Building capacity in disaster risks in South Sudan

South Sudan is vulnerable to number of natural disasters, the most common being weather related such as floods, drought, heat waves, disease outbreaks and earthquake, to mention only but a few. All these hazards aggravated by climate change have increased in recent years in terms of intensity, frequency and complexity leaving behind them trails of several destruction of infrastructures, human misery and loss of livelihoods.

UNESCO Juba office is supporting mainstreaming disaster risk management in national development plans in light of building capacity in disaster risk reduction. The project is contributing towards developing guidelines for mainstreaming disaster risk planning into national and sectorial development plans.

South Sudan is exceptionally vulnerable to weather related natural hazards which demands diverse participation and coordination from different relevant ministries. According to the Climate Vulnerability Index 2017, South Sudan ranked amongst five worst performing to tackle the impact of climate change in the world. UNESCO Juba office is working with Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Ministry of Environment and Forestry and Department of Meteorology among others to support inter-ministerial information-sharing and coordination on mainstreaming disaster risk management.

The implementation of the activity include, knowledge generation, building technical and institutional capacity as well as advocacy to enhance collective awareness and response to natural hazards.