JUBA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), on Friday launched a project aimed at strengthening community adaptability and resilience for displaced and host populations in South Sudan.
The 12.7 million U.S. dollar project is part of a 26.5 million dollar regional initiative to support countries affected by the influx of refugees and returnees, including Chad and Ethiopia.
"When we talk about housing, land, and property, it is about people coming back and being able to access the land they had before, obtaining documents for this land, and this is one of the components of the project that we all believe is extremely important," UNHCR Representative in South Sudan Marie-Helene Verney said during a press conference in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
She said that the project will enable returnees who lack national identity cards to access services, particularly those living in urban centers in Juba and Upper Nile State.
Verney also pointed out that the majority of the 1.2 million returnees and refugees are settled in Upper Nile State alone.
The overall objective of the project is to strengthen stabilization and resilience efforts in South Sudan, particularly in areas heavily affected by the Sudan crisis and the resulting displacement. It supports the government's integrated settlement approach, which seeks to expand housing options and deliver basic services to communities with large numbers of refugees, returnees, and internally displaced persons.
Asar Mohammad, deputy chief of the IOM Mission in South Sudan, said that the aim of this project goes beyond emergency response, as it includes resettling people in host communities and in areas of their choice if they are not returning to their places of origin.
