Radio Miraya
2774: NATIONWIDE: Conclusion of World Bank funded community resilience projects in South Sudan: Achievements and challenges.
(upbeat music) - Nationwide, we bring you latest current issues, discussions and information. Nationwide, I'm Radio Miriah. - Hello and welcome to Nationwide discussion, our on radio Miriah with me, Keir Breshedan. And today we are looking into the conclusion of three year projects that have been implemented by international partners and also overseen by the government in the country, that is in South Sudan. And these projects were for enhancing community resilience and local governments, governance projects. And of course these projects were implemented by UNOPS with the coordination with IOM, that is the international organization for migration. And the project was funded by the World Bank and it started, as I said earlier, three years ago, that is in 2020 and ending this year, 2024. It aim to improve access to basic infrastructure and strengthening community institutions in 20 selected counties of South Sudan. To explain the background and the aims, the achievements and challenges of these projects I have with me in the studio. Mr. Dominic Kat, representative of the World Bank Office in South Sudan, welcome Dominic Kat. - Thank you, thank you, thank you. - Yes, I'm Gabriel Shadar with you in the studio. And of course I have in the studio with me here representative from UNOPS, that is John Nerenda, senior project manager for UNOPS for enhancing community resilience and local governments' projects. - Welcome John to Nationwide. - Thank you, Gabriel. - And I have in the studio with me, Consuelo Tangara, also the project manager for IOM in the same area. Welcome. - Thank you Gabriel and good afternoon everyone. - Yes, nice to have you all. Let me start with representative of the World Bank on this workshop. What is a World Bank's objective of projects in South Sudan in the last three years, especially when it comes to the words of enhancing community resilience? - Thank you, Gabriel. Let me thank our listeners right now for the attention they're giving to us. The major objective of the project basically is to address the issue of basic services in South Sudan. As you know, when South Sudan emerged from two decades war, the major challenge that the people of South Sudan have been facing is lack of basic services because they were basically destroyed or the basic service delivery infrastructures. So the objective of the project is really to improve the access to basic infrastructure, but also to strengthen community institutions in 20 selected counties. That's the main objective of this project. - When you speak about the number of counties, 20 out of 79 counties, what is the justification for the selection of the 20 counties? - Basically, if you look at this project, this project actually emerged after the two civil wars. Most of these civil wars actually affected service delivery infrastructures and it affected some specific areas more than other areas. So these 20 selected counties are those ones compared to others really have more needs than the others. And basically this was meant to help people access basic services in much conflict affected areas. And that was the criteria used to select these counties, but also associated with that, we have also natural disasters, things like floods, drought, and so on. Those are criteria actually used to select these counties. Of course, there is the question of local ownership. I mean, the host government that is doing this, where you are doing this project, how much were they involved in identifying these areas? - Normally, World Bank works directly with the government. So the project that World Bank funds originates from the priorities identified by the government. For example, for this particular project, they direct counterparts of minstrel finance and planning, and then local government board, being a local governance project. So minstrel finance and local government board plus other basic service delivery agencies, like minstrel education, minstrel health, minstrel water resources and irrigation. They're all involved in the planning and preparation of these projects. Now, you have just mentioned about sustainability. Projects cannot really remain there, saving people for quite a long period of time if the government institutions are not involved. So at local level, we involve these institutions at the Boma level, institutions at the Payam level. And these are basically Boma development committees and Payam development committees. But at county level, we also have county government. So we build their institutions. I mean, basically, this strengthening of these communities, so it means we provide capacity for them to manage this project, identify first of all the priorities they need. And thereafter, they participate in implementation and later in maintenance on operations. And that's what hinges around sustainability. - Let me come to the United Nations, that is UNOPS. What kind of projects have you been implementing? Mr. John Herenda. - Thanks, Gabrielle, and good afternoon to our listeners. So in this project, UNOPS has focused on implementing projects that are related to access to education, so improving access to education by constructing six to eight primary school classrooms, also improving access to head services, where we have been able to construct and furnish that one head facilities, also improving water and sanitation facilities, where we have