Right 2 Grow Project activities, National Budget analysis and validation
The national budget analysis was done by CRC with physical, technical and online support from CEGAA from February to April 2022. The analysis was done using information sourced from the South Sudan government, printed and online documents from the Ministry of Finance and Planning. Once extracted, relevant information was captured and analysed using Microsoft Excel. A word search approach was used in line with Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement recommendations to identify nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific allocations in the budget documents.
As a result of the national budget analysis from 2018 -2022, per capita allocation clearly indicates that per capita allocation increment tripled from 2018-2022. There is still a need to ascertain that the budget is sufficient to cover the ever-increasing public needs, given the situation visible on the ground. There are evidently increased allocations for food security and WASH budget lines from 2018 – 2022. However, it’s not insightful in improvement of livelihood with ‘8.9 Million people likely to suffer from food insecurity and an estimated 2 million people including 1.3 million children under the age 5 and another 675,548 pregnant and lactating women are expected to be acutely malnourished in 2022’ according to The UN 2022 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO)
There are no further indications of access to running water in the city, towns and villages and about 6 Million people have no access to WASH related services even though there is a substantial yearly increasing allocations to ministry of water resource and Irrigation.
In conclusion, there was actual allocation conversely and there is no available information on actual disbursement, and actual expenditures, time frame; when disbursements and expenditures were done while analysing the national budget.
Development of the National budget policy brief:
CRC developed the national budget policy brief in April 2022 with support from CEGAA after the National budget analysed. The policy brief was the evidence generated from the budget analysis on food security and WASH giving the R2G consortium partners an opportunity to join in a half-day online meeting and provided their inputs, comments and shared their experiences from the field.
Upon presenting the budget policy brief to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, a 15 year long serving technocrat reviewed and confirmed the accuracy of the document and commended that not only CSOs will use this but it’s of great importance for the Ministry of Finance as well as Economic and Planning Oversight Committee in the Parliament of South Sudan. On 2 June 2022, for the first time, the Director General of Budgeting and Revenue in the Ministry of Finance and Planning confirmed accuracy and relevance of the Budget Policy Brief on Government Expenditures on Nutrition and WASH in South Sudan National Budgets for fiscal year 2018 – 2022 due to the accuracy of the evidences generated for budget advocacy hence paving a way to engage with the line ministries of Health, Agriculture, Water Resource and Irrigation to provide comments and related budget information.
The national budget policy brief will further be used when advocating for budgets relating to food security and WASH at national and state level.
Dissemination of the National Budget Policy Brief in a Parliamentary Engagement
On 8th of July 2022, CRC conducted National Budget analysis parliamentarian engagement meeting attended by 45 members of parliament, 7 R2G consortium partners, CSOs, children and media. This was the first national budget advocacy engagement with the parliament and line ministries of its kind.
Due to the right approach used, there was high level of acceptance and commitment to collaborate in advocating for better allocation of budget lines relating to food security and WASH. This was indicated by a lot of interests and commitments from the parliament to understand budget related issues that requires their attention and willingness to address during the parliamentary budgeting sittings.
During the dissemination workshop of budget policy brief, the parliamentarians learnt of the gaps identified in the budget analysis and pledged to review food security and WASH budget allocations once parliament receives national budget draft. The parliamentarians reiterated to push for public participation, accountability and transparency in the budgeting process.
The parliament further pledged to provide more budget information, especially on actual allocations, disbursements, and spending with their respective timelines for the next budget analysis exercise.
Participated in the co-creation of the global R2G strategy named Bridge 4 voices in Turkieye
From 8th -13th August 2022, Two staff of CRC participated actively in the co-creation of the global R2G strategy named Bridge 4 voices in Istanbu, Turkieye. This meeting was attended by all the R2G global partners from South Sudan, Uganda, Mali, Bukina-faso, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and South Africa.
The purpose of the workshop was to jointly co-create a contextualized community led strategy for food security and WASH advocacy. The workshop was a massive success that included mutual learning and expertise sharing making the strategy more inclusive putting into accounts the different contexts of the different countries and communities being served by R2G.
