Emergency food and nutrition security support to disadvantaged IDPs, returnees and most vulnerable host community households in Ayat Center, Ayat East and Ayat West Payams of  Aweil West County , NBeG State of South Sudan The emergency food and nutrition security project is a dual sub-sector (fisheries and farming) response which will run for 5 months from March – July 2017. Main goal of the project is “to provide immediate availability/access to food by supporting the livelihoods of ‘food and nutrition insecure households of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable IDPs, returnees and host communities” in three payams(Ayat Centre, Ayat East and  Ayat West) in Aweil West of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state in South Sudan. The project directly targets 12,000 vulnerable beneficiaries of primarily IDPs (40%), returnees (10%) and host community (50%). The beneficiaries will be targeted basing on context and the results of the needs assessments undertaken by SPEDP and other agencies in this states. 
The main objectives of the intervention are to: 
1. Alleviate the immediate short-term food insecurity outcomes of the target households.
2. To contribute to restoring livelihoods of at-risk food insecure populations to sustainably produce and access food.
The project will focus mainly on the following activities: 1) provision of production inputs (vegetable seeds and fishing gears) 2) provision of basic agronomic training and extension support, through community-based extension workers 3) SPEDP will also do MampE, reporting and coordination with relevant stakeholders to effect complementarity, maximize synergies and contribute to project sustainability. 
In Northern Bahr el Ghazal, results based on WHO classification show a ‘Serious’ level of acute malnutrition in Aweil Center, with a GAM prevalence of 14.4 percent (95% C.I.: 11.2-18.2) and a ‘Critical’ level in Aweil West with a GAM prevalence of 17.1 percent (95% C.I.: 11.2-18.2). These results indicate a worsening nutrition situation, especially in Aweil West where typical levels of acute malnutrition during the October-December period are ‘Serious’ (GAM prevalence 10-15 percent) according to FEWSNET SS Food Security Outlook Dec,2016-Jan, 2017. In Aweil, the price of sorghum increased 28 percent over the same time period, also due to erratic trade flows and below-average local harvests. Persistently high food prices are reducing the purchasing capacity of households throughout South Sudan and are significantly impacting poor households in Aweil West.
Severe levels of food insecurity are expected to persist in Northern Bahr el Ghazal. Due to the expectation of below average local harvests and volatile trade through Wau, the supply of food in Aweil West and East of Northern Bahr el Ghazal is likely to remain significantly lower than normal. With limited household stocks, most poor households are expected to be even more dependent than usual on markets to access food, but extremely high prices are preventing households from accessing sufficient food to meet their basic needs. Without continued humanitarian assistance, some poor households could exhaust their capacity to cope and be in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) during the outlook period (FEWSNET South Sudan Food Security Outlook through May 2017) For the above reasons, target communities have prioritized the need for provision of inputs for food production and fishing gears. SPEDP will prefinance the project before disbursement of funds.