Opportunities and Challenges in Humanitarian Support for Livelihoods among Displaced Populations in Rubkona County, South Sudan, and Turkana County, Kenya

Abstract

Humanitarian support plays a critical role in addressing the challenges posed by disasters and conflict, which disrupt the livelihoods of affected communities. Humanitarian support refers here to assistance that addresses immediate needs and reduces vulnerability, including food, cash, shelter and non-food items, education, health and WASH, skills development and livelihood assistance. Such interventions face constraints but may also create opportunities for improved approaches. This study analysed the opportunities and challenges associated with humanitarian support in promoting sustainable livelihoods among displaced populations in Rubkona County, South Sudan, and Turkana County, Kenya. Humanitarian Support Theory provided the conceptual underpinning. Adopting a pragmatist philosophy and a concurrent embedded mixed-methods design, a cross-sectional household survey was combined with key informant interviews, focus group discussions and observation, collected concurrently between December 2024 and January 2025, analysed separately and integrated during interpretation to identify convergence, complementarity and divergence. Sampling combined purposive, random and complete enumeration procedures at different stages, giving a planned sample of 400 households and 392 valid responses. Results are reported separately for Rubkona (n = 184) and Turkana (n = 208); no pooled estimates are presented. In Rubkona the three most frequently reported challenges were insufficient support (86%), delays or disruptions in assistance (78%) and limited choice in the type of support provided (60%); the corresponding figures in Turkana were 61%, 48% and 50%. Skills development was the most preferred livelihood option in Rubkona (69%) and Turkana (49%), while resource-sharing carried greater weight in Turkana. These differences indicate that humanitarian livelihood programming should be context-responsive rather than assuming uniform priorities across displaced populations.