Investing in women and youth-led businesses and climate-smart approaches in South Sudan

South Sudan is one of the world’s most fragile states. The country faced recurrent war and conflict, even before its independence in 2011. It is extremely vulnerable to climate change, has critically high poverty rates and nearly half of its population experiences acute food insecurity. 

The AfDB recently approved the Climate Resilient Agri-Food Systems Transformation (CRAFT-1) project, a USD 46.2 million grant that will address South Sudan’s persistent fragility by boosting agricultural productivity, building climate resilience and promoting household incomes. 

The programme will support uptake of climate-smart approaches, such as the production of climate-adapted seeds and the development of resilient technologies to improve water use efficiency. It will also strengthen value chain development, notably women and youth-led businesses, while building professional, technical and entrepreneurial skills to create more jobs, especially for women and young people.

This support includes incubating and investing in 500 youth-led startups and promoting marketing organizations for sorghum, sesame, rice and fish producers and processors. 

Developing a stronger digital ecosystem will provide farmers with better access to digital banking services, ongoing e-extension support and radio- and video-based climate advisory information. 

CRAFT-1 will run until the end of 2030 in nine South Sudanese counties and 32 payams (districts) in four states: Bahr el Ghazal in the north, Eastern Equatoria, Central Equatoria and Jonglei. Over 500 000 people stand to benefit directly, including producers, processors, entrepreneurs, staff from training providers, agricultural extension coordinators and civil servants from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. 

The Centre worked closely with the South Sudanese Government and AfDB, and in consultation with development partners, NGOs, private sector, academia and communities, to design the project. The Centre’s technical assistance covered irrigation, agribusiness, digital agriculture, institutional areas, economics and social inclusion. The team also successfully supported the design of a proposal for a competitive call to access funds of the AfDB Prevention Envelope of the Transition Support Facility. South Sudan was selected for an allocation of USD 26 million (inclusive to the CRAFT grant). 

The FAO country office in South Sudan will partner with the Government of South Sudan and AfDB to implement CRAFT-1.