Emergency Locust Response Project

The development objective of the Emergency Locust Response Project (ELRP) for Eastern Africa is to respond to the threat posed by the locust outbreak and to strengthen systems for preparedness. The project comprises of five components. The first component, surveillance and control measures will strengthen the capacity of agriculture staff at the national, state, and county levels and of communities in locust-affected areas by providing appropriate equipment, technology, and training on locust identification, swarm management techniques, and damage assessment. It consists of following sub-components: (i) swarm surveillance and monitoring; and (ii) swarm management measures. The second component, livelihoods protection and rehabilitation focus on helping households and communities affected by the locust upsurge. It consists of following sub-components: (i) safeguarding food security and protecting human capital; and (ii) food production and building the natural resource base for crops and livestock. The third component, strengthening national preparedness systems will support investments in the research and informational, institutional, and strategic elements of desert locust (DL) management by the Government of the Republic of South Sudan (GRSS’) and its strategic partners. The fourth component, project management, monitoring, and communication will finance the cost of the project coordination unit (PCU) and its functions, including, inter alia, core human resources to manage the project; incremental costs for Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) staff to provide technical assistance and oversight of project activities; equipment for project management, including handsets for digital tools for monitoring and evaluation; and communication costs for implementation support. The fifth component, improving regional coordination through Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) information platform reflects the lesson learned from implementing Phase 1 of the ELRP, which revealed the need for improved communication and collaboration across national and regional boundaries. The project will use farmer-managed natural regeneration and restore agro-ecological systems.