Menu ENN Search

Southern Sudan Vulnerability Study

Published Report

USAID have funded a study on vulnerability in southern Sudan. This largely anthropological study was carried out between May 1997 and June 1998 and is intended for the use of humanitarian aid workers. The final report describes the political, kinship, religious and economic structures amongst the Dinka, before going on to look at the welfare structure, the circumstances surrounding vulnerability, and possible ways of addressing that vulnerability in welfare interventions. It ends with case study examples of the situation on the ground (from the Paliau area of north Bor and the Thiek Thou area of northern Bahr el Ghazal) and concludes with a section on the implications of the research for better relief interventions.

The researcher spent eleven months collecting data across the seasonal calendar and acquiring fluency in Dinka language. The methodology involved 'observing rather than disturbing' with much information gleaned from being present at court cases and local discussions, as an observer rather than part of the discussion or an active question-asker. The main findings of the study were as follows.

Vulnerable individuals are defined in Dinka terms as those without an adequate kinship structure to protect them. Within the kinship system the unit that is most significant is the 'mac thok' meaning the extended family or specifically those who share in the bridewealth contributions for the marriage of a daughter. In this unit there is unquestioning sharing of resources but there are also obligations to the wider lineage group and to a much lesser extent to the unit (wut) that occupies a piece of territory and grazes cattle together. Understanding that there are groups among whom sharing is expected and groups between whom competition for resources is also expected, is fundamental when it comes to planning for equity in relief distributions.

Most distributions in the south take place at payam level (the administrative level below the county) through the wut chiefs. A chief at the lowest level only has authority as a senior member of a group of related people - his lineage. This is the level at which a chief is more accountable. Higher up the order of seniority, a chief must represent (as a member of court and as a distributor of relief items) a group of unrelated people who share common grazing rights and forms of alliances by marriage. Aid agencies can choose the appropriate chief to represent different groups of people if they have a knowledge of the different degrees of loyalty and impartiality he is expected to show these groups.

The study found that in the past, targeting aid to the vulnerable reflected mainly the logistical and financial constraints of the relief operation in the south. This has been a 'sham', according to the study, as in most cases, where locals accepted the conditions outsiders put on the relief, they subsequently redistributed it to all sections of the population who then redistributed it within their lineages to those who were most in need. The researcher found that at a higher level in the community, it was strongly felt that aid should be distributed to all lineages in the area fairly (according to their numbers rather than their absolute need), so that they can then each take part in the socially important practice of giving to their own weak members - a process that strengthens the whole welfare structure that people must rely upon when there is no relief.

The author concluded, "that local people should be allowed to target relief, rather than targeting being dictated by the international community", and that this conclusion is arrived at for pragmatic reasons. First, local people will redistribute relief whether we like it or not. One must therefore trust local people to care for their own vulnerable as well as understanding what behaviour the local culture expects vis a vis sharing. Second, the kinds of people who are seen as vulnerable in Dinka society, for example those who do not have a large immediate family such as a childless widow or a man who has no sisters to bring in cows for his marriage, are very difficult for someone not from the community to identify. There are no easily defined social categories of vulnerable people in the south, only certain counties and payams that are more in need than others. The report concludes that prioritisation by area should be undertaken by 'neutral' outsiders on a needs basis, while internal targeting should be (and is in any case) carried out within the groups that define themselves as 'communities'.

Ref: The Southern Sudan Vulnerability Study , Simon Harrigan Chol Changath Chol, Published by SCF (UK) South Sudan Programme PO Box 48700 Nairobi Kenya. June 98

More like this

FEX: Socio-Cultural Determinants of Food Sharing in Southern Sudan

By Emmanuel Mandalazi and Saul Guerrero, Valid International Ltd Emmanuel Mandalazi is a Social & Community Development Advisor working for Valid International. Over the last...

FEX: Childhood Malnutrition and the Dinka of Southern Sudan

By Vikki Groves Vikki Groves has a MA in Medical Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She has worked on projects in India, Kenya, Tanzania...