The strategy development continued after the workshop with different countries participating in numerous online engagements that led to the final strategy drafted and called ‘Bridge 4 Voices’.
Participated in the National Budget reading 3rd and final.
Following engagement with the lawmakers on the dissemination of the national budget policy brief, other background follows ups and lobbying, the Chairperson of the specialized committee on finance and planning permitted by the speaker Invited the R2G consortium partners to attend the 3rd and final South Sudan national budget reading that took place on 27th of September 2022.
R2G observes and established high level contacts with the legislators for continuous influence and engagements. The parliament availed all the approved national budget documents from fiscal year 2017 – 2022 and the drafted budget document for fiscal year 2022/2023.
The parliament pledged continuously work in collaboration and consultation with R2G and other CSOs whenever needed.
Government inclusive budget process workshop.
On 1st – 2nd November 2022, CRC in collaboration with CEGAA conducted Government inclusive budget process workshop in Juba South Sudan. The workshop was attended by 25 government officials from the lines ministries of agriculture, health, water resources and irrigation, finance and economic planning and the specialized committees in the parliament supporting this line ministries.
The aim of this workshop was Capacity enhancement and technical support for improved budgeting and spending outcomes of nutrition and wash programmes in South Sudan. The workshop raised their awareness on community and budget issues and trained them on how issues can be absorbed through proper national budgeting. among the best practice discussed during the workshop included; public participation, transparency and accountability.
The participants enlightened CRC and CEGAA on some of the challenges that hinder better budgeting processes in the country a perspective that must be noted to improve national budgeting process. some of the challenges included; engaging the budget processes without doing needs assessment, limited access to information needed to as evidence for decision making, delays of funds disbursement to the ministries, government’s budget allocations with insufficient and unclear funding sources, and unstructured national budget timelines.
R2G South Sudan’s first consortium’s exchange visit to Melut County.
On 8th-13th November 2022, CRC and consortium partner participated in the first South Sudan exchange visit to Melut county.
The visit was aimed at learning from the implementation of world Vision’s best practices and further engage the local authority in Melut on basic BMET processes, establish contacts for future community dialogues with the local government on importance of engaging with the national government throughout the budget process to improve food security and WASH situation in the country.
Some lesson from the visit Included; there is clearly no participation from the local government in the budgeting processes hence no ground to demand for service delivery.
The county of Melut clearly is affected by hazardous waste from the oil exploitation in the area as a result, some children are born with anomalies, land is highly polluted and locals depends on the water supplied by the oil companies.
The community through their leaders’ request R2G consortium to carry out assessment and generate enough evidence to advocate for strong policies to protect the environment and the people in Melut county and counties with similar situations.
BMET Media Engagement
On 28th – 30th November, 2022 CRC in collaboration with Right 2 Grow Consortium partners conducted media engagement with media houses from the states and Juba to enhance capacities and provide technical support to advance Right 2 Grow project. The CRC shared learning on Budget monitoring and expenditure tracking and roles of media in achieving budget advocacy. The engagement was very interactive with knowledge and capacity sharing in which media houses learned new tools to support the BMET, story writing and development of radio materials for effective budget advocacy.
Submission of Supplementary and Children’s Independent Reports
On 15th July to 15th August 2022, The Child Rights Coalition and Human Rights Commission with support from Save the Children International conducted consultations on additional information to the UN committee of experts on the rights of the child.
The additional information was collected in three regions of South Sudan covering ten states and three administrative areas specifically in most affected Yambio in Western Equatoria State, Rumbek in Lakes State, Bor in Jonglei State. It’s equally important for the UN Committee to understand direct from the stakeholders including children and duty bearers what happened in the country after the country received list of issues from the Committee of Experts. The consultation present children’s expressed views and compliment from CSOs and government on issues of Violence against children, harmful traditional practices, education, child participation, budget allocation, flooding, poverty, and effect of Covid-19 pandemicincluding comments on the list of issues received by the government.
This additional information provides a depiction on the progress of the implementation of the list of issues received by the government of South Sudan in its first review done by the UN committee of experts in Geneva, February 2020.