actually constructed 258 water facilities, and improving access to markets, where we think that community members should be able to have a ploppa place to sell and buy commodities, including farm inputs and farm produce. And in that regard, we have been able to construct 11 markets. We have also looked at access to these facilities in terms of having ploppa roads. So for the five kilometers of community access roads, I've been constructed under this project, but also looking at the youth and community members having space where they can be able to have meetings, hold trainings and the like. We managed to construct four community and youth centers. As my colleague, Droma, indicated the project is not just about infrastructure and services, so to that regard, we have also been able to build the capacity of 369 BOMA development committees and 84-piam development committees. So all in all, we can say that by implementing these sub-projects, we have been able to reach out to more than 740 actual, concern under 4,000 individuals with improved access to services. And also, we have been able to build the capacity of the structures that are actually instrument also for the sustainability of the same infrastructure belt. Thank you. For UNOs, which is the United Nations Office for Project Services, you spoke about building BOMA and piam development committees. Is this kind of a new kind of body that the citizens are getting to be familiar with? And what will be the benefits of having BOMA and piam development committees? Thank you, Gabriel. So the piam and BOMA development committees in the local government act that are not being introduced as new structures. So these structures ought to be existing, but in most of these areas, they're not there. They have been dormant. They have been dormant, and some of them are not existing. So the project actually had to form a new, in some places, just reorganize the existing ones and then train them on how they can be able to engage the communities in defining what kind of services they need and which are the partners they could be able to approach. So these structures, as we speak, are even able to reach out to other partners and being able to have a conversation on what kind of services they need in their communities, and they're able to get some of that. So we think that these are very instrumental structures in the communities, because they are the ones that would, actually, apart from just looking at sustaining what we have done in this project, but they're the ones that are forward-looking about how communities can get together and discuss about their issues and how they can reach out to the partners on how to address them. And also, this is giving a hint to other areas where they don't have these. They should start thinking of forming them, right? And they might get the help from the local government board to do that. Let me go to the representative of the IOM here. IOM, it is like a myth in the minds of people that IOM is just about migration. It's about people crossing the border, people who are refugees and all these things. They are doing a lot of internal things inside countries. So Consuelo Tengara, project manager for IOM, on this special project, what can you say about involvement in these projects in the last three years? Thank you, Gabriel. Actually, IOM has been in country even before this project has started. We are closely working with the government of South Sudan on migration and about data, as we are also focusing on displacement tracking in the different borders of entry points of South Sudan. But apart from that, we are known to be present and have footprints on humanitarian response. But little did they know that we are also doing some development works together with this project on ECRP. We have been working with the UN ops in areas of resilience building. From the side of IOM, we are doing the same activities as UN ops. So we do access roads, health facilities, improving access to education facilities, and water sanitation. However, in 2022, if you can recall, the flood have displaced people in many locations in the country, where we have presence where IOM is operating for the ECRP project, which is the Western [INAUDIBLE] United States, Jean-Louis, and Upper Nile. United States became very much affected with the floods. And until now, water is still there. So in 2022, we also build protective dikes in Robcona. So I think that is the only difference in terms of the work that IOM has been doing. And in terms of IOM also moving forward, IOM will continue to implement ECRP. Now it's called ECRP2. That project has started in 2023, and it's ongoing. And it will end in 2026. The project is similar, but not the same, because this time ECRP2 also ensure integrated disaster risk management into the infrastructures that we are building. And then we also have transition. So the government has started doing the project management, which currently in ECRP1, UNOX is managing. Now it's coming to the government of South Sudan through the Ministry of Finance and the Planning. And of course, still in partnership with the local government board. So I think in terms of continuity of the project, there is a continuous effort for the World Bank to maintain the support to the government. And of course, the people of South Sudan. The question for the World Bank earlier, I didn't ask this. How much approximately have been spent by the World Bank on these projects? Yeah. So thank you so much. For