Haven Cruz-Hubbard (left) being sworn in as USAID's Mission Director for South Sudan in August, 2020. Credit|USAID South Sudan/Facebook

The United States Agency for International Development, USAID, says it will soon launch a four-year strategy for its assistance program in South Sudan.

The program is meant to build a more self-reliant, self-supporting and self-sustainable South Sudan.

USAID said the broad-based comprehensive strategy will also include multi-year programs for each sector -with a focus on building capacity and resilience to external shocks such as natural disasters, inter-communal violence among others.

Haven Cruz-Hubbard, the new USAID Mission Director for South Sudan, announced that the agency is also focusing on building “the resilience of families, households and communities” to maintain stability and productivity even in times of deep crisis.

USAID has so far provided nearly $5.6 billion in emergency humanitarian assistance since the civil war erupted in December 2013 and July 2016 and more than $1.8 billion in development assistance since South Sudan’s independence in 2011.

The United States Government has also provided $46.9 million to help South Sudan respond to the coronavirus pandemic, including nearly $38 million through USAID.

In an exclusive interview with Eye Radio on Thursday 24 September 2020 -Haven Cruz-Hubbard who began his post in Juba last month explains the “new four-year strategy for the assistance programming with the people of South Sudan.”

“The first is to continue to meet the basic humanitarian needs of communities in crisis. Looking to decrease overall dependence on foreign aid, there has to be a pathway out of our traditional assistances relationship. We want to transform it and make it self-sustaining….”

Listen to the full interview:

In October 2017, USAID launched a three-year project on sustainable agriculture for economic resiliency in South Sudan.

The program was expected to help communities become resilient to shocks including conflict, economic and environment-related shocks. It also targeted households that experienced stress and crisis levels of food insecurity.