Safety Net and Skills Development - Public Works
concluded
Despite favourable circumstances for agriculture in Torit County, most of the labour force is left idle. Due to a combination of poor infrastructure that blocks entrance to urban markets and the unavailability of finance, the labour force (of mostly young
Despite favourable circumstances for agriculture in Torit County, most of the labour force is left idle. Due to a combination of poor infrastructure that blocks entrance to urban markets and the unavailability of finance, the labour force (of mostly young people) was left idle. This scenario threatened the country’s stability, despite peace and development efforts the government and development partners.
The Safety Net and Skills Development – Public Works (SNSD-PW) project worked to open and improve employment opportunities for local communities, particularly in the public works sector, in Torit County with the aim to reduce poverty and promote peace. This project ended in December 2017 due to the closing of the SNV office in South Sudan.
The project utilised approaches, such as Cash for Work, which are manual labour focused, to create additional income opportunities for the vulnerable communities’, to alleviate desperation and destitution among the urban and semi-urban dwellers in Torit County. Provided public work activities, would target the lean season of the year, when the hunger gap is at its peak, and alternative income sources such as income from crops are at their lowest.
The SNSD-PW project intended to achieve:
Provision of income for youth and women from poor households through a seasonal transfer, linked to their participation in public works, in order to increase and sustain household assets, and smooth consumption during lean seasons.
Resulting Public Works will help build, repair, or maintain local infrastructure that will benefit the community at large.
SNV’s worked closely with the communities, authorities and other relevant stakeholders, to mobilise and empower target communities, identify beneficiaries, and public works priority activities that will significantly benefit target beneficiaries.
In the process, SNV strengthened the capacities of local government structures at various levels and the target communities to enable them to identify priority needs, plan and implement activities, become accountable, be conflict sensitive and promote access to services.