FEX: Assessing and defining food needs (Special Supplement 1)

Assessing food needs There are three broad approaches in use for assessing the food needs of a population. These approaches are often used simultaneously in an...

FEX: Task Force Review

Summary of a Report by SPLM/SRRA-OLS Bahr el Ghazal Displaced people arriving from Wau In response to the humanitarian crisis which unfolded in Bahr El Ghazal (BEG) last...

FEX: Understanding HIV/AIDS and livelihoods: new cluster analysis

Summary of published research 1 Discussion with a group of young women in Teta, Central Province, Zambia. A recent Overseas Development Institute (ODI) briefing paper...

FEX: SUPRAID

Name SUDAN PRODUCTION AID (SUPRAID) Headquarters AIRPORT VIEW ESTATE, HSE NO. 80, PO BOX 77901, NAIROBI KENYA Chief Administrator ACUIL MALITH BANGGOL Telephone 254 2...

FEX: Better understanding vulnerability in Serbia

By Kate Ogden Since July 2000, Kate Ogden has been a food security advisor in ACF headquarters, Paris. Previously she spent three years working in food security and nutrition...

FEX: Principles and Practice for Food Distribution in Conflict

Summary of Published Review Field Exchange 10 highlighted a study underway by the Humanitarian Policy Group and Nutrition Works on the principles and practice for food...

FEX: Issue 06 Editorial

Dear Readers, This issue of field exchange heralds the second phase of the ENN. Our first two years appear to have been sufficiently successful to prompt continued support...

FEX: Aid effectiveness and Vulnerability Assessment Framework: determining vulnerability among Syrian refugees in Jordan

By Hisham Khogali, Lynette Larsen, Kate Washington and Yara Romariz Maasri Hisham Khogali is an independent consultant with 19 years of experience in a range of humanitarian...

FEX: Food aid targeting in East Africa

Consultancy Report The FEWS (Famine Early Warning System) project for the Greater Horn of Africa recently commissioned a review on food aid targeting* in East Africa with the...

FEX: Distributing food (Special Supplement 1)

Food may be distributed in many different ways but the method of distribution will, to a large extent, depend on the eligible groups and the method for identifying them....

FEX: What is Livelihoods Programming? (Special Supplement 3)

2.1 Livelihoods principles and the livelihoods framework The livelihoods principles and framework form the basis of all livelihoods programming. The fundamental principles of...

FEX: Exit strategies in OVC programming in Namibia

By Marie McGrath, ENN ENN recently visited several collaborative FAO-WFP programmes in Swaziland and the Caprivi region of north-eastern Namibia - both share some of the...

FEX: Determining eligibility (Special Supplement 1)

Children are often a group targeted in emergencies Eligibility criteria, i.e. the characteristics of those individuals or households to be targeted with food, arise from the...

FEX: HIV/AIDS Home Based Care in Zimbabwe

By Hisham Khogali Hisham Khogali is currently the Senior Food Security Officer of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Prior to this, Hisham worked...

FEX: Income and employment support (Special Supplement 3)

5.1 Introduction The provision of cash as an emergency response has the potential to impact on all elements of the livelihoods framework by providing the means to protect or...

FEX: Participation by the Affected Population in Relief Operations

Draft report for ALNAP At its fourth meeting in October 1998, The ALNAP (the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Assistance) noted that a...

FEX: Is Targeting of Food Aid Directly to Women Based on Gender Roles an Appropriate Response?

Lessons from Southern Sudan This article was edited from an article by Cassandra Chapman. Women carry sacks of maize on their heads after a food distribution in the southern...

FEX: Making Famine in Sudan

Queueing in the Pakor Supplementary Feeding Centre David Keene, researcher and author of 'The Benefits of Famine' gives the political history and context surrounding the...

Close

Reference this page

Southern Sudan Vulnerability Study. Field Exchange 6, February 1999. p8. www.ennonline.net/fex/6/southern

(ENN_3696)

Close

Download to a citation manager

The below files can be imported into your preferred reference management tool, most tools will allow you to manually import the RIS file. Endnote may required a specific filter file to be used.