Across the nexus – a balancing act for national NGOs in South Sudan
This is the third chapter in a forthcoming e-book, entitled 'The Triple Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexus: In Context and Everyday Perspective', edited by Marina Ferrero Baselga and Rodrigo Mena. Chapters will serialised on Global Policy over the coming months.
In this chapter, I share key insights from my PhD research on how South Sudanese national NGOs (NNGOs) engage with the internationally driven humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus approach. My goal for this research was to understand what drives organizations to engage with the HDP nexus and how this impacts their relationships with donors including international agencies, and most importantly, the communities they support. Over 2021 and 2022, I conducted 86 interviews primarily with representatives from NNGOs and explored a wide range of literature and studies related to the topic.
This chapter breaks down three main findings from my research, each offering a unique look at why and how NNGOs engage with the HDP nexus. These center around the role of the government in aid actions; the power of international actors over the aid sector; and the needs of the communities.
First, I’ll set the scene with a brief overview of the context of the HDP nexus in South Sudan. Then, I’ll dive into the three main findings and reflect on the implications for internationally-led aid agendas.
Introduction to the humanitarian, development, and peace nexus
The 2016 World Humanitarian Summit revived the push for improved collaboration among humanitarian, development, and peace actors, through the concept of a "new way of working." This approach gained significant support, with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in 2019 calling for greater coherence between humanitarian, development, and peace (HDP) actions creating the HDP nexus approach to aid. The OECD-DAC recommendation highlighted the need to reduce vulnerabilities and address the root causes of conflict by leveraging the strengths of each sector to create a more holistic response, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected areas. This drive toward improving aid effectiveness remains a priority, including in South Sudan.
The HDP nexus in South Sudan
Efforts to enhance coordination in South Sudan date back to at least Operation Lifeline Sudan, which began in 1996. Led by the United Nations (UN), the initiative aimed to provide medical, agricultural, and emergency aid during the Sudanese civil war (1983–2005), including focusing on coordinating efforts among NGOs, especially international ones.
Since gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan has faced ongoing conflicts and instability. By December 2019, it had experienced nine ceasefires and four peace agreements. The current peace framework, the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), was signed in 2018. However, the country continues to face significant challenges including the civil war in neighboring Sudan which has further strained South Sudan, pushing an estimated 640,000 people, including both South Sudanese and Sudanese, into the country, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.
The 2021-2024 Revised National Development Strategy for South Sudan (R-NDS), developed by the South Sudanese government and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), adopts a specific HDP nexus approach to aid initiatives. This strategy emphasizes the interconnected nature of peace, development, and humanitarian challenges and calls for an integrated response.
In addition to the R-NDS, many international agencies, donors, and organizations are promoting HDP nexus approaches in South Sudan. These efforts include the work of UN agencies, Oxfam South Sudan, Caritas Switzerland, World Vision and Nonviolence Peaceforce to name a few. However, the implementation of HDP nexus initiatives depends on several factors including the role of the government, international actors and the needs of the communities.
The government’s role in aid delivery
The first important finding from my research on the realities of NNGOs in South Sudan relates to the role of the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) itself. The GoSS is a challenging partner, showing limited commitment to long-term change and reliable service delivery. This creates a tough landscape for NNGOs, who have to navigate government relationships just to operate, no matter what approach they adopt.
On a national level, the GoSS does engage with international actors to shape the overall aid agenda, including the HDP nexus. But it rarely provides consistent financial or staff support initiatives for the long-term impact they’re purportedly aiming for – instead, they rely on international donors to ensure aid commitments are achieved.
At the state and local levels, things play out a bit differently. Often, a specific ministry is assigned as the “project partner” by the donor, meaning NNGOs are expected to work closely with designated ministry officials. This can lead to positive working relationships, especially when line ministries share similar goals for specific projects. However, with the HDP nexus approach, which involves humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding elements, collaboration can get a lot more complex. Instead of dealing with just one or two ministries, a single project may require coordination across three or more, each of which may expect some form of incentive to be fully on board.
For NNGOs, this multiplies the layers of negotiation and complexity, making what’s already a challenging environment even more demanding.
The power of international actors
My second key finding focuses on the power that international actors have over which organizations receive funding and how funding is used. Even though NNGOs recognize the value and necessity of multi-sectoral approaches, many of them feel that the aid sector is still driven by international funding, actions and actors. NNGOs feel that they are the ones struggling the most to secure resources which affects their ability to formally or informally use a HDP nexus approach in project implementation.
