Accelerating value chain and agrifood enterprise development that builds food systems resilience in South Sudan (AFSRiSS)

The AFSRiSS project is taking a food systems lens to scale up three proven approaches, which will be tailored to the local realities in South Sudan: 1. the Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) approach, 2. the Farmer Agency for Rural Economies (FARE) approach, and 3. the ‘learning for adaptive programming’ approach.Supporting decentralised community-based seed production in combination with seed certification for different seed classes and local seed businesses development will strongly reduce the (current) dependency on seed imports of often inferior quality at a high price. Functional local seed systems are important for higher production (both in terms of volume and quality), and for value chain and agrifood enterprise development, which are pivotal in building resilient local food systems for improved food and nutrition outcomes (overall objective). Especially in areas of protracted crises, it is crucial to take a dynamic approach, and to adapt interventions.Adaptive programming during project implementation is key. AFSRiSS will support all relevant stakeholders at different levels to developing context-specific programming and implementation, with the use of both own (human and financial) resources and project resources. AFSRiSS will build on the currently established Dutch government-funded Food and Nutrition Security Resilience Programme (FNS-REPRO) knowledge, learning and capacity-building agenda and will implement learning mechanisms to constantly reinforce field activities, build evidence, and improve policy on food system resilience.Intended results are: • Improved seed security in Jur River County (Western Bahr el Ghazal State), Bor South County and Pibor County (Jonglei State/GPAA), and Torit County (Eastern Equatoria State).• 30 locally-owned and prioritized cases in the targeted counties, focusing on production and value chain development. Prioritizing women and youth as case owners.• A stakeholder-supported process of implementation, learning and adaptation.• Bottom-up advocacy for improving the enabling environment.