Provision of ES/NFI support and resilience building to IDPs, Returnees and Vulnerable Host community in Upper Nile State The purpose of this project is to provide timely and critical lifesaving ES/NFIs as well as building resilience through cash based programming to 9,600 (6,121 females and 3479 Males) conflict affected IDPs, returnees and most vulnerable host communities in Panyikang, Maiwut, and Nassir of Upper Nile State. The target population are based in Upper Nile counties that have experienced a cycle of violence that has made it difficult to access for a long time. The same conflict has displaced many of the target population to either neigbouring settlement areas, POCs or neighbouring countries such as Ethiopia and Sudan and are now returning to settle back in their original homes and are in need of immediate ES/NFI support and or resilience support. SSUDA will target Panyikang and Maiwut with in-kind support will targeting Nasir with CBI. The host communities in these areas are getting it hard to cope with the number of returnees who are in need of their support and care with the little resources that they have. SSUDA proposes to intervene in three areas or objectives: save lives by providing timely and integrated multi-sector assistance and services to reduce acute needs among the most vulnerable women, men, girls and boys Protect vulnerable women, men, girls and boys through provision of specialized and integrated services and support at-risk communities to promote and sustain their resilience to recurrent shocks. This will be done through: providing access to life saving NFIs, providing access to emergency shelter using in-kind support as well as cash based program. With this piloted CBI, SSUDA will focus largely on increasing cash based projects based on cash feasibility assessment report currently being done in Nasir and Ulang to assess the feability for CBI including assessing active markets and advising on cash modalities to be used. Apart from this, SSUDA will mean-stream protection including GBV and HLP, consultations with the affected populations, working closely with other clusters, and other SSUDA implemented projects, monitoring of activities, and provision of skills, as well as providing messages of protection and health. SSUDA will focus on community and or beneficiary involvement in at all stages of CBI project life cycle for purposes of empowerment and participatory decision making. SSUDA responses will have a strong focus on protection mainstreaming, especially GBV, child protection and accountability to affected populations. SSUDA’s protection officer will be part of the well-established EPR team. This will strengthen the involvement with the affected communities (particularly women and girls) and their feedback will be incorporated into the project cycle. Skills training will bring new solutions for increased resilience and positive coping mechanisms. SSUDA has experience in working in Upper Nile State and is implementing other projects such as education, communication for development, child protection, food security among others in the region that will help in providing not only synergy to this project but also information and critical understanding of the context and dynamics of the counties, knowledge of the local leadership and prospected beneficiaries, such as a 3-year EU funded Pro-Act resilience project for food security, livelihoods and WASH in Fashoda, Malakal, and Manyo, Education project in Panyikang and Manyo, Communication for Development (C4D) project in Nasir, Panyikang, Longochuk, and Maiwut, and Child Protection in Ulang both supported by UNICEF. SSUDA is the ES/NFI state co-focal point in Upper Nile with an office in Malakal, and therefore about 6% of the project costs will go into overhead costs of SSUDA to improve its presence in the State and region.