Livestock keeping, and fishery are major livelihood activities in Jonglei. Lack of improved fishing and fish postharvest handling skills, lack of access to quality fishing gears, high livestock disease prevalence, and lack of veterinary and extension services are major challenges facing livestock keepers and fishers in Jonglei. The resilience food security program (RFSP) has supported over 7000 beneficiaries to alleviate the above mentioned challenges .
RFSP APPROACH:
Improving access to extension services
RFSP supports livestock keepers to access extension services through government seconded extension agents to advance improved livestock and fishery production practices. The project provides technical support and capacity building of government field extension agents (FEAs) through the provision of training, technical supervision, and learning visits. This support is aimed at improving the delivery of improved extension services in fishery, livestock husbandry, nutrition and preventive health to livestock keepers at village, boma and payam level.
Building productive assets for women
The program supports vulnerable women heads of households to re-build productive assets and strengthen their livelihoods recovery and resilience through a revolving credit based small ruminant restocking scheme. This is done through organizing voucher based livestock fairs in which participants are supported to purchase reproductive age small ruminants of their choice on credit basis.
Improving access to veterinary services
The 2013 crisis severely impaired public and private animal health service delivery systems and veterinary drug supply chains in South Sudan. In the face of high animal disease prevalence and mortality, lack of access to animal health services is a major challenge facing livestock herders. The program supports livestock keepers to access veterinary services through community animal health workers (CAHWs) who are trained and technically assisted by the program. The CAHWs are community members who live and work with the program target community, providing vaccination and veterinary services as well as technical advice on animal disease control and prevention for a reasonable fee to enable them to replenish their veterinary stock and sustain their services.
Improving fish yield and marketing
The program promotes improved fish production, processing and handling to enhance food security and resilience of fishery producer groups through provision of appropriate fishing gears, promoting value added and market oriented production, and training on improved fishing , post harvest handling, processing and preservation methods. In 2018 RFSP supported six fisheries groups which earned a total of 177132 SSP (13,632 US). The revenue generated is a good indicator of the fishery sector potential in improving livelihoods capacity.
The program ensures sustainable fishing practices through the provision of government approved fishing kits and continuous trainings on recommended fishing practices.
Diversify livelihoods through promoting beekeeping
RFSP initiated a pilot project on beekeeping and honey production for women and youth groups to diversify their livelihoods and expand income generating activities and food sources. The program provides training and support with the appropriate materials for honey production, processing and marketing. The results of the pilot will inform the extent to which the program will rollout this activity to other counties.
Integration with other sectors
Members of producer groups are trained on business skills and integrated into savings and internal lending communities (SILC) groups to facilitate access to capital to replenish their supplies and better run their business. Fishers and livestock producers receive nutrition and WASH promotion messages during extension visits that are integrated with other sectors.
