Juba, (Samajweekly) South Sudan and the World Food Program (WFP) have signed a three-year strategic plan aimed at building self-sufficiency and resilience.
Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP’s country director in South Sudan, said on Wednesday that the 2023/25 country strategic plan sets out a vision to address entrenched inequity and isolation by leveraging all WFP’s programmes to build interconnected and peaceful communities, Xinhua news agency reported.
McGroarty added that this strategic plan aims to establish the foundations for a sequenced, layered, agile and realistic longer-term approach.
“Our long-term ambition is to gradually reduce the need for emergency humanitarian assistance while building resilience as population become increasingly self-reliant and resilient, and national capacities and systems are strengthened at all levels,” she said during the signing ceremony in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
The 2023/25 plan will be the first of three successive WFP strategic plans to be rolled out over the next 13 years.
“During this initial phase, saving lives and protecting livelihoods will remain WFP’s highest priority in South Sudan,” McGroarty said.
Deng Dau Deng, acting minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said the WFP has over the years been supporting South Sudan by complementing the government’s efforts to reduce the huge food deficit.
