Impact study of the UNDP South Sudan, Peace and Community Cohesion project

The UNDP South Sudan, Peace and Community Cohesion project (PaCC), Phase 1 (2017 to 2020), aimed to improve security by strengthening relations between divided communities through joint projects. It also helped to set up institutional peace institutions at both local and national level.

Main method: Review of documentation and monitoring data, complemented with interviews.

Positives: Beneficiaries reported improvements in a range of areas, including perceived security. However, the data does not permit us to clearly attribute these improvements to the project. Sida’s non-earmarked funding enabled adaptive management and flexibility, allowing funds to be spent across activities as needed, which was perceived as important for achieving positive results.

Potential shortcomings: The security situation in the project areas remain volatile, and gains  are fragile due to recurring crises. The project did not successfully address the weak or absent institutions. Local achievements were not scaled up to the national level, highlighting the difficulties of achieving sustainable impact in a fragile, and conflict-affected context with limited political will. Sida’s reporting is based exclusively on the project data available, which result in limitations of rigidity. These limitations have not been reflected in Sida’s reporting.