ECRP1, really, there's been a $45 million project. And that's why, see, the project period has also been commensurate to the amount of money that is there, $45 million US dollars. OK. [INAUDIBLE] Of course, this is for development and all this. You're a World Bank is spending others in other areas. And you're not only in this project, what? $41 million, $45 million is spent in the last three years. That means $15 million I spend every year. So you are concluding this project this year. I mean, these months. Yeah. For us, as you know, projects always have a beginning and a end. But also, there's been some situations changing. For example, as I said, this ECRP1 was meant to deliver basic services to the people quickly after the two civil wars that displaced people that really disorganized the rest of some infrastructure for service delivery, including hospitals, schools, and so on. So this was meant to quickly deliver great, rehabilitate some of these infrastructure to deliver educational, health, water services, and so on. Now, we are, again, going to do as a cognizant another physical project, which is going to be more longer than this. And it is going to be more government-led. Because the other one was implemented by UNOPs in partnership with the IOM. So the oversight arrangement was not so much embedded in the government institution. But these were now given that now, situations in the country stable, people are going back to their places, and now development is beginning to take shape. So we need to now empower and build government capacities. They should be able to do oversight. Because for us, basically, we have government. Using our imagination a little bit like, you go to where people have been affected. And you find, for example, displacement. Person that is displaced has left everything behind. Exactly. There is nothing. There is no shelter, there is no food, there's no water, there's no this. And you come there. Or they don't have even medical attention. And you come there and start doing something. I want to listen from you, to hear from you, IOM and UNOPs. What are some of the interesting feedback that you got from some of the projects you implemented and the beneficiaries could see that something is really happening in their lives that brought a change in their lives? Anyone of you can start, yes. Thank you, Gabriele. This project, like we have said, is closing. But it's closing at a point that it has actually delivered most of these infrastructures and services have started to be accessed. I will give you an example. In IBA, for example, where we have built two maternity wards, which we handed over. And when I went back, they are talking to the women. They are very happy that now they have a very good place, space, where they are able to deliver. They told me that they used to deliver at home. But now they are coming to the head facility, where they have attention on head workers, because they're looking at the cleanliness of the place. They're looking at the ambience of the place. So this is one example. I went to meet some students in the primary schools. And, for example, the girls. At every primary school that we have built, classrooms we have also provided for central facilities. And now the girls' facilities are separate, properly positioned. And they're actually happy that with these facilities, they feel safe. They feel that they will be able to return in school, like the retention should be going up. We have seen enrollment going up in these primary schools. And we hope that the performance of special girls in these primary schools will be much better than before. I'm happy to hear that. This is a tangible thing. It's an effect, like the world is coming together, put money somewhere, and then they bring it even. IBA is a very remote area in the country. The far west corner of the country, just near the borders. And these people could have been feeling nobody's thinking of them, nobody's worried about them, you see. But for you to go to those areas and do something really remarkable, let's hear from Representative of YOM here Consuelo. Yeah, thank you. In terms of sharing a good experience that I myself have witnessed, because I joined ECRP only last year, but I heard very good stories about the past. So when the floods happened in 2022 in Robcona, there's a community called Shilak Village. It was submerged. And it's all over social media, even international coverage. They were there. And it's really painted a picture of no hope. But when the intervention started building the dyke works in the area, we started-- we recovered the land. It became dry. And people started coming back. Their livelihood was recovered. And we saw the school started to reopen. That was also very good collaboration efforts between the development and humanitarian partners. UNICEF, for example, have worked on the school, repairing the school. While IOM and ECRP, we did the dyke works. And then of course, the watch partners, the humanitarian partners, they provided some materials to recover those water points. So it's a very good story. And it's not only in these areas, but it's across the area. You can hear very good stories. Also, just coming to my mind, these kind of efforts also are another opportunities for improving the skills of the people. It's not just about giving them jobs, but also learning how to manage crises, how to address issues. And those who are involved there, where they left like, they were before. Or those-- the young people, you