South Sudan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and UNOPS signed an amendment on 29 September to implementation arrangements for the $199 million South Sudan Safety Net for Socioeconomic Opportunities Project. The ministry said the change was intended to address hurdles that had delayed beneficiary payments.

The revised arrangement provides for resuming direct income support and processing six months of outstanding wage requests for public-works participants across 20 counties. The ministry said beneficiary verification and payment scheduling were still under preparation, so the signing does not mean payments have been completed. The project targets 157,500 vulnerable households.