BOR, SOUTH SUDAN - On October 13, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with Catholic Relief Services and its implementing partners Save the Children and Joint Aid Management, launched the Jonglei Food Security Program to support communities and the government of South Sudan in addressing the root causes of food insecurity throughout Jonglei State.

USAID Mission Director in South Sudan Kevin J. Mullally officially launched the USAID-funded program in Bor, the capital of Jonglei State in South Sudan. Through this program, USAID will help communities previously receiving emergency food assistance to recover and rebuild their livelihoods.

Jonglei State is one of the most food-insecure states in South Sudan, due to conflict and extreme natural disasters, including drought and floods, compounded by weak infrastructure. The program will strengthen household and community resiliency to food insecurity; increase crop and livestock productivity; and help agro-pastoralists and pastoralists increase their income by building their production capacity and business skills.

USAID is committing $54 million to the program, which will help meet the needs of nearly 150,000 chronically and temporarily food-insecure households in Akobo, Ayod, Bor, Nyirol, Pibor, Pochalla, Twic East, and Wuror in Jonglei State. Program activities are scheduled to begin in October 2011 and run for three years.

"Food insecurity for the population in Jonglei State is perhaps the most difficult and persistent due to the great need for stability, infrastructure, and access to innovative technologies and agriculture inputs," Mullally said. "We are focusing these additional resources there so that South Sudanese who are vulnerable to hunger will be able to better provide for their household food needs in a long-term, sustainable way."

USAID is the world's largest provider of food aid. In South Sudan, USAID provided approximately $93.8 million in food aid in fiscal year 2011 to those in need of assistance, including internally displaced persons, returnees who returned to their areas of origin in South Sudan in recent months from areas north in Sudan, refugees, and conflict-affected populations.