employed and provided work and all these, even temporary, what kind of you say? Yes, IOM, yes. Yeah, so part of this project, the beauty of this project, is we don't just hand over to the government and to the community. The project also aims to improve the skills, enhance the capacity of the local institutions, the committees. The formation of operations and maintenance, for example, to ensure sustainability of these facilities. That is a very good component of this project. Many of the youth learned how to fix a Warhol, for example. The school management, the health facility management, they were trained, there were augmentations. The local government, they were trained on financial literacy and such a kind of training. So definitely, the skills has been improved across. The Boma and Payam development committees have now came up. They came up with development plans. And they managed to do it themselves with the help of facilitation of the project team. And of course, now they have the long list of the needs of the Payam and the Boma. And they reach out to agencies, to partners, to stakeholders, not only to ECRP, but it benefits all the partners also, who wants to intervene in different locations. Yes, you learned what can we say on the side of UNOPS in this? Thank you. I will complement what my colleague has said. So directly through this project, we have been able to create close to 500,000 person days. And we have transferred, like in terms of wages, about $4.7 million. Because this construction meant that youth women have been employed in those locations to construct. And through that, what we deliberately did was that we ensured that contractors are actually employing from the locations where the facilities are, and that there's the skills transfer. So some of the youth that were not citizens at the beginning, they were able to learn. And we hope that these skills have been left behind. So if, for example, someone wants to do a house in these little areas, they will be able to find some of the skills that have been developed, so they should be able to have some youth that can now be billed as and be able to label X there. So we feel that apart from the infrastructure and access to service, two other things have happened. There's a cash transfer, so substantial amounts of money have been transferred, people got access to income through this, and also that there's skills transfer, where quite a number of skills have been left behind in those communities. Listeners to Radio Bernard, this is nationwide with me, Gabriel Shadar. And today I'm discussing the conclusion of World Bank Funded Community Resilience Projects in South Sudan. We are looking into the achievements and also some of the success stories. And we didn't trust much on challenges, but we will be having that soon with the engagement of the listeners. With me in the studio are Mr Dominic Cat de Roma, representing the World Bank Office in South Sudan in this show here. And Mr. Nurenda, Mr. John Nurenda, senior project manager for the United Nations Office for Project Services, which is known as UNOPS. And also Mrs. Consuelo Sangara, project manager, in the same project for UN. And we will continue soon and we will be engaging the listeners in this after this interlude. Nationwide, we bring you latest current issues, discussions and information. Nationwide, I'm Radio Miraya. And for those who like to engage us and also interact with the gases in the studio, the Conline is 0.0929686297, the Conline is 0.0929686297. And the SMS line is 0.09121771141. And if you have, if by chance you have been a beneficiary of any of these projects in the one of the 10 countries in the country, let us know. And what you have seen and what is your positive experience from being a beneficiary of this, if you have a chance of being there. And if you have any other queries, you would like to ask the gas in the studio, you are welcome to ask them any question to that. Let's come first before I got any calls from the listeners. I go back to the World Bank. World Bank is not new in the South Sudan, of course, and has been, as I said, doing many other projects. And you have just spoken about phase two of this ACRP. So what is your initial assessment that this money has gone to a good use in South Sudan so that you will be putting more money? Very good. Thank you so much. So this is a very important question for us. First of all, when we do assessment and agree with the government, what areas to be funded, then we come up with a fidisserie arrangement. How money would flow? Now, for this matter, the World Bank has an agreement with the UNOPs. And so money comes from the other side, direct to UNOPs. But of course, with the minstrel finance in the low, local government board in the low, but this money simply goes to implement those projects. And before all those money transfers, there will be fidisserie arrangement put in place. We do thorough assessment of the institution that is going to handle those finances. We also do thorough procurement assessment. So if we find such institution as well, the prerequisite to money is funds, that's when we will start making the funds to flow. But if there is a challenge, then we first need to address those challenges. So yes, the money really went through UNOPs for those that needed to be implemented by everyone, to went to IBM. And we have regular audits. We have regular finance supervision, reporting, and so on. But so far, we have got value for money. As you