Disaster Risk management and Community Development in Yei River and Magwi County

Over more than a decade since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, progress towards the goal of a healthy and robust rural economy has been slow. To address this, GIZ initiated the Community Driven Rural Development project aiming to focus on the implementation of community driven income generating measures for the development of rural areas in Central and Eastern Equatoria States. The project is based on the hypothesis that processes of participatory Community Development and Disaster Risk Management planning can be successfully prepared and sustainably implemented through self-governance structures at various administrative levels. The project was launched in 2022 and GIZ is now extending the project to other locations thanks to additional funding.

In each of the 7 local administrative structures (called bomas) separate DRM-Cs and CDCs shall be established. CDCs will be assisted so that they can identify and analyse their needs for development while the DRM-Cs will be supported for a focus on identifying and rating the disaster risks within the community. The committees will get help so that they can design development plans and practical and feasible disaster risk management strategies, with a focus on minimizing the impact of natural disasters caused by climate change. Both shall be endorsed by the authorities and be implemented by the communities themselves. Regular exchanges of experience and best practices with other committees are foreseen throughout the project period.

The two goals of the project are to strengthen the planning and implementation capacities of local committees for 1) socioeconomic community development and 2) disaster risk management. Central to this project is the establishment of local community development committees (CDCs) and disaster risk management committees (DRM-Cs), building their capacity, and the provision of support for them to identify, plan, and implement measures for sustainable socio-economic development and risk management, especially also for risks related to climate change.