United Nations or UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan on Saturday said the nation should understand international humanitarian aid efforts as supplement, but not substitute for government service delivery to citizens.
Toby Lanzer told news conference declaring Crisis Response Plan 2014 that government should render basic services to citizens including education and agriculture with budgetary allocations made on available resources.
He added that decline in government revenues does not mean inability to serve the public, citing reasonable oil revenue from Upper Nile still flowing into the national treasury.
The Coordinator urged government institutions including parliament to demonstrate their ability to serve the nation to encourage donors’ additional efforts.
Mr Lanzer said world donors’ response to South Sudan is far better than that of Syria crisis and other parts of the world, appealing to South Sudanese to recognize the contribution.
He said it is up to South Sudanese and their government to fix the country’s crisis and build the nation.
The Coordinator added that the country’s crisis is not the international community’s problem to fix, but they support resolution and reconciliation to accompany development efforts.
Mr Lanzer told journalists in Juba that he ideally came to the country for development not giving handouts, saying it is a challenging time for South Sudan.