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The 2016 South Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan requests $1.3 billion for 114 humanitarian partners to respond to the most life-threatening needs of 5.1 million people out of an estimated 6.1 million in need of protection and assistance across South Sudan.

The response plan is the result of rigorous, disciplined and robust prioritization by humanitarian partners. It promotes synergies across clusters and sectors to maximise efficiency and effectiveness, while placing a strong emphasis on upholding the dignity of affected people. Protection is at the centre of all aspects of the plan, which is premised on the humanitarian community’s commitment to deliver protection and assistance in accordance with the internationally-agreed principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.

Recognizing that South Sudan presents a uniquely challenging operational environment, the plan prioritizes responding where needs are most severe, while also ensuring that the planned response is feasible and adaptable. The plan is realistic. Recognizing that needs will continue to far outstrip the resources available to respond, humanitarian partners will continue to work closely with relevant authorities to augment their response efforts and urge them to prioritize and allocate resources for humanitarian action.

The Plan is formulated around two Strategic Objectives:

Strategic Objective 1: Save lives and alleviate suffering through safe access to services and resources with dignity — aims to reduce excess death, injury and disease in South Sudan, while upholding the dignity of affected people. This objective incorporates a subtle but important shift in emphasis regarding humanitarian access, from focusing on humanitarian actors’ access to people, to stressing the importance of people’s ability to safely access humanitarian assistance and protection. It encapsulates humanitarian partners’ commitment to good programming and upholding the core principle of do no harm, including through meaningful two-way communication with communities affected by the crisis.

Strategic Objective 2: Ensure communities are protected, capable and prepared to cope with significant threats — reflects both the centrality of protection in humanitarian response, as well as the importance of ensuring that humanitarian action builds upon the coping capacities of at risk communities. Partners will seek to ensure that individuals and families are safe in their homes and communities, both in refuge and return. The objective is carefully defined so that humanitarian action focuses on helping communities prepare for and manage multiple and inter-locking threats. Recognising that the humanitarian contribution is bounded, humanitarian partners will engage intensively with authorities and development actors to encourage development and transition assistance strategies and programmes that support longer-term resilience-building and expansion of basic services across South Sudan