The 2020-2021 Regional Refugee Response Plan (Regional RRP) for South Sudan

The 2020-2021 Regional Refugee Response Plan (Regional RRP) for the South Sudan situation seeks to provide a regionally coherent inter-agency response supported by host governments in five countries of asylum, including Ethiopia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, and Sudan, over the next two years. This updated RRRP continues with the two-year cycle that was introduced with a view to ensuring longer-term predictability in the planning and programming of life-saving and resilience needs of South Sudanese refugees in the region.

In 2020, the Regional RRP is expected to cater for 2.2 million South Sudanese refugees in the five neighboring countries. In 2021, that figure is anticipated to slightly reduce to 2.1 million subject to the revitalized peace agreement currently being implemented. While an estimated 200,000 South Sudanese refugees were reported to have returned spontaneously since 2017, these returns have not be sustainable and led to a majority living in IDP like situations. Ongoing protracted displacement of South Sudanese refugees is expected to exert further pressure on the already limited economic resources of the host countries. The South Sudanese refugee situation remains the largest in Africa and third largest globally, which urgently calls for greater international solidarity and responsibility sharing – key principles that underpin the Global Compact for Refugees.