This study builds on previous Humanitarian
Policy Group (HPG) research on reintegration
in Southern Sudan to examine three separate
and interconnected issues: reintegration, the
role of food assistance in supporting
reintegration and concerns about dependency
on food aid. It examines the process of
reintegration, and the role World Food
Programme (WFP) food aid is playing in
assisting reintegration. It also explores the
concept of dependency, its influence on policy
and programming and whether dependency
on food aid is influencing the livelihood
strategies of returnees and host communities.
Overall, it makes the case for WFP to continue
supporting reintegration, and doing so in a
manner more closely based on the needs and
realities of returnees and residents. It also
finds that, despite plentiful evidence that food
aid has not caused dependency among those
receiving it, dependency is still widely
perceived to be a problem.