South Sudan is endowed with vast quantities of natural resources. Many indigenous trees are valuable sources of timber, essential oils and food products. Gum acacia, shea nut, aloe vera are but some of the many arrays of natural resources that occur in the forested areas of south Sudan. In Eastern Equatoria, gum acacia, shea nut, and honey are some of the non timber forest products on which more than 60% of the households have relied for their livelihood during the war period. These products continue to provide valuable resources of nutrition and in some cases cash to households. This sector is likely to involve women and youth as potential income generating activities. Though limited data is available , indications from field assessments show that there is large potential in the sector for improving incomes and livelihoods of the rural communities in selected regions of South Sudan.

SNV's focus is on gum arabica and shea nut.  The intervention in this value chain involves:

·         Strengthening multi stakeholder platforms; facilitating regular meeting of various stakeholders with a view to creating a critical mass of support for the utilisation of Non Timber Forest Products for local income generation

·         Enhancing capacities of producer/collector groups and community based organisations by supporting their direct training

·         Ensuring market intelligence by conducting market research and dissemination of market information to community based organisations

·         Strengthening capacity of service providers by supporting training on various aspects of gum acacia and Shea nuts processing and marketing

·         Brokering investment opportunities by developing joint efforts with interested development agencies towards increasing joint action to create a critical mass of producers able to attract a commercial investor