In South Sudan, Women Are Building Businesses. Here’s What’s Making It Possible

By Kelly Razzouk, Vice President for Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee

For most of her life, Joy Ladu watched South Sudan import food it could grow itself. She founded Ubuntu on a simple conviction that South Sudan could produce and sell its own goods, and that the women doing the growing should share in the returns. Today, Ubuntu works directly with women smallholder farmers and shea nut collectors across the country, buying their harvest at the market rate and strengthening the farming communities behind them.

Joy's ambition is shared by many. What sets her apart is that she has had the opportunity to pursue it. South Sudan ranks among the most fragile countries on earth. Eighty-four percent of its population needs humanitarian assistance. South Sudan is classified as Conflict in the FY26 list of Fragile and Conflict affected Situations (FCS) of the World Bank Group.

Women face compounding barriers including limited access to finance, limited agency in household decision-making, and almost no formal business training. Even in the face of these barriers, they are launching enterprises, employing others, and keeping local economies alive. The missing ingredient is not ambition. It is the support that enables a business to scale.

The South Sudan Women Social Economic and Empowerment Project (SSWSEEP)-a $52 million four-year project funded by the World Bank Group and implemented by the Government through the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare (MGCSW)-is designed to fill this gap. A key component of the project is the rollout of the Women's Entrepreneurial Opportunity Facility delivered by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Open Capital Advisors under UNWOMEN guidance and MGCW oversight. The $10 million facility has enrolled more than 1,200 women-owned businesses in intensive training and disbursed nearly $556,000 in business grants. It has also linked more than 500 entrepreneurs to public and private sector actors who can help their businesses grow.

Building businesses, weathering crises

Ubuntu's experience in the Growth Lab, where the project facility's most established businesses receive intensive one-on-one support, shows what this looks like in practice. Joy worked with the Growth Lab to conduct a supply-chain and value-chain analysis of the business. This involved mapping sourcing gaps, identifying new market opportunities, and building a growth roadmap for the company. Coaching sharpened Joy's investment pitch and helped Ubuntu professionalize its operations. As a result, South Sudanese-grown products are now reaching international markets, and the women who supply Ubuntu now have a more reliable buyer and a more structured path to income than before.

Delivering these results in South Sudan means planning for shocks. When a fire tore through Juba's Custom Market in December 2025, nearly 200 project participants lost their livelihoods overnight. Implementing partners paused grant disbursements, mobilized psychosocial support, and worked with each affected business to revalidate their plans before the program resumed. In fragile settings, that capacity to adapt is not incidental to good program design. It is the definition of it.

Partnership is power

SSWSEEP succeeds because institutions with distinct mandates and strengths have aligned around a shared objective. Each partner contributes to something essential that the others cannot provide alone. The World Bank Group brings the financing, technical expertise on women's economic empowerment and the institutional leverage to convene governments, the private sector and other partners, as well as a laser focus on job creation.

The World Bank Group in partnership with the Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare and implementing partners such as IRC anchor the program within national systems designed to endure beyond any single funding cycle. This combination of capital, credibility, technical expertise, and national ownership ensures effective immediate support with lasting impact.

The upcoming 2026 Spring Meetings and the World Bank Group Fragility Forum are just two upcoming moments to showcase concrete examples of the IRC and World Bank Group partnership. This includes our joint commitment and collaboration in the Democratic Republic of Congo, delivering services to combat gender-based violence alongside government partners, and in Lebanon, where access to protection, health, and psychosocial services has reached more than 16,500 people.

All of these projects highlight how IRC and the World Bank Group are working with government counterparts to strengthen local institutions.