LocationsSouth Sudan Resets Development Agenda to Rekindle Hope through the Triple Nexus Lens
June 21, 2022
H.E The First Vice-President, Dr. Riek Machar Teny signing off the Revised National Development Strategy at the Launch Ceremony.
June 21st, 2022, JUBA — The Government of South Sudan has launched a Revised National Development Strategy designed to consolidate peace, stabilize the economy, and drive sustainable development in South Sudan over the next three years – 2021- 2024.
On behalf of The President of the Republic of South Sudan H.E General Salva Kiir Mayardit, The First Vice-President, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, unveiled the Revised National Development Strategy (R-NDS) – the country’s second development blueprint that seeks to put the country on a sustainable development path and promises a robust re-engagement with the country’s development partners to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Africa Agenda 2063.
Under the overarching theme of “Consolidate Peace, Stabilize the Economy,” the strategy expresses national aspirations to gradually move from dependence on humanitarian aid to a development path and has adopted a comprehensive implementation framework anchored on collaboration with development partners. The R-NDS seeks to realize its goal through adopting the humanitarian, development and peace nexus approach.
The R-NDS prioritizes strengthening institutions for transparent, accountable, and inclusive governance, fostering macroeconomic stability, laying the foundations for the diversification of the economy and reducing dependency on oil. Other focus areas include increasing support to the social sector for human capital development, building critical infrastructure for sustainable development, including roads, energy and public buildings and broadband capability, protecting the vulnerable populations, and empowering women and youth as drivers of growth and nation-building.
A call to focus on service delivery
The strategy recognizes linkages between governance, peace, economic growth, delivery of social services such as health, education and social safety nets and human capital development.
In the preface to the R-NDS, President Salva Kiir declared a renewed focus on the provision of social services, “Confronting the challenges in our health, education and food security sectors should be our new liberation struggle. It should mobilize our collective action, no matter one’s political persuasions,” he said.
The President urged state and local governments to draw their priorities from the strategy, “I call on governors to draw on the R-NDS to set their respective development priorities taking cognizance of the challenges in their states, and to monitor progress on the R-NDS. The sector working groups at national and state levels must work together to lead the R-NDS implementation.”
Driving the SDG agenda
Speaking on behalf of the UN Country Team, The Resident Coordinator and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sara Nyanti, said, “By aligning the clusters of the R-NDS to respective SDGs, all UN Agencies in South Sudan can carve a niche and identify specific areas of contribution to the implementation of the R-NDS. This is another reason for my conviction and commitment that the UN in South Sudan will walk this journey together with the Government.”
She added “For the United Nation’s Development System, the R-NDS provides strategic guidance to enable the UN Country Team to align its collective contribution and help the complex issues of humanitarian, development, and peace in South Sudan in a holistic and sustainable manner.”
Sarah Beysolow Nyanti, Deputy Special Representative in South Sudan speaking at the launch
On his part, Dr. Samuel Doe, the UNDP Resident Representative, said, “The Revised National Development Strategy is an important means through which the Sustainable Development Goals can be prioritized and achieved, and this is why UNDP supported its formulation and other planning frameworks.”
He noted, “UNDP has a long history of supporting national development planning in South Sudan and we are pleased to have partnered with the Government to develop the R-NDS and State Development Plans, which facilitated integration and alignment of the country’s planning frameworks to regional and global development frameworks such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
UNDP provided analytical support, offered technical expertise in drafting the strategy and supported stakeholder consultations with the States, the Economic Cluster, Heads of Missions (HoMs) and the United Nations Country Team in the NDS review process.
Under the leadership of the Minister of Finance and Planning, the consultations also involved the academia, media, CSOs, the Transitional National Legislative Assembly to ensure the priorities in the revised strategy represent their aspirations for sustainable development. The Minister of Finance and Planning Hon. Agak Achuil Lual pledged that his ministry will set up and facilitate all structures for the implementation of the R-NDS. The Minister also commended UNDP for supporting the design of the R-NDS.
Panelists speaking at the Launch
Funding
The implementation of the R-NDS between 2021- 2024 is projected at US$7.2 billion ($2.2 billion in year 1, $2.48 billion in year 2, and $2.55 billion in year 3).
The Government committed to funding the R-NDS with a financing strategy that ensures that all government policies, programmes and budgets will be based on the R-NDS.
To increase fiscal space, the short-term strategy to finance the R-NDS 2021–2024 will focus on: improving the effectiveness of tax collection, through a fully functional revenue authority, reorienting expenditure towards capital spending and reducing military and wasteful spending; and accelerating economic and financial management reforms. The Government will also improve domestic revenue mobilization, manage oil revenues more strategically, mobilize non-oil revenue, enhance fiscal space, and public investments and systematically promote and incentivize the contribution of domestic private finance and remittances.
Background
Development planning in the country dates to the design of the South Sudan National Development Plan (SSNDP) 2011–2013 which was extended to 2016 and then eventually was succeeded by the South Sudan National Development Strategy (SSNDS) 2018–2021, which has now been revised and extended to 2024.
The R-NDS draws lessons from experiences in the implementation of the SSNDP and the SSNDS, the Revised NDS (R-NDS) and expounds on prevailing opportunities to ensure effective implementation of the plan.
The Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) mandates the R-TGoNU to review and revise the National Development Strategy (NDS) as an instrument for implementing the Agreement and return the country to a development path. You can download the report here.