WFP South Sudan Country Brief, May 2020

In Numbers

36,650 mt of food and nutrition assistance distributed*

US$ 11.2 m in cash-based transfers made*

US$ 227 m six months (June – November ‘20) net funding requirements

2.56 m people assisted* *in April 2020

Operational Updates

• In April, WFP provided food and nutrition assistance to 2.56 million people across its General Food Assistance (GFA), Nutrition and Livelihoods and Resilience activities in South Sudan. Through Rapid Response teams, WFP dispatched enough GFA for 140,000 people, including 37,200 children under five, in hard to reach areas across six counties in Jonglei and Unity states.

• WFP has prepositioned 143,000 mt of food commodities, equivalent to 75 percent of the planned 190,530 mt and enough to serve over 2 million people, in areas that will become inaccessible in the rainy season.

COVID-19 Updates

• As of 28 May 2020, South Sudan had recorded 806 confirmed cases of COVID-19. WFP continues to support national-led COVID-19 prevention and preparedness efforts.

• In response to the pandemic, and to protect its staff and beneficiaries, WFP has established several contingency measures, including physical measures at distributions and revised distribution procedures.

• At the end of May, WFP had reached 3.2 million people, with one to three months’ worth of food assistance. In response to COVID-19 pandemic, where possible, WFP is distributing more than one month’s worth of food assistance to preposition food commodities at the household level to avoid large gatherings, minimize risks and promote social distancing.

• In May, COVID-19 continued to negatively impact market prices and household purchasing power. Prices of white sorghum increased in about 64 percent of monitored markets within the range 9 - 46 percent from the second to the third week of May 2020. Purchasing power decreased, as both formal and informal employment have significantly reduced. In the absence of large-scale national safety nets, efforts are required to prevent already extremely vulnerable households from falling into absolute poverty