WFP gets $10.9mn from Germany to assist flood-affected people in South Sudan

A contribution of around USD 10.9 million (€10 million) has been given by Germany to the United Nations World Food Programme to support life-saving humanitarian and recovery activities as well as the current response to widespread flooding in South Sudan.

South Sudan is still reeling from the effects of a severe drought episode – with 4.5 million people in need of food assistance between now and the end of the year. In addition, South Sudan is currently hit by the worst floods in living memory affecting close to a million people and it would cost WFP USD 40 million to mount an effective flood response for the next three months.

"People affected by the floods need immediate help. We have therefore increased our humanitarian assistance to the people of South Sudan by a further €10 million," says Manuel Müller, Germany's Ambassador to South Sudan. "Overall in 2019, Germany has contributed humanitarian assistance worth €72 million through various United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations in the country."

"We are very grateful to the people of Germany for their continued support,'' says Matthew Hollingworth, World Food Programme's Country Director in South Sudan. "The contribution is invaluable, but South Sudan is not out of the woods yet. It is crucial that we maintain support to consolidate the gains made, especially now as the country continues on the path to recovery and peace."

Some of the contribution will be used to scale-up biometric registration through World Food Programme's SCOPE system – a beneficiary information and transfer management platform – used to redeem food or cash entitlements through fingerprint authentication and the household SCOPE card. To date, some 2 million people have been registered on the SCOPE system in South Sudan and plans are underway to have registered five million by 2020.

The contribution will also enable the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service, which is managed by World Food Programme (WFP), to keep providing flights for the humanitarian community. The air service transports 90,000 passengers per year to 55 regular destinations in the country.

WFP provides various types of assistance in South Sudan: food assistance for people building or restoring community assets such as roads, emergency school meals to keep children in school and the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition among children and pregnant and nursing women. Since January, WFP has so far reached 4.3 million people and plans to reach 5 million people by the end of the year.

The German government is one of the longest-standing partners of WFP assistance in South Sudan. The latest contribution brings Germany's total contributions to WFP activities in South Sudan to €124 million (USD 140 million) in the last five years.