When an Immediate Need Opens the Door, How Do We Decide What Comes Next?
By: Samuel Donkor, Executive Director, ANIDA
All Nations International Development Agency
Watch Our Journey to South Sudan
Watch South Sudan: Hope in Action
Responding to the Need in Front of Us
ANIDA did not enter South Sudan with a program already designed. Our involvement began because Aweil State Hospital identified an immediate need for medical equipment, and members of our community wanted to respond.
With the support of our donors, ANIDA provided oxygen concentrators, neonatal incubators, pulse oximeters and other medical supplies. When I travelled to South Sudan, part of my responsibility was to verify that the equipment had arrived and understand how it was being used. I was also there to represent ANIDA, establish relationships and begin assessing whether there was a responsible way for us to become more involved in the country.
Seeing one of the oxygen concentrators being used was difficult to process. I was grateful that the equipment was there and that it was helping hospital staff care for a patient. At the same time, the condition of the hospital and the pressure under which people were working made it clear that one donation could only address a small part of a much larger situation.
Not all the equipment had been integrated into patient care. The neonatal incubators, for example, still required further coordination within the hospital’s existing neonatal services. This experience helped us recognize that providing equipment is only one part of an intervention. Staffing, training, maintenance, infrastructure and responsibility for its use all influence whether a resource can serve its intended purpose.
This was part of what we went to South Sudan to understand.
What We Heard in Aweil
Hospital leadership explained that Aweil is experiencing additional pressure because of the number of people returning from Sudan. Many arrive in Aweil before continuing to their villages and communities of origin. Although some may only remain in the area temporarily, they can still require healthcare and other forms of immediate support while they are there.
These pressures are being absorbed by institutions that were already operating with limited resources.
During the visit, I met with government officials, healthcare professionals, church leaders and community representatives. We received a warm welcome, and the people we met spoke openly about both the possibilities and the challenges facing their communities.
One question came up repeatedly: What is ANIDA going to do?
I understood why people were asking. There are significant needs, and organizations are generally expected to arrive with an answer. Still, I kept returning to the importance of listening before deciding what our involvement should become.
The people we met did not need us to explain their problems to them. They understood their communities, the systems in which they work and the barriers that make progress difficult. What they emphasized often depended on the institution or community they represented. Some spoke about healthcare, while others raised education, livelihoods, agriculture and the need for greater access to resources.
We also heard about agricultural practices and the need for knowledge that reflects local growing conditions, including flood-prone areas. These discussions showed us how closely education, food security, livelihoods and community resilience are connected. Choosing one area of work without understanding those connections could lead to an intervention that addresses one visible problem while overlooking what is contributing to it.
Investing in Understanding Before Offering a Solution
One of the difficulties with ANIDA’s approach is that many systems are designed for organizations to arrive with a solution already defined. Registration requires us to explain what we intend to do, where we intend to work and how the project will be implemented. Supporters and potential partners also understandably want to know what their participation will produce.
We recognize the importance of planning and accountability. At the same time, there is a limit to how much an organization can responsibly decide before it has spent enough time understanding the community, the institutions already working there and the reasons previous efforts may not have produced the expected results.
This tension sits at the centre of ANIDA’s theory of change. We do not begin with listening because we lack direction. We begin there because we believe that understanding the problem with the people who experience it leads to better decisions about what should follow.
That conviction requires us to invest more at the beginning. It means building relationships, examining the connections between different needs and allowing what we learn to influence the eventual design. We may enter with an initial framework, but we must remain willing to adjust it when local knowledge and evidence point us elsewhere.
This approach also requires a trusting community of supporters and partners. Some will have worked in places where a project might have produced better results if more effort had gone into understanding the problem before offering the solution. Their experience matters because the early stages of responsible development are not always the most visible. Relationship-building, assessment and community participation may not look like immediate progress, but they influence whether the work will remain useful after the initial intervention ends.
Our faith is also present within this approach. It influences how we enter relationships, how we understand service and why we believe humility and accountability matter when working in another community.
For ANIDA, the question is not whether we should have a plan. The question is whether that plan leaves enough room for the community to shape what the work becomes.
Investing in Understanding Before Offering a Solution
Aweil is currently the leading option for ANIDA’s initial area of engagement, but we have not made a final program decision.
We already have relationships and local support there. It is where I stayed and where many of our initial discussions took place. Its role as a reception and transit point for people returning from Sudan also makes it strategically important. However, the presence of need and existing relationships should inform our decision without automatically determining it.
Before moving forward, ANIDA must complete its registration in South Sudan, clarify the role of a local partner and continue speaking with communities and institutions in Aweil. Registration is part of ensuring that we enter the country properly, understand its requirements and remain accountable to the institutions responsible for coordinating development and humanitarian work.
We also need to understand what other organizations are already doing. Our contribution should address a clearly identified gap, fit within our capacity and include enough local participation for the work to continue developing beyond its initial stage.
ANIDA will not be able to respond to every issue we encountered in South Sudan. The opportunity is to identify a part of the work where we can contribute responsibly, learn alongside the community and gradually build something that local people believe is worth sustaining.
For now, our responsibility is to continue listening, complete the necessary registration process and remain honest about what has been accomplished and what is still uncertain. As the work develops, we will continue sharing what we learn and how the people and institutions in Aweil are helping shape what comes next.
About the Author:
Samuel J. Donkor is the Executive Director of All Nations International Development Agency (ANIDA). He brings a cross-cultural lens to global development, informed by his experience as a first-generation Canadian with Ghanaian roots, and holds a Master of Arts in Leadership (Business stream). He is currently pursuing a PhD in Global Leadership and Change at Pepperdine University.
With a background in business leadership and systems thinking, Samuel has led ANIDA’s growth from education-based programs to holistic poverty alleviation—advancing access to healthcare, clean water, sustainable income, and community-led leadership. His work centers on building scalable, locally driven solutions that foster long-term transformation.