Community-centred data collection for access to information to 10,000 IDPs in South Sudan
THE CHALLENGE
Access to information is extremely limited in South Sudan, due to a lack of energy infrastructure and limited access to face-to-face information, particularly IDPs residing in hard-to-reach areas. Both Mundri West and Mundri East Counties are home to heavy populations of IDPs, the majority of whom are hiding in the bushes and/or cut off from communications with other areas. This makes them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, including sexual and gender-based violence and recruitment from armed groups. A lack of reliable information also hinders IDPs from accessing health, protection, and other essential services, and makes it challenging for humanitarian groups to deliver assistance in an effective and timely manner.
THE SOLUTION
To improve IDP access to essential information, Youth Empowerment and Development Aid (YEDA) trained village representation committees (VRCs) to collect and deliver information to vulnerable IDPs in hard-to-reach areas in Mundri East and Mundri West Counties, South Sudan, equipping them with portable solar panels, phones, and radios to rapidly exchange up-to-date, life-saving information between the IDP community and humanitarian aid providers. By the end of the project, over 80% of the established VRCs demonstrated a positive overall performance. This included the collection of real-time IDP location data, with 11,967 and 13,439 IDPs tracked in Mundri West and Mundri East counties, respectively. Other data collected by VRCs supported advocacy efforts for humanitarian funding at the country level while informing the prioritization of target locations for subsequent aid delivery. Moreover, the percentage of IDPs in Mundri East and Mundri West Counties receiving key information to improve their quality of life (e.g., Covid-19 prevention messages, early warning of conflict) increased by 30% throughout the project, as NGO’s made heavy use of the outreach platform to disseminate key messages to otherwise cut-off communities for early warning and health sensitization purposes.