LocationsMOH, Partners Discuss Sustainability of Global Fund Investments
October 15, 2025
Planning for lasting change. Participants during a validation workshop for the sustainability plan.
The Ministry of Health, UNDP and partners have convened stakeholders for a discussion on sustainability strategies for Global Fund investments in South Sudan, focusing on maintaining investments in solarization, medical oxygen production, and waste management beyond the current funding cycle.
The discussions come as the implementation of Global Fund’s COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM) grant comes to an end in December 2025 with financial and project closure processes expected to be completed in 2026 – the same year when the GC7 grant implementation ends. The C19RM grant was established to support countries in mitigating the health, social and economic impacts of the pandemic, while strengthening systems resilience. In South Sudan, more than $9 million has been invested in the various C19RM capital investments. These include constructing and equipping laboratories, solarization of 22 hospitals and health facilities, installation of oxygen plants to boost medical oxygen production, and incinerators to handle health waste management.
The sustainability plan identifies strategic priorities, gaps and opportunities in areas such as financing, human resource capacity, governance structures and capacity building needs with a view of ensuring that the investments leave a legacy and are carried forward beyond the project closure.
Dr. Marial Cuir, the Vice Chairperson of the Country Coordinating Mechanism, said the sustainability plan is timely and will inform the GC8 funding application in March 2026 for the next grant cycle covering the period 2027-2029.
“The findings will inform the funding application including areas of weaknesses such that progressively the country can be out of the additional safeguard policy of the Global Fund”, Dr. Marial said.
Government, UNDP officials, and partners. Implementing the sustainability plan will ensure that the Government maintains these vital investments and keeps them operational beyond the funding cycle.
On his part, Dr. Kediende Chong, the Director General for Preventive Health Services, underscored the need to keep the investments operational to avoid a relapse into the past when South Sudan depended on the neighbouring Uganda for medical oxygen supply including during the troubling COVID-19 outbreak. “The suffering worsened when Uganda wasn’t able to offer adequate supplies owing to huge unmet needs back home.”
He called for continuous learning, skilling and strengthening of local expertise to be able to manage the sophisticated equipment including the complex and contemporary solar systems, incinerators and oxygen plants, “Discussions on sustainability should include how these investments will be managed and operated to bring out the needed efficiencies.”
Beyond keeping the investments operational, it was also observed that in facilities like Juba Teaching Hospital, system upgrades are needed to match the ongoing infrastructure expansion beyond what pertained when the existing solar system, oxygen plant and incinerator were installed.
Here it is. A consultant presents the sustainability plan during a validation workshop attended by the Ministry of Health, UNDP officials, and other partners.
Emerging issues
Other speakers called for increased government ownership and collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Dams which regulates and manages the country’s power sector and energy resources. Public-private partnership was fronted as a viable option to managing and sustaining operations of the investments. Other funding options are GC8, co-financing obligations, the Global Environment Facility, Green Climate Fund, Pandemic Fund, integration into existing programmes such as the Health Sector Transformation Project (HSTP), cost recovery schemes and leveraging corporate social responsibility of corporate organizations.
Situation analysis
Central to these discussions is a recognition that South Sudan’s health sector is heavily reliant on external funding and that Government is faced with economic challenges that have limited its ability to build a sustainable health service delivery infrastructure.