Pathways to Empowerment: Building capacity with local partnerships

Pathways to Empowerment is a six-year intervention in 15 locations across South Sudan. The initiative, funded by Mastercard, is led by War Child Canada and supported by partners including WTI, UNHCR, HDC (Humanitarian Development Consortium) and the South Sudan-based TITI Foundation.

The programme aims to strengthen the resilience of 98,400 refugees, displaced persons, returnees and host community youth so that they can live prosperous and fulfilling lives.

Together, the five organisations are working towards:

  • Helping youth finish their secondary-school learning through the Accelerated Secondary Education Programme and CPD

  • with market-relevant skills by providing technical and vocational training

  • for dignified and fulfilling work

  • for young refugees and IDPs to thrive.

Our Role

Windle Trust International are responsible for delivering P2E in five locations in South Sudan: Yei, Gorom, Ajuong Thok, Awerial and Makpandu. To do this, we’ve partnered with five local organisations to help deliver the six-year programme more effectively, and to help build capacity for the local NGOs as well.

The Importance of Localisation

WTI believe that local actors know their communities best.

They understand the sociopolitical context, are able to best serve their communities, and are able to see long-term what changes need to be implemented to improve their situation.

This is why our Trustees have shifted WTI’s decision-making, power and resources over to our in-country nationals. This is to improve the effectiveness, sustainability and relevance of our own work as local actors.

This also means that we are now working to expand our partnerships with local organisations. By pooling together our knowledge, resources and skillsets, we can better deliver our programmes to communities who need it most.

Our local partners in P2E, South Sudan

  • KODI

    Kamma Organization for Development Initiatives (KODI)
    KODI started out as a livelihood organisation in 2002 in the Nuba Mountains, when Sudan was still a unified republic. In 2011, when South Sudan achieved its independence, KODI registered as an NGO with a field office in Yida refugee settlement in Ruweng Administrative Area, with the goal of supporting refugees, IDPs and host communities.  

    Staffed primarily by refugees who live in Yida settlement, KODI has more than 14 years’ experience delivering education, livelihood and youth development programmes in South Sudan. The organisation constructs schools and classrooms, and provides adult education, technical and educational vocation and training (TVET), civic and peace education, and scholarships for female refugee/IDP girls and youth (through its partnerships with WTI). 

  • CSI

    Community Support Initiative (CSI)
    CSI works in every state in South Sudan, where it provides community-based interventions in education, food security, livelihoods, shelter, access to justice, women and youth empowerment, GBV and psychosocial support, peace building and WASH, and health and nutrition.

    Founded in 2012 to provide long-term assistance to refugees, IDPs and host communities, CSI is managed by local teams and has a wealth of experience in helping communities improve their livelihoods through VSLAs (village savings and loan associations), which are self-managed and self-capitalised savings groups using members' savings to lend to one other.

  • YAPD

    Youth Association for Peace and Development (YAPD)
    Based in Makpundu refugee settlement, YAPD are a refugee-led, community-based organisation founded in 2018. Focused on empowering women and youth, they provide training and initiatives promoting sustainable development, livelihoods and health, and gender-based interventions.

    YAPD help refugees and IDPs start small businesses through micro-enterprise development. They also founded, and currently manage, a primary school in the settlement, where they and their partners deliver interventions including back-to-learning (BTL) campaigns, the establishment of child-friendly spaces, awareness and sensitisation on GBV, the provision of dignity kits for girls in school, and engagement programmes for men and boys on becoming champions for women and girls.

  • AMA

    Assistance Mission for Africa (AMA)
    AMA is a faith-based organisation working with communities in Unity state, Greater Lakes, and Central Equatoria to determine their own development and self-determination.

    Over the last 22 years, AMA has developed interventions in peace building, community security, transitional justice, climate change adaptation, natural resources management, livelihood and food security, protections for minorities, and women’s rights and empowerment.

  • HESS

    HelpEducation South Sudan (HESS)
    HESS have field offices in Awerial, Cueibet, Rumbek and Yirol East, where they provide education, human rights and gender-based iniatitives.

    HESS support school attendance for girls and women, recruit and train female teachers, provide life skills training for young mothers and pregnant girls, support girls from vulnerable families to access higher education, and train and provide referrals on GBV and child protection.

Through Pathways to Empowerment, WTI and our partners are demonstrating that long-term, sustainable change is only possible when local actors are at the centre of delivery.

By combining international support with deep community knowledge, the programme is equipping young people across South Sudan with the education, skills and opportunities they need to build brighter futures.

Together, we are not only strengthening resilience in the face of conflict and displacement, but also laying the foundations for inclusive growth and lasting peace.