What is the main problem the project is seeking to address? ​Since gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan’s legacy of conflict, displacement, weak services, and limited public awareness, continue to strip individuals of their rights, exposing them to risks including statelessness. Anecdotes estimate that only 10% out of 12 million South Sudanese population possess Nationality Certificates, the country is yet to issue National Identity cards and Birth Certificates. ​Vulnerable groups including returnees, border populations, and minorities face significant barriers in securing legal identity (i.e. Nationality Certificates and Passports). Ongoing crises in Sudan have intensified these risks, with UNHCR reporting 590,956 refugees and 4,685 asylum seekers in South Sudan, placing millions more at heightened risk of statelessness and exclusion from basic rights and services. ​In its pursuit for an inclusive society, South Sudan has made key policy commitments including becoming a signatory to the 2017 ICGLR Declaration on the Eradication of Statelessness, accession to the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions, and recently approved Civil Registry Rules and Procedures, and Adopted a Costed Plan for the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) System. ​However, implementation is constrained by limited infrastructure and institutional weaknesses. Over the past five years, Hold the Child’s work with the Directorate of Civil Registry, UNHCR, and other stakeholders underpins quick wins including multistakeholder collaborations for piloting National ID processing and Birth Registration within existing constraints, domestication of international protocols, coalition building for policy dialogue on strategic financing and civil registry system institutional strengthening.​

What is the main change the project seeks to achieve? ​The project leverages multistakeholder collaboration, engaging government institutions, UN agencies, civil society, rights holders, and the development community to ensure inclusive solutions, sustainable investment, and long-term impact. It combines policy advocacy and capacity strengthening to pilot birth registration and national ID processing within existing contexts, creating a real-life user case model to guide future scale-up and investment. Key interventions: ​A. Coalition building and advocacy: Strengthen the existing ad-hoc technical working group into a structured, regular multi-stakeholder platform to advance dialogue on financing, institutional strengthening, and integration within the broader National Identity for Development agenda. Advocacy agendas: - ​Fundraising for an in-country donor conference on civil registration. This will open engagements on financing and technical assistance for system development and service delivery to reduce risk reduction and eventual eradication of statelessness; ​- Advocating for the ratification and domestication of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights Relating to the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa (adopted 24 February 2024); ​B. Policy and legal harmonization: Review and update the 2011 Nationality Act and 2018 Civil Registry Act to align with international statelessness conventions and address gaps affecting marginalized populations. ​C. Civil documentation services: Provide light equipment, such as computers and technical support to the rollout of the adopted birth registration business process in Juba (Juba Teaching Hospital). This will be complemented with tailored, on-demand staff capacity building, while documenting lessons on practice and capacity-building models to inform a future national rollout.​

Who are the key partners? ​The project is implemented by Hold the Child – a member to the Global Alliance in collaboration with the Government of South Sudan Ministry of Interior, Department of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport and Immigration (DCRNPI), who is not a member of Global Alliance. ​Other partners and members of the technical work group include: ​United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), a member of Global Alliance, provides technical support on prevention of statelessness ​UNICEF, ​Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), ​IOM, ​UNDP, ​IRC, ​UNECA, ​ Vital Strategies, a member of the Global Alliance to End Statelessness is providing resources for the birth registration piloting exercise.​

Who is the target population for this project? Primary​This institutional strengthening and advocacy project prioritizes actions to lower barriers and risks to statelessness. In as much as the project’s focus is on individuals at risk of statelessness, those who lack legal recognition and citizenship rights, often due to displacement, conflict, or limited access to documentation service. Categories like; ​Refugee returnees from South Sudan and neighboring countries ​Internally Displaced Persons (IPD’s) individuals and families who have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict or violence who have lost their documentation ​Transboundary community, returnees, women and persons with disability who that face systematic barriers to obtaining citizenships and legal recognition in South Sudan. ​Birth registration piloting will benefit all population groups ​

Funding and costs What is the total cost of this project?85,000 USD