Radio Miraya
2672: MBS: WFP’s Country Director, Mary Ellen McGroarty
Good morning, this is where the nation's biggest conversations begin every morning. My name is Irene LaSou, and as we continue with the nation's big conversations, well, the World Food Programme hosted the Irish Minister for Agriculture and Marines, Mr. Charlie. And during his visit, he spent some time interacting with farmers and communities in Alek in what upstate, and met with government officials in Juba. Now we are joined by WP's country director, Mary Ellen, to hear more about the importance of this visit. Good morning. And thank you so much for joining us. Good morning, Irene. Great. So could you just provide us with some insights into the recent visit by the Irish Minister of Agriculture? Yeah, thank you. I was delighted to be able to host the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine over the weekend, which was St. Patrick's Day weekend, which is a day when we celebrate all that's Irish. Ireland is a very strong and generous partner of the World Food Programme across the globe, both on the humanitarian side and on the development side. And this particular ministry in Ireland holds a pain on Ireland's strategic relationship with the World Food Programme and Ireland's strategic relationship with FAO. So this visit was an opportunity, the first by a cabinet minister from Ireland to come to South Sudan, to look at the work that we're doing around resilience and climate change and helping communities to be able to increase food production so that they can create a pathway for themselves out of food insecurity, projects that are particularly important in a country like South Sudan, where we have 7.1 million people in acute food insecurity. I guess the cherry on the top was that during his visit, I mean he also visited Kenya, Ethiopia, along with South Sudan, he announced a 40% increase in Ireland's funding to the World Food Programme for these particular types of projects. Right. So with your interactions, what are some of the key aspects of, I mean, what did you gather from the minister's thoughts on the projects and overall situation in South Sudan? I mean, he left understanding how difficult the situation is in South Sudan, particularly the food insecurity crisis as a country grapples with the impact of climate change, the legacy of conflict, but also currently the economic crisis, understands the scale of needs. But he also left with a great appreciation that there's huge hope, there's huge potential in South Sudan and we need to all need to work together to really harness that potential. And you know, to get people out from the capital cities and he brought some of his, his team from the Ministry of Agriculture, to understand the work we're doing. It's very important. They are the decision makers and for them to see first hand and also to interact with the communities, you know, on Sunday when we were in Al-Aqi, he had the chance to talk to many of the farmers that we work with, the benefit of what we're doing, you know, things like being able to harness water resources for them throughout the year to be able to do dry season crops so they don't just depend on the rainy season. So he really did leave with a sense of, yes, there's great hope, great potential that we just need to harness in South Sudan. Right. And the 40% increment in funding towards WFP, how will that be helping activities in WFP? Yeah, that's what that money will go towards, what we call our changing lives portfolio. As you know, we do a lot of work on the humanitarian side saving lives. This funding is particularly important so we can run that parallel approach. So while we meet immediate hunger needs, we can also help households and communities to create a pathway to food security. So that will go towards these resilience types projects that we're doing in South Sudan, helping communities to adapt to climate change, you know, plant crops that are resistant to drought, plant crops that are more appropriate for flood plains, like rice, like cassava and the dried, help them also with managing water resources. Right. And just to shift gears away from the Minister's visit, can you just give us an update on the current humanitarian situation? Yeah. Yeah. We're a fast approaching the lean season, you know, 7.1 million people acutely food insecure. You also have, you know, the impact of the war in Sudan is also having a devastating impact. You know, we've reached over 600,000 people have fled to South Sudan from the war in Sudan and they've lost everything. They also need support. And then currently at the moment, we're seeing a sharp increase in food prices and the depreciation of the currency. So it's a very, very, very difficult time for South Sudanese people. And of course, now we have the heat wave over these two weeks, but also we'll have an impact on agriculture. It will have an impact on livestock. But we're all, you know, as a humanitarian assistance system doing our best to try and respond. Right. And how many people have you been able to reach out with much needed assistance? Yeah, this year we're planning to reach over 4 million people. We've already started our lean season distributions in those areas that are really on the verge of what we call IPC-5, so very difficult situations. We're currently, you know, racing ahead of the rainy season due to our pre-possessioning, as you know, many parts of the country that are highly food insecure also need their food pre-possession before the rains because they become cut off because of the impact of the rains. Right. And which areas are these? Well, I mean, you talk about Northern Zhongli, you talk about Pibor, these places, you know, trying to get also up towards Maban, where the refugees are, also to get food resources up there. Right. Thank you so much for making our time to speak to us and what is your last remark? Yeah, I just want to, you know, you know, I mean, visits like the Irish Minister over the weekend are important because it's the incredible support and generosity of our international resource partners, the donors that really enable and power our work here in South Sudan. So for me, this morning, a big shout out to all our donor partners who enable our work. Right. Mary Ellen, thank you so much for your time.