see, all these outputs, the number of schools, the number of health facilities, and so on, we really feel happy that the money has been used for intended purposes. In fact, for us, we ensure that the money, given, is actually used for intended purposes. We have people who are dedicated to oversee the finances in the World Bank. So we have people who are dedicated to oversee procurement. And of course, the team ensuring that really money is followed up to where the last ends. We have a physical auditing to ensure that the school is commensurate to the budget assigned to it. The health facilities commensurate to the budget assigned to it. All those mechanisms are in place. Yes. Some of the challenges, until I receive some calls, it seems there is a problem with the call lines. Until you finish a project, sometimes you don't know the project will hold or will continue, until it is being used, until it is being accessed. One of the examples is that projects are sometimes put in the wrong places. And in the end, people don't have access to the project, because it's the wrong place. Or people don't know how to use it. They will break down sometime. And even conflict will come there and destroy it. We have a lot of these examples. So this is an opportunity for UNFs and IOM to speak about. Some of the challenges that are still there and need to be looked into in the future when more projects are going to be implemented. Let me hear from IOM first. Yeah, thank you. That's a very good-- this discussion actually is very good, because from ECRP1 and ECRP2, now that we have started ECRP2, we have actually learned from our experience in ECRP1. But there are challenges that you just cannot avoid, given the situation and the context here in South Sudan. I would say that the challenges that our team in the fields are facing and until now, it's still being-- we're still experiencing this would be the security issues. Because the local-- the areas where IOM is operating is a bit remote. And there are times that conflict arise. So we have to withdraw our team. So that already affects the timeline that the operations and the security of our team. But we work closely with the government to ensure that our team is also informed of the situation. And ECRP project and World Bank is really very keen on ensuring the safety of the teams first and foremost. So that is also the good thing about this project. The second one would be the seasonality. We know very well that here in South Sudan, we have the last three years. We have been experiencing floods. And even this year, we will be receiving more volume of water, so more flooding. So of course, the operations will be affected. But since we already know, we can already plan. Because seasonality is now becoming a normal situation here in South Sudan. So we plan based on the situation and the context of each of the counties where we are working during the flood seasons. Of course, we work more in areas where it's not very much affected with floods. And then during the dry season, that's when we speed up also, we ramp up our activities. So even the time for your operation is very limited because of the environment. Exactly. You cannot work the nine months in a year. Of course, yeah, yeah. That's a big challenge. Yes, let me go to UNOPS. Also, what are some of the challenges that are in the lessons learned from your operations here? Thank you. We have learned quite a number of lessons in SLP1. And we have shared that with SLP2. Fortunately, IOM has been part of SLP1 as well. So the learning has been done together. One thing, I'll give you an example of today. As a part of this closure process, we actually had a handle over a furnished admission ward in a primary health care unit within local area and in Juba County. So this facility is fully furnished with the 18-bed capacity. But because of the inadequacy of the staffing, for example, the facility is not in full use. So that is true also for some of the primary schools that have been constructed. You find that we don't have maybe enough teachers for that expansion. So one lesson is that for us, of course, we went very closely with the government. And this achievement of all these, we have said, it has been possible because of the different levels of engagement with the government also that including making us be safe to be able to implement these activities and making us engage with the communities. So I think that other partners working in South Dan should be able to pick this up and support that we are able to make some of these facilities operational, fully operational. So we will not achieve optimal access in those facilities if the soft part, which is the staffing, for example, or provision of a bed scene is not adequate. I talked to the facility in charge today in this head facility about the supply chain for bed scenes. And it was very clear that they don't have enough. So we are saying that as a project, yes, we did. But we needed to have a way to complement this. And just like my colleague, Droma said, so this is one project. And we are working, of course, with other stakeholders. And we are just appearing that these gaps that are there, if we continue working together, we should be able to overcome them somehow and have better access to these services. So this is one challenge I wanted to add to what Michael said. A listener is asking maybe he's a Thomas listening to us that please give us example of-- he's doubting Thomas that give us some list of the counties