As the aid community might be less aware of droughts amidst flood-hit areas, this blog by the Agency for Women and Children Development (AWACD), Ranga Gworo and CSRF, highlights the implications of drought on food insecurity in Mayendit County, Unity State. The blog also discusses the intersections between food insecurity and droughts and outlines some conflict-sensitive considerations for responding to drought-induced food insecurity in Mayendit.
Stories of flooding dominate headlines in South Sudan, with Unity State becoming the front-runner among the hardest-hit states. While flooding has often been linked to food insecurity in Unity State, drought has recently surpassed flooding as a major driver of food insecurity, particularly in Unity State’s Mayendit County. Drought-induced food insecurity presents a unique challenge to the flood-hit population in the area.
Mayendit County, one of seven counties of Unity State, has been an epicenter of armed conflicts and climate-induced crises, including flooding and food insecurity. Located in the South of Unity State, it borders Jonglei, Warrap, and Lakes States. Since 2023, the area has experienced relative peace following a reduction in armed conflict, but it has continued to grapple with the effects of flooding. Last year alone, flooding nearly submerged all its 13 payams, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of people.[1] Although flooding is a major problem in the area, most people attribute last year (2024)’s food insecurity to drought.[2] A With almost half of population surveyed citing drought, this indicates that drought has become a dominant driver of food insecurity in Mayendit.
While food insecurity in Mayendit is attributed to multiple factors, including armed conflict, displacement, and flooding, drought has now become the leading factor, amid a reduction in violence. Although both flooding and drought destroy planted crops, flooding, unlike droughts, provides livelihood alternatives— fish, and water lilies on which people depend on during scarcity.[4] In contrast, drought can dry up water and pasture, which are vital for livestock, and it deprives humans of access to water, fish, and water lilies. Besides that, drought in Mayendit negatively impacts farming by stunting and killing crops, leading to poor harvests or crop failures. Drought has also been associated with the emergence of new types of pests and weeds, with at least 26% citing them as a problem affecting both humans and livestock.[5] Additionally, drought forces people to sell their livestock, a key asset to mitigate harvest failures, and the exhaustion of this livelihood asset can make people vulnerable in the longer term. Thus, drought presents a more serious challenge to alternative sources of food.
Both flooding and drought lead to displacement, forcing people to relocate to higher ground and distant places, respectively. Both types of displacement create insecurity. For example, flood-induced displacement can lead to competition over dry land, resulting in human-to-human conflict or human-animal conflict, including snake bites. This is because people, livestock, and wild animals migrate from flooded areas to dry high ground, leading to competition between humans and wild animals over water, pasture, and land. Living in a crowded space also leads to the spread of diseases among people and animals contributing to disputes, particularly around livestock diseases. These conflicts can affect the lives of both animals and humans. However, drought-induced displacement can lead not only to competition over scarce water and pasture, but also to cattle raiding, resulting in the death of animals or humans, and the loss of cattle. The longer the dry spell, the higher the prevalence of conflict and cattle raiding which risks escalating in larger intercommunal violence, and the longer the wet spell, the shorter the prevalence of conflict and cattle raiding. As a result, the effects of drought-induced displacement on food insecurity can be a challenge.
Lastly, flooding and drought both affect community climate coping strategies. With communities already overstretched or used to dealing with flooding, addressing the effects of drought can be more challenging. Despite the continued rise in floods level, communities possess local mechanisms to address flooding based on their long-term knowledge and practices, including building dikes, and mobilising communal labour. However, drought can be a nightmare, as it undermines people’s resilience by exhausting their assets and therefore negatively affecting their coping mechanisms.
Furthermore, the shifting power dynamics between the generations due to conflict, displacement and natural disasters in Mayendit has crippled the ability of communities to withstand or cope with both flooding and drought. For instance, the power has shifted away from elders, who are the repository of indigenous knowledge on flooding, to youth groups because of conflict and flooding. These youth groups might be ill-prepared to choose different resource distribution priorities.[6] Also, the shift in funding is likely to undermine the response to flooding and even to drought. While ongoing flood mitigation projects might continue as they are more emergency in nature, drought-related projects might be difficult to support amid the current funding cuts and the shifting donor priorities.
This suggests that drought has become a dominant cause of food insecurity, which intersects with floods and armed conflict in multiple ways. Thus, aid actors should consider drought alongside flooding in their disaster response in Mayendit County. To respond to the climate crises, including flooding and droughts, as well as armed conflict, and displacement in an inclusive and conflict-sensitive manner, aid actors need to consider different options, including the following:
Strengthen functional climate early warning systems, which involve communities, for forecasting capacity and information systems for both flooding and drought. This can enable people to prepare for any eventualities. Although the telecommunication and internet connections are poor in the county, the Starlink option can be explored as a source of internet. However, it must be emphasised that Starlink’s internet services are fairly new to the context and as such, still limited to the educated and those who can afford it due to the cost of smartphones and a lack of basic literacy. Thus, aid actors need to collaborate with communication service providers to establish telecommunication networks to support an anticipatory early warning system. Even when modern technological ways are being sought, close collaboration with communities must be cardinal to ensure that their traditional ways are strengthened and functional.
Strengthen the capacity of local communities to deal with both flooding and drought and provide necessary support to strengthen their community coping strategies. This dual capacity strengthening and support will enable local communities to be more prepared to prevent and mitigate the effects of flooding and drought. Thus, aid actors need to promote community awareness and support their preparedness to mitigate the effects of climate change. This capacity could also entail establishing water management infrastructure that can be maintained by the community and local government, with minimal facilitation by agencies.
Explore sustainable ways to provide support to those affected by droughts. This is because drought deprives people of alternative means of survival, and it creates new problems. For example, people who sell off their livestock to offset drought might be vulnerable in the long run, as well as those who might be grappling with the effects of invasive weeds. Thus, aid actors need to provide much-needed food assistance and solutions to the spread of invasive weeds. However, assistance should be provided in sustainable ways, as much as the trend in funding reduction can allow. This may include working through community groups, local governance and traditional structures, or strengthening increased collaborative ways across agencies.
Identify and strengthen climate-adaptive food production and livelihood opportunities. Work with local government, youth, women and traditional leaders to catalyse community knowledge and practices to improve household production, nutrition, as well as storage of surplus food.
[1] Radio Tamazuj (2024), “Floods hit 10 Mayendit County payams,” November
[2] Humanitarian Practice Network (2024), “Too Much and Little Rain: Food Insecurity among displaced and host communities in South Sudan,” March
[3] Ibid.
[4] Op. Cit.Humanitarian Practice Network (2024)
[5] Op. Cit. Humanitarian Practice Network (2024)
[6] Reach Initiative, (2021) “Compounding shocks and consequences for food security, coping capacities, and social stratifications in Leer and Mayendit Counties, Unity State, South Sudan,” June