Accountability to Affected Populations Working Group (AAP WG)

The Accountability to Affected Populations Working Group (AAPWG) is a coordination platform in South Sudan focused on ensuring humanitarian responses are transparent, inclusive, and accountable to crisis-affected communities. Accountability to affected people is an active commitment by humanitarians and organizations to be responsible, accountable, and ethical to the communities we serve. It’s a recognition of people’s dignity, expertise, and abilities. Dialogues with communities should enable affected people to meet their different needs, address their vulnerabilities, and build on their pre-existing capacities and take meaningful participation in decision making. The group aligns with international and regional humanitarian standards and frameworks and merges the mandates of previously separate AAP and Community Engagement groups.

This structure reflects international humanitarian commitments, including the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Revised Commitments on Accountability to Affected Populations (2017), the Grand Bargain Participation Revolution (2016), and the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) (2015). At the national level, it operationalizes the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) AAP Strategy (2021, revised 2023).

The National AAP Working Group will provide strategic leadership and coordinate the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of key collective AAP initiatives in collaboration with humanitarian actors at the national and local levels to ensure responsive and people-centered actions in South Sudan.

Specific Objectives

1. Strengthen inter-agency coordination and harmonization of AAP strategies across humanitarian action.
2. Provide technical and coordination support to State-level AAP coordination platforms as well as humanitarian agencies in the local areas to enhance the integration of collective AAP.
3. Develop and implement a national advocacy framework on collective AAP targeting HCTs, UNCTs, donors, and other key stakeholders.
4. Facilitate collective States cross-border AAP initiatives geared towards promoting communication, leadership, and meaningful participation of affected populations, including those on the move.
5. Strengthening collaboration with other coordination platforms in South Sudan. I.e Gender and Inclusion, PSEA
6. Promote learning and adaptation in humanitarian responses through the facilitation of peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange on AAP's good and promising practices and strengthening collective social research actions in South Sudan.
7. Support national and state capacity-building initiatives on collective AAP, including accountability to affected populations, feedback mechanisms, common tools and standards and the interoperability of feedback systems where possible

South Sudan Humanitarian Country Team AAP Strategy

2025 AAP WG Terms of Reference

2025 AAP WG Workplan

Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) is a core issue of accountability. In August 2025, the South Sudan Humanitarian Country Team endorsed Standard Operating Procedures for Inter-Agency SEA referrals which can be found below. More information on the South Sudan PSEA Network can be found here.

The AAP WG generally meets the last Thursday of each month 2-3:30pm in person in Juba and online. If you're interested to join, please email the AAP WG co-chairs (see contact tab).

Community Perceptions in South Sudan (2024) 

• Voices from South Sudan: Affected Communities’ Perceptions on Humanitarian Aid

Community Perceptions in South Sudan (2023)

• Community perceptions of humanitarian assistance in South Sudan: Findings and recommendations

AAP Brief - REACH - Community Perceptions in South Sudan (2022)

• Community Perceptions in South Sudan: Findings and Recommendations, June 2022

AAP Brief - REACH - Report and executive summary with recommendations (2020)

• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/0a7205a8/SSD_REACH_Report_AAP_Final.pdf
• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/8cf0233e/Final-Report-One-Pager-FINAL.pdf

Community Engagement and Inter-Agency Collaboration across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus in South Sudan - CSRF (2023)

• Community Engagement and Inter-Agency Collaboration across the HDPN in South Sudan Report - CSRF

Factsheets

• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/c4e7c443/SSD_REACH_Factsheet_AAP_Jan_2021.pdf
• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/d2ba2539/AAP-Factsheet-Sept-Oct-20.pdf
• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/be38ab0e/SSD_REACH_Factsheet_AAP_June-2020.pdf
• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/555705e8/REACH_SSD_Factsheet_Accountability-to-Affected-Populations_November-2019.pdf
• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/7609fa0f/REACH_SSD_Factsheet_Accountability-to-Affected-Populations-Community-Perceptions-Tracking_August-2019.pdf

Cellular network coverage maps

• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/ce48bcb4/REACH_SSD_Cellular-Network-Coverage_June-2020_2.pdf
• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/c2d3fcb1/REACH_SSD_Cellular-Network-Coverage-Map_AAP_April-2020.pdf

Trends in communication preferences and modalities

• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/241d4913/REACH_SSD_Communication-Modality-Preferences_FINAL.pdf

Ad Hoc Assessments

• http://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/6f9e1e48/REACH_SSD_AAP_Covid-brief_May2021.pdf