you have been working on so that he can believe you. Yes. [INAUDIBLE] From IOM side, we are present in Raza. We are present in Hwao, in Robkona, in Appernile. We are present in Balyat, Fashoda, in rank. And in Jean-Louis, we are present in Pibor. And then for ECRP2, Duke, and which is-- will be additional counties. Yeah. So this is where you have implemented projects and they have been sustained in the last three years. Yes, correct. Good. For UNOPS, thank you. For UNOPS, UNOPS has implemented this project in 10 counties. I will mention some Juba, Capita, North, Iba, Izo, Rombek, Santa, Wulu, Iwillist, Iwillnot, as part of this project. So if you add what UNOPS and IOM has done in the project, that's why we're talking about 20 counties. And just say that these 20 counties are spread across the country. So like my colleague, Droma, said in the introduction, you see these factors that I used like to select the-- And assess, yeah. To select these counties where we needed to intervene, are actual factors that are affecting the whole country. So for that reason, all the 10 states have been able to benefit from these interventions. Yes, and you're closing remarks from the World Bank first. Let me hear what is your last message to the listeners, which I should be listening to us, Mr. Domenic Count. Yeah, thank you, Gabriel. As a closing remark, I want to really tell my listeners-- our listeners that as well bank our key priority or key purpose of being here in the country is to support the government. So we work with the government at all levels, definitely we can first start with the national government that is responsible for policies, directing all development activities, and so on. And then in that case, the main counterpart will be a minister of finance. And it now depends on what kind of projects we really want to do. If it is education, then we go to education. If it is health, we go to health. But according to the right now, really, our projects are spread across sectors. Two, we are very much passionate about developing institutions. And those institutions will re-run from national level up to village level. And that's why you're finding this project. We focused on strengthening and committing institutions because when we want to build resilience, it means showing people what to do at a particular time to solve their own problems. So you train them how to really solve their own problem. For example, if a disaster comes in, what will they do? Connie talked about committees for the dikes and so on. So when rain comes, we are here in Juba. How will they repair these? That's number two. Our really three, we care so much about sustainability. And this sustainability comes with capacity building. It comes with the institution building. It comes with really ensuring that infrastructures that are there are actually properly taken care of. There are people there to take care of them. And second last is inclusivity, meaning that we are there for everybody. So all sections of the people participating, for example, the community institutions are made up of chiefs, traditional chiefs, the women, the youth, the people with disabilities, ex-combatants, and everybody else. So that we try to minimize as much as possible some community conflicts. Finally, we care about the interests of the nation. We allocate resources equitably. Thank you, Mr. Dominic, representing the World Bank. One minute for the IOM representative. Yes, Mr. Durena. Welcome. One minute for you. Closing remark here. So I'm John representing UNOPS. Thank you for this time, our listeners. For UNOPS, my last remarks are that we remain committed to supporting the government in achieving the sustainable development goals. And this is just one of the main projects that UNOPS is implementing in the country. So we value the support we get from the government of South Sudan that has little support and that's achieved this. Tomorrow, we are actually having a crucial selling money for this event at the very high, not having achieved very high quality infrastructure and build the capacities. Good to hear that. We really feel that our commitment to continuing with this kind of development and is there within UNOPS and the partners, World Bank and government and other development partners can still reach us if they want to support access to services and capacity development in South Sudan. Thank you. Thank you very much, John. One minute for Consuelo. Yes, thank you so much, first and foremost, to the government of South Sudan. The partnership with the government is really amazing. We're seeing a lot of interest in this project, actually, is growing more attention from different partners because the project is very-- you can see concrete outcomes of the project. We're seeing more communities getting involved into this project and getting more passionate about being part of this project. Although the only thing is that we cannot cover all the areas in the country, but definitely the government is very much into this project, so we're happy to see that from the government. Thank you very much. And I say that we were supposed to have a government representative, but he felt unwell and we will have him another time. Thank you very much, Dominic. And thanks very much, John and Consuelo, for being on this discussion. And I hope your closing and beginning another phase will be running successfully tomorrow. That is 26th of June, 2024. Thank you very much. That is the end of today's discussion hour on--