ReliefWeb

Overview and methodology

The continuation of conflict since December 2013 has created a complex humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, restricting humanitarian access and hindering the flow of information required by aid partners to deliver humanitarian assistance to populations in need. To address information gaps facing the humanitarian response, REACH employs its Area of Knowledge (AoK) methodology to collect relevant information in hard-to-reach areas to inform humanitarian planning and interventions outside formal settlement sites.

Using the AoK methodology, REACH remotely monitors needs and access to services across South Sudan. AoK data is collected monthly through multi-sector interviews with key informants (KIs). KIs are people who are newly arrived internally displaced persons (IDPs) that have left a hard-to-reach settlement in the month prior to data collection; people who have had contact with someone living in a hard-to-reach settlement or having been there themselves in the month prior to data collection (e.g. traders, migrants, family members); or people who were still present in their settlement and could be interviewed by phone.

Selected KIs are purposively sampled and have knowledge from the last month about a specific settlement in South Sudan, with data collected at the settlement level. In these cases, data is aggregated at the settlement level according to a weighting mechanism, which can be found in the AoK Terms of Reference (ToRs). For quarterly products such as this one, data from the last month of the quarter is used. All percentages presented in this factsheet, unless otherwise specified, represent the proportion of settlements assessed with that specific response.

Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number, so some figures may add to slightly more or less than 100%. Unless stated otherwise, all graphs represent the responses to questions asked to KIs from settlements where assistance had reportedly been received in the six months prior to data collection.

In addition, in October 2020, REACH conducted a series of 17 focus group discussions (FGDs) with both male and female community members in 12 locations to triangulate quantitative data and provide more indepth and gender-specific understanding of community experiences, priorities, and challenges. Five femaleonly, seven male-only and five mixed-gender FGDs were conducted in Akobo, Aweil, Bentiu, Bor PoC, Kapoeta, Malakal, Maridi, Nyal, Pariang, Renk, Wau and Yambio counties.

All findings presented are indicative of broad community perceptions in assessed settlements and are not statistically generalisable.

Accountability to Affected Populations

In order to capture the perceptions of humanitarian assistance held by affected populations in South Sudan, REACH incorporated indicators associated with accountability to affected populations (AAP) into the AoK survey. The indicators gather community perceptions related to awareness, relevance and fairness of humanitarian interventions, as well as respect of affected populations. The data presented in this factsheet aims to help humanitarian actors better understand and take into account community needs and sentiments in relation to assistance in South Sudan.