An Assessment of Civil Society Initiatives: Southern Sudan

Save the Children Sweden (SCS) has been active in Sudan since the initial influx of Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia in 1987. It has been providing developmental support, care and protection for the most vulnerable groups of children adversely affected by more than two decades of conflict. SCS trains teachers, its staff, social workers and leaders in the community on how to listen to children and involve them in decision making. To effectively do this in southern Sudan, SCS has created, trained and strengthened Community Support Groups (CSGs), comprised of groups of community volunteers in child protection. This report on the CSGs assessment in Southern Sudan aims to analyze and understand the organisational capacities of the CSGs and their level of engagement in child focused programmes. There are 217 active CSGs in the three states of Lakes, Northern Bahr El Ghazal (NBEG) and Jonglei to date comprising a total of 2,279 individuals engaged in advocating for child rights and child protection. Out of these, 25 active CSGs were sampled from which in-depth interviews and assessments were done. The report states the conclusions arrived at from the study and makes a number of recommendations on the way forward.

This report on the CSGs assessment is a result of concerted efforts of all SCS staff, the southern Sudan project beneficiaries and partner organisations at all levels.