PHAP Juba network discusses civil-military guidelines in South Sudan

The local PHAP member network in Juba, South Sudan, met on 17 March to learn more about and discuss the development of civil-military guidelines in the country. Attended by a range of NGO Country Directors, protection and policy specialists, donors, and UN staff active in South Sudan, the event was an appreciated opportunity to have an informal discussion with other professionals in the country. A new event is scheduled for 4 May, where the coordination efforts of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in South Sudan will be discussed.

The March event featured as a speaker Nicki Bennett, Humanitarian Policy Advisor with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OHCA) in Juba and founding member of PHAP, who started off by presenting the latest developments regarding civil-military guidelines. Highlighting a number of difficulties associated with adapting the existing global guidelines to the local specificities of the South Sudan context, she set the stage for the ensuing discussions with the participants.

One of the key questions that was discussed concerned how to manage the shared use of humanitarian assets and how civil-military guidelines for the country could be applied in practice. Given the present reliance by some members of the humanitarian community on using military assets and the current context in which UNMISS is perceived to be pushing for further integration, this was an issue that engaged all of the attendees.

Information sharing among actors active in the country was also discussed. At the time of the discussion, UNMISS and some of its other partners were perceived as having a relatively open flow of information among them. Due to the situation in the country, there were potentially serious protection issues that could arise from such information flows, an area that needed further attention.

The event was part of the activities of the local PHAP member network in South Sudan. Ruth A. Allan, organizer of the local network, said over the phone that “our aim is to arrange interesting conversations about topics relevant to us here and now in South Sudan.”  The network will meet again on Saturday 4 May 2013 in Juba to discuss UNHCR coordination. For that event, the speaker is confirmed as a Senior Protection Officer with UNHCR South Sudan.