When talking to NNGOs about the HDP nexus, a clear theme emerged which was that, regardless of an organization’s knowledge of the HDP nexus, their work was largely guided by a need to financially sustain their organization. This led NNGOs to shift focus readily from emergency relief to development to peacebuilding as the international-led project dictated. The majority of NNGOs were fully on board with taking on work that goes beyond their core mission if it brings in funding. Some NNGOs have such broad mandates that they can take on almost any type of service delivery work if it helps to keep them going.
For example, one organization that was registered in 2021 had the vision to “transform society with positive living and fear of God.”[1] One of the staff of this organization explained that they worked in trauma healing, sustainability livelihoods, social development, protection, health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), environmental protection and peacebuilding.[2] A South Sudanese who worked for an INGO described this type of expansive approach as a survival mechanism where NNGOs would take any project funding because they lacked the power to push back against what was being offered. “[I]t is the lack of power... because…the biggest source [of funding] for national NGOs…is the international NGOs [which]… comes with different agendas.”[3] Another South Sudanese working for a research organization, stated something similar, “[T]he donors they have their own views, they come with their own program ideas. And the funding… is based on what the donor is interested in… [T]his leads to… survival [mode for NNGOs]. At the same time, the work of humanitarian[s] [remains at the] stage of…responding to emergency again and again, but not a sustainable response or long-term investment… [T]his is a big problem.”[4]
This survival strategy is not dissimilar from what international actors do—they also shift focus based on donor priorities. What is different is that for NNGO staff, there are fewer job options if an organization fails so the pressure is greater. When it comes to the HDP nexus approach, this means that most NNGOs, out of necessity, already work across both short- and long-term goals, whether they label it “HDP” or not. They’re used to juggling emergency relief, development, and peacebuilding based on what’s needed and what funding is available.
Meeting the needs of communities
A key finding from this research highlights how NNGOs prioritize meeting the needs of communities, regardless of how aid organizations categorize those needs. Staff members described their work as a constant process of negotiating and navigating everyday power dynamics. Many NNGOs felt both a strong sense of responsibility and pressure from the communities they serve, especially since many staff members are from the same region as the people they assist. This close connection influences how they approach and address local needs.
Interviews revealed an underlying power dynamic, showing that NNGOs do hold some influence within communities due to their role and intentions in promoting community development. However, this influence varies depending on the organization's focus area, the scale of its projects, and the size of its financial resources.
Furthermore, one interviewee expressed that it was important to meet the full spectrum of community needs, from immediate relief to long-term support, including income-generating opportunities and that organizations should work to “empower [community members] in all aspects of life.”[5]
While international organizations and individual actors have differing views on how the HDP nexus components interact (or do not), most interviewees working for NNGOs do not see any tension between the HDP components; they are all essential to a community’s development. NNGOs are engaging with HDP nexus approaches, not necessarily because they are mandates or priorities on the international agenda. They engage informally in some cases out of the necessity to deliver other activities and formally when an international project uses the approach. In this way, they demonstrate their pragmatism and power to work across sectors to deliver their activities to communities sometimes irrespective of the international focus.
Discussions with staff of NNGOs illustrated that organizations are navigating multiple realities within communities using different components of the HDP nexus regardless of whether they had specific funding for them or not. NNGOs highlighted the importance of fluidity and adaptability in developing projects and implementing activities even outside of their formal mandate.
Reflections
I continue to reflect on my research and what it means for aid in South Sudan and more broadly globally. My research shows the paramount importance of successfully navigating relationships with the government, international actors and the communities themselves in order for NNGOs in South Sudan to effectively support communities to move from short-term relief to long-term change.
When it comes to the government, NNGOs walk a fine line. They must follow government requirements and demands while sticking to their own and their donors’ policies and practices. It’s a balancing act that highlights the precariousness of the aid sector in South Sudan.
With international actors, NNGOs have to stay adaptable and read between the lines as new rules, policies, and priorities emerge. Managing these outside demands with community needs and their own organizational stability is a constant challenge, but it’s key to keeping the support and funding coming in.
In terms of community relationships, NNGOs must be flexible enough to address a range of needs across the HDP spectrum or draw on others who can support gaps. This is how they build and maintain trust, staying legitimate in the eyes of the community, even when funding is limited to specific projects.
These findings highlight just how intricate the reality is for NNGOs where they have to juggle multiple relationships and adapt constantly to stay effective and relevant in a very demanding environment. Internationally led initiatives, such as the HDP nexus, need to take into account the very specific perspectives of NNGOs when advocating for its adoption in order to ensure its ability to better support the evolving needs of communities.
