throughout the mobile response, NP will coordinate closely with the protection cluster and other agencies as a broader contribution to the overall protection of beneficiaries.