Alice Robinson, Naomi Pendle and Peter Hakim Justin

This paper examines the actions of and interactions between local government authorities, national NGOs and civil society organisations in South Sudan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on almost 100 interviews conducted between November 2020 and February 2021, our paper explores dynamics of collaboration and competition between and across South Sudanese NGOs and local authorities. It also examines trust in different actors in relation to healthcare messaging and provision, and compares the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic to previous epidemics in different parts of South Sudan.

In South Sudan, the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a vacuum in local government. Extended delays in the implementation of the 2018 national peace agreement meant that the appointment of key actors, including state governors and commissioners, was delayed until early 2021, leaving a vacuum in these official appointments throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Local authorities have not been absent, but their involvement has been complex, shifting and fragmented. Meanwhile, NGOs - local, national and transnational - have sought to respond to the pandemic, while navigating these shifting local government structures. Many describe their response to the pandemic as requiring, to some degree, ‘stepping in’ for the state; yet at the same time, they depend to a certain degree on the permission and cooperation of local authorities to operate.

This research focuses particularly on the responses of South Sudanese NGOs to the pandemic, the responses of local government actors, and the interaction between them. Research questions examined how local and national NGOs and community-based organisations have been responding to COVID-19, and how and why this varied across organisations and locations; how the pandemic affected their pre-existing work and priorities, as well as their relationships and working practices; and how the pandemic interacted with and exacerbated the risks and challenges they face in their work. We also considered how South Sudanese NGOs have worked with local government and other local authorities in their response to COVID-19 and how their responses were shaped by sub-national governance structures. The research also explored how local governments and other local authorities themselves have responded to COVID-19, how this has been affected by recent political dynamics, and what forms of power and logics of authority are entrenched through their responses.

The research findings highlight the various ways in which local, community-based associations in South Sudan have been active in responding to the pandemic and its social and economic effects, often without any external funding. Many national NGOs, too, have adapted existing programming or implemented new activities in response to the pandemic, engaging both in COVID-19 prevention measures and in responses to its economic repercussions. These responses vary across different locations and types of organisation, ranging from local women’s associations engaging in awareness raising and mask-making with no external funding, to some of the largest national NGOs engaging in the construction and rehabilitation of hand washing stations, isolation facilities and other activities with funding from international donors. Yet, their responses to COVID-19 have been complicated and curtailed by the vacuum in local government and by precarious and declining funding, as well as by travel restrictions and other measures imposed to prevent the spread of the virus.

For a small number organisations, responding to the pandemic allowed them to increase their exposure and profile, leading to connections with new donors. Yet, despite cautious optimism early in the pandemic that restrictions on international travel would help advance the ‘localisation agenda’ in humanitarian action, the reality for most South Sudanese NGOs has been one of lost or delayed funding, staff cuts and struggles to stay afloat. The pandemic has also, in various ways, affected relationships between NGO staff and project participants, with face-to-face contact restricted and increased suspicion towards aid workers.

The paper draws on data collected during an FCDO-funded study conducted between November 2020 and February 2021. In total, 98 interviews were conducted across six locations in South Sudan, with local, national and international NGO staff and a range of local authorities. It also builds on each of our previous and ongoing research focusing on South Sudanese NGOs, local authority and local government.