The information was collected on the Convention on the Rights of the Child status with meaningful participation of 45 children, 30 CSOs, 9 Child line ministries and 3 international organizations. The information was collected based on the consultation done through focus group discussions, key informants interviews and questionnaires to help the UN committee understand local solutions from children to their problems.
Child Rights Coalition and Human Rights Commission visit to Lakes State, on child rights issues
The Child Rights Coalition in collaboration with South Sudan Human Rights Commission with the support and facilitation of Save the Children International officially visited Rumbek, Lakes State on 6th – 7th September, 2022 to meet with the leadership of the armed forces in order to evacuate the schools under their occupation as agreed on by the Safe School declaration guideline for South Sudan; to discuss with the Governor child rights violations issues as part of child rights monitoring and reporting, and the support needed from the Human Rights commission toward implementation of recently passed state child marriage policy that criminalizes child marriage in Lakes State; to agree with the officials on how to help children have access to children’s desks with the aim to protect them and their interest and; finally, to agree on how to enhance cooperation with a view to complementing national and state efforts on the promotion and protection of child rights. As a result, the following actions were agreed upon in four separate meetings in different locations within Rumbek, Lakes State.
- The new policy that criminalized earlier and force marriage passed by the assembly, yet to be signed by the state governor and be taken back to the assembly so that the state constitution is amended
- The committee consisting of community and school will be formed to monitor new policy passed criminalizing earlier and force marriage in Lakes state, state ministry of education will take the lead.
- CRC and Human Rights Commission will carry out awareness on the new policy passed criminalizing earlier and force marriage in Lakes state.
- Director General in the ministry of education will be invited to attend stakeholders meeting on 22nd September, 2022 in Juba with support from Save the Children
- The director General in the ministry of education will visit the office of the governor to confirm the status of the policy if the governor has signed it and if the policy is amended in the state constitution, the director will update human rights commission and Child Rights Coalition
- The security forces will be relocated from Mabor Ngap and Chuei Adukan respectively to far location and state minister of education will write a memo to the council of ministers to decide the issue of Mabor Ngap primary school and market combined in one place
- The ministry of education and ministry of land and housing will have a joint meeting in September, 2022 to address the issue of school and market combined before the council of ministers sit on this issue.
- The state minister of education will meet with governor after returning from Juba to start the process of relocating security forces in Mabor Ngap primary school to another location
- Mabor Ngap Primary School need fence to prevent school children to access the market and to keep away public from performing cultural dance in the school compound.
- Human Rights Commission and Child Rights Coalition will follow up these commitments to ensure children are learning in a safe environment.
Human Rights Commission and stakeholders meeting on child rights advocacy issues in South Sudan
On 27th September 2022, Child Rights Coalition in collaboration with Save the Children organized a one-day meeting in Juba, South Sudan for Human Rights Commission, government line ministries and stakeholders to discuss child rights advocacy issues in South Sudan.
The meeting was attended by 25 participants from government line ministries, human rights commission, CSOs, UN agencies and international organizations. The meeting resolved to prioritize advocacy on the establishment of an independence child commission, follow up of court petition to define marriageable age in the penal code 2009, review of Child Act 2008, awareness creation on the recent Lakes State Child Marriage policy, ratification of the ACRWC, ratification of the UNCRPD and violence against children. These advocacy issues identified were agreed by the participants to be incorporated into partners’ action plan for 2023.
Capacity building workshop for national child rights organisations in the Republic South Sudan
On 25th – 27th May 2022 Child Rights Coalition in partnership with Eastern Africa Child Rights Network organized a capacity building workshop for national child rights organisations in the Republic of South Sudan to build the capacity of civil society organizations on lobby and advocacy; build on existing knowledge to report on the UNCRC and the UPR and to engage the government to create safe and free space for the operation of CSO in South Sudan.
