| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study titled, „Beyond Humanitarian Aid, Alternative Sources of
Livelihood to Reduce Food Inadequacy among South Sudanese Refugees in Pagirinya
Settlement‟, is to investigate the situations that surround the alternative sources of livelihood that the South Sudanese refugees engage in Pagirinya settlement to supplement food relief received from the humanitarian agencies. Therefore, the study objectives include; studying the livelihood options and coping mechanisms existent among South Sudanese refugees in the settlement as well as the challenges they face in accessing food and the limitations of humanitarian agencies in providing adequate food relief.
Using a descriptive and explorative research design, the study adopted a qualitative research methodology to gather the in-depth information required to draw conclusions. A stratified sampling procedure was used to identify respondents into subgroups of male and female and a sample size of 15 respondents was drawn to include in-depth interviews, a focus group discussion of 6 members and a key informant from which data was collected. Interview guides were made to direct the process of data collection.
The data generated was classified into themes from major findings that arose during the study to include the economic activities (small-scale businesses), agriculture, marriage, social ties and school enrollment as coping mechanisms used by the South Sudanese refugees in the settlement to increase their access to food. The study also indicated that among many other challenges faced in food access; ration cuts, poor livelihoods, limited cultivable land, overcrowding, resistance from host communities and household composition heavily led to limited access to adequate food by these refugees in Pagirinya settlement. Additionally, beside the challenges faced by the refugees when accessing food, limitations of humanitarian agencies in providing support were noted and these included the reduced funding due to the global pandemic as well as the residual approach and the incompetent methods of food distribution.
In conclusion, the findings suggested that the family and social ties outside of the settlement are often the coping mechanism used for moral and financial support to access more food by these South Sudanese refugees in the settlement. this help, however is still inadequate and more focus should be directed toward capacity and skill development by the humanitarian agencies, in order to achieve a self-sustaining solution to inadequate food access among refugees. Therefore, future research should focus on these alterative livelihood options and how these can be strengthened to reduce dependency on food relief | en_US |
