JUBA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN migration agency, on Wednesday launched the fragility index designed to support humanitarian and development actors in moving beyond emergency response programming towards transitional and recovery programming.
IOM Chief of Mission in South Sudan Vijaya Souri said the tool will enable joint efforts with partners to provide solutions to displacements and also to build on initiatives that offer communities longer-term solutions to withstand future shocks.
"It is critical for us to be able to work with the partners, to be able to move from humanitarian response to look more at transitional and recovery solutions, to look at solutions to displacements and to be able to build on initiatives that offer community members longer-term solutions to be able to thrive," Souri said during a ceremony in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
She noted that the new tool will facilitate the transition from humanitarian-based assistance and international aid to more collaborative development-focused interventions.
"In areas where there is high fragility for security or for economic needs, we might be looking at doing more peacebuilding and social cohesion activities, and in areas where the fragility index is lower, we might see that the context is more adapted to market-based solutions and economic opportunities and development," Souri said.
The survey that focused on economic fragility, environmental fragility, human fragility, political and legal fragility and security and societal fragility was conducted in Yei, Wau, Rubkona, Pibor, Morobo, Malakal, Lainya, Kajo Keji and Bor South counties.
Pia Philip Michael, the undersecretary in the Ministry of Peacebuilding, said that most of the humanitarian interventions in South Sudan have not been based on data, adding that the latest fragility index will help in programming, project design and also in monitoring the investments that are being implemented in parts of the country.
"I know that in South Sudan we are all yearning for stability, and we believe that we cannot attain the stability if we only focus on humanitarian interventions and as we all know there is no development without peace, and no peace without development," the undersecretary said.
South Sudan is the second most fragile country after Somalia, according to the ranking by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