The CSOs during the workshop learned new tools, approaches and principles that support lobby and advocacy, learned lessons to become effective advocate to report on child rights situation in South Sudan, enhanced on what supports and what blocks civil space to deliver humanitarian assistance and ways to improved partnership and collaboration between government and CSOs on child rights and welfare. The plenary session on the last day was attended by the representatives from the national security, ministry of education and child welfare in support to create enable environment for CSOs advocacy in the country. The meeting recommended to establish Child Rights Coalition states’ based network to strengthen coordination, monitoring and reporting on issues affecting children.
Regional Advocacy Meetings
On 9th to 10th June 2022, Child Rights Coalition participated in 8th Annual General Assembly Meeting organized by Eastern Africa Child Rights Network.
The 8th Annual General Meeting (AGM) concluded after an intensive two days in Kampala, Uganda. The meeting created a platform for discussions on diverse issues that are essential for the development of our organization, as well as issues that affect our work in promoting the rights of the child. The Meeting was attended by representatives from all the 10 member coalitions in EACRN (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi (2), Madagascar, Somaliland, Sudan, South Sudan and Rwanda); development partners (Save the Children International and Plan International); and other partners (Eastern Africa Civil Societies Forum (EACSOF)). There was also representation from the East African Community (EAC) and government bodies from Uganda. During the meeting Child Rights Coalition shared a presentation on the 2021 progress, challenges and support needed to implement 2022 programs. The Chairperson of Child Rights Coalition played a very significant role during the AGM in resolving Burundi networks dispute regarding their membership to the EACRN.
Civil Society Organizations Forum on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
On 20th to 22nd November 2022 in Maseru, Lesotho Child Rights Coalition participated in a Civil Society Organizations Forum on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (CSO Forum) 21st Ordinary Session under the Theme: “Promoting and Protecting Children’s Rights in the Digital Environment: gains, opportunities and risks.”
During the sessions the CSOs shared information and knowledge on children’s rights and the digital environment, knowledge on how to promote and protect children’s rights in the digital environment. explored ways and means to build a safe, secure, and inclusive digital environment for all children, generated concrete recommendations on how member states should invest on safe and secure universal access to online platforms, lessons to strengthen and build the institutional capacity of regional child rights networks for organizational efficiency and delivery of evidence-based advocacy agenda around children’s rights and the digital space as well as how to facilitate horizontal learning and sharing on critical child rights issues broadly and strengthen CSOs and children’s interventions, such as early childhood development (ECD) through the partner – led side events.
The General Assembly as per the prescription of the constitution was conducted, Side events as per the CSO Forum’s strategic partnership management were done including capacity building in accordance with the Forum’s Strategic Plan. The Child Rights Coalition appealed to the CSO Forum 21st Ordinary Session leadership to lobby the committee on African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child to call upon South Sudan including other 4 states to ratify ACRWC in 2023. The forum also provided Child Rights Coalition an opportunity to attend the committee on African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child sessions in 2022.
Admission of Child Rights Coalition to the Fourth Permanent General Assembly of the Economic Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (ECOSOCC).
In July 2022, Child Rights Coalition submitted an application for membership in light of the above reference and in October 2022 the ECOSOCC Fourth Permanent General Assembly and the ECOSOCC Credentials Committee and the AU Interdepartmental Team jointly reviewed and appraised Child Rights Coalition application against a set of criteria as stipulated in the Statute of ECOSOCC. By virtue of qualification Child Rights Coalition was admitted to ECOSOCC and National Coordinator after separate credentials reviewed was officially invited by the ECOSOCC Secretariat as focal for the organization and South Sudan to the composite elections. During the Fourth Permanent General Assembly of the Economic Social and Cultural Council of the African Union convened in Nairobi, Kenya from 06 to 09, December 2022. The national Coordinator of Child Rights Coalition Mr. Samuel Chor Alier was elected to the ECOSOCC and took oath of Office alongside 150 members representing member states of the African Union for a term of 4 years to contribute expertizes, knowledge and ideas to the council programs and African Union agenda 2063.
Through this membership, Child Rights Coalition will have space and opportunity to advocate on issues affecting children within the AU structures and will get support in collaboration with the ECOSOCC to advance the AU agenda 2063. This recognition will foster better relationship with the government of South Sudan enabling safe environment for CSOs Child Rights Advocacy in the Country.
