2016 ICT4D Conference

The Jonglei Food Security Program (JFSP) is a Title II program funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Food for Peace (FFP) and implemented by a consortium led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with Save the Children International (SCI) and government stakeholders. The program is implemented in Jonglei State, South Sudan. After decades of war with The Sudan, South Sudan finally seceded and got its independence in 2011. Jonglei State, and pretty much of the whole country is characterized by poor roads, dilapidated infrastructure, lack of electricity in the grid and limited amenities. In December 2013, a political violent conflict broke out, which took an ethnic dimension in the state, diving the state where the program is run, into government and opposition controlled areas adding further challenges for implementation in an already difficult terrain. JFSP employed the use of information communication technologies (ICT) to ease on the logistics challenges associated with implementing a food security project in a conflict situation with very limited infrastructure. The program trained over 50 MEAL and program staff on using ipads for data collection on the i-formbuilder platform and has been using the technology to collect registration, monitoring and survey data on food for asset, agriculture, livestock, water and sanitation and nutrition programs. Field teams sync their data to the server as soon as they came from the field and the data would be immediately available for downloading, analysis and reporting. Use of ipads in the South Sudan context allowed JFSP to collect real time data, produce timely reports and improve efficiency in serving the conflict affected communities. It has revolutionized data collection and significantly improved data quality. The program managed to draw lessons and best practices on the use of mobile technologies in a conflict situation with limited infrastructure, which go beyond the ICT gadgets but incorporate the human element.