The Operational Peer Review (OPR) took place in June 2015 and focused on:
- Leadership
- Coordination
- Humanitarian programme cycle
- Protection
- Accountability to affected people (AAP).
The OPR team included representatives from the STAIT, Concern International, OCHA, Norwegian Refugee Council, WFP, and WHO. They conducted meetings, workshops, and interviews with over 300 people from the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), clusters/sectors, humanitarian actors, donors, national counter-parts, and senior representatives from the peacekeeping mission. Field missions were undertaken in Akobo, Bor, and Migkaman, where the team met with front-line humanitarian practitioners, local authorities, and people affected by the crisis.
There was insufficient logistics capacity to cover South Sudan’s difficult terrain, as well as important security and political constraints that were impeding operations. The OPR recognised that the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) and HCT had agreed to formulate a clear vision for prioritising activities given the substantial funding, human resources, and access constraints.
The OPR team worked with the HCT to develop an action plan that set out required actions to strengthen the response, including:
- Strengthening operating modalities and prioritisation.
- Enhancing information management capacity and systems to better inform decision-making.
- Strengthening coordination between clusters, the HCT, and the broader recovery and development community in order to provide a more effective response.
- Developing a HCT Centrality of Protection strategy with a particular focus on the protection of civilian, and sexual and gender based violence.