A DECADES-LONG PARTNERSHIP
The partnership between the people of South Sudan and the people of the United States goes back decades. U.S. engagement in South Sudan began decades before the country’s independence and remains based on values including peace, human rights, democracy, and people’s right to a government that is responsive to their needs. Since establishing an office in Juba in the 1980s, at that time in southern Sudan, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has remained committed to the people, providing life-saving humanitarian assistance, extending technical and financial support to the establishment of the new nation of South Sudan, and investing in the development of a young nation. From establishing the 2001 Sudan Task Force which helped design the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, building South Sudan’s first paved road outside major towns, leading South Sudan’s first and only census, and helping to broker the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement, USAID has stood firmly alongside the South Sudanese people before and after the country’s independence in 2011.
Our partnership has withstood years of political and social turmoil, recurring violence and civil wars, and protracted humanitarian crises. Civil wars in 2013 and 2016 shattered much of the enthusiasm and hopefulness of independence. Armed groups targeted civilians, committed widespread acts of sexual violence and civilian atrocities, destroyed property, looted villages, and recruited children into militia ranks. Complex conflict dynamics continue to evolve, blurring the lines between localized communal conflict and violence driven by national elites competing for power and access to resources. The zero-sum nature of politics in South Sudan reinforces the concept that rebellion and political violence are the only path to power. This is further fueled by unchecked corruption and exploitation of the nation’s resources. Complicating an already-dire humanitarian catastrophe, the 2023 conflict in Sudan has displaced almost 500,000 people into South Sudan as of December 2023 and diverts resources and attention away from the country’s slow and difficult peace process.
Some 50 years after USAID established its presence in what was at that time Sudan, the United States remains the leading international donor to the people of South Sudan. In financial terms, most of USAID’s work in South Sudan consists of delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance across all ten states. Although South Sudan’s leaders now call on the international community to move beyond emergency assistance and invest in long-term development, the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU) has failed to meet its commitments under the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS). Stability, security, and conditions for investment and development have not been realized, poverty deepens, and the humanitarian situation worsens. The RTGoNU must establish a secure environment that is conducive to effective assistance and responsible investment and must demonstrate its commitment to provide basic services for the people of South Sudan. This includes meeting its peace commitments, holding human rights violators accountable, addressing corruption, and transparently using public revenue for the good of the people—not a select few.
In the absence of government commitment, USAID strengthens community foundations for a healthier, educated, and more self-reliant South Sudan. We provide humanitarian aid, meet the basic health, education, and food security needs of communities, mitigate conflict and gender-based violence, help improve farmers’ skills so they earn a living, bring communities to reduce violence, and encourage the transitional government to commit public funding to meet public needs. We do this through our work in humanitarian assistance, democracy and governance, economic growth, education and youth, health, and HIV prevention and care.