RSRTF donors visit Leer and Mayendit to engage with communities and witness peace and resilience efforts

[Juba, South Sudan, 3 December 2025] – A high-level donor delegation led by the UN Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Resident Coordinator, and Humanitarian Coordinator, Anita Kiki Gbeho, visited Leer and Mayendit in Southern Unity on 26 November 2025.

The mission met with communities and observed progress under the Reconciliation, Stabilization and Resilience Trust Fund (RSRTF). Delegation members engaged with program participants, local authorities, youth groups, women’s associations, customary leaders, and community peace structures.

“This visit and in particular the exchanges with the communities have confirmed that the area-based initiatives supported by the RSRTF provide an important contribution for the process of stabilization of these counties. They are contributing to the peaceful relations within and between communities, and preparing the ground for good governance and justice, as well as economic resilience,” said Barbara Egger, Team Leader for Cooperation, European Union.

“This visit for me emphasizes once more the importance of localization: working with the community in designing and implementing a program. It was for that reason I thanked the communities we spoke to for their continuous efforts. To sustain the benefits and expand them in an efficient way will be an important next step for the RSRTF,” said Floor Nuiten, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

During the visit, the delegation heard firsthand accounts of how RSRTF-supported initiatives are reducing tensions, building trust, and promoting community-led resilience. They also visited RSRTF-funded infrastructure, including the Police Station and Community Market Shade in Mayendit and the Women’s Centre in Leer.

“The RSRTF field visit to Leer was one of the firsts visits I’ve been on where I have been able to see the humanitarian-development nexus truly in practice,” said Ingrid Østensen Ernø, Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Youth and women leaders shared stories about joint projects, such as dyke construction, that are breaking down longstanding divisions between communities in SPLA-IO and SPLA-IG areas. Police, prison officers, customary court chiefs, and members of peace and police-community relations committees described how they are now part of a more coherent system strengthening justice delivery. The chiefs noted their growing recognition of the formal justice system, reflected in the recent successful mobile court session in Leer.

At the Women’s Centre, the delegation met survivors of gender-based violence and women formerly associated with armed groups who are rebuilding their confidence and livelihoods. The delegation also engaged with Village Savings and Loan Associations, youth peace networks, and community security actors who work across political and military divides to prevent conflict and promote social cohesion.

“The courage of the girl who stood up to speak in front of the chiefs and other senior members about how she now feels safe from violence in her community, and the elder “Mama” who shared how families are no longer so quick to marry off their daughters at a young age, are powerful reminders that resilience and peace begin in communities. These changes are the real markers of progress,” said Jennifer Cooper, Head of Cooperation at the Embassy of Canada.

DSRSG/RC/HC Anita Kiki Gbeho highlighted the importance of the initiative in reducing widespread violence: “What the RSRTF is doing at the local level, helping communities stabilize and preventing people from getting involved in wider conflict, is exactly what we need more of in the future. With conflicts breaking out in many states, supporting local communities to resist broader violence is essential. Strengthened engagement at the state level could make a significant difference.”

In Southern Unity, the RSRTF has turned one of South Sudan’s most volatile and flood-affected conflict hotspots into a live demonstration of the nexus in action. The program of the consortium led by World Relief along with UNMISS, IRC, UNIDOR, DRI, and AMA reaches 42 payams and 269,008 people across Leer, Mayendit, Panyijiar, hot spots in Mayom and Koch, and nearby counties in Lakes State.

By combining peace and security work, rule of law support, and livelihoods in the same payams, the Fund has helped communities stay in place, reduced incentives for armed mobilization, and linked climate-flood response directly to conflict prevention. What makes the Southern Unity ABP unique is that it does not treat Leer, Mayendit and Panyijiar as permanent humanitarian emergencies, but as areas where peace dividends and local resilience can be built—even under extreme fragility.

This is why continued donor support to the RSRTF is necessary to not only continue saving lives but also contributing to changing the trajectory of some of the hardest-hit parts of South Sudan.

The UN Multi-Partner Reconciliation, Stabilization and Resilience Trust Fund (RSRTF) is a pooled fund supported by Canada, the EU, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and South Korea.

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For more information, please contact: Newaz Mohammed Rifaat | Communications Officer | RSRTF | mohammed.rifaat.newaz@undp.org  |  +211921594461