The Food and Nutrition Security Resilience Programme (FNS-REPRO) was a pioneering initiative aimed at strengthening local food systems and enhancing their resilience in fragile and crisis-affected regions of East Africa. Funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and implemented by the FAO in partnership with Wageningen University & Research (WUR/WSER), the programme operated across Sudan, South Sudan, and Somaliland. It focused on the gum arabic value chain in Sudan, fodder and rangeland in Somaliland, and seed systems in South Sudan, where the focus of this article lies.

In South Sudan, FNS-REPRO prioritized strengthening the seed sector as a strategic entry point to food system resilience. Through close collaboration with national and local institutions - including the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Agricultural Research Directorate, and local universities such as the University of Juba and John Garang Memorial University  - the programme established project sites across diverse agro-ecological zones and hazard profiles to enable highly contextualised learning.

One of the programme’s strongest assets was its partnership model. It worked with a wide range of actors, from UN bodies like the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and its Resilience Team East Africa, to NGOs and farmers’ associations, anchoring its work in South Sudan’s broader food system landscape. FNS-REPRO stood out for its deliberate knowledge, learning and capacity building agenda and facilitating and strengthening the role of national and local level knowledge and research institutes to guide and support the development of a sustainable and resilient  seed sector . 

A highlight of the programme was the organization of a national seed sector policy dialogue, culminating in a widely endorsed policy brief and call to action. This event, co-led with national knowledge organisations, brought together regional, national and local seed experts, South Sudanese government officials, civil society actors, the private sector and donors to chart the development of a resilient seed sector to provide seed security to farmers across the country. 

The programme was also instrumental in setting up community seed banks with gene bank functions and decentralised seed quality assurance mechanisms - particularly important for establishing Local Seed Businesses and  empowering women-led seed producer groups that previously lacked formal recognition.

FNS-REPRO faced challenges typical of fragile contexts. Infrastructural gaps, political volatility, and a heavily humanitarian-dominated agricultural architecture created barriers to long-term programming. The lack of an updated seed policy and law further hampered efforts to systematise seed sector development. Additionally, coordination among the many international humanitarian actors active in South Sudan remained limited. Many pursued seed-related activities independently, without shared strategies or alignment. This presented a particular challenge for FNS-REPRO, which was designed to support food systems transformation - an approach that depends on coordinated, long-term engagement across actors and levels. 

Key findings from the programme questioned prevailing assumptions. For example, areas which received prolonged humanitarian seed aid provisioning showed lower seed system resilience than some conflict-affected zones with less aid presence. The data underscored the adaptive capacity already present within local informal systems and the need to strengthen and reinforce - not override - these systems. In turn, this shaped international advocacy efforts led by the programme, including high-level contributions at the UN Food Systems Summit+2.

Though FNS-REPRO officially ended in March 2024, its impact continues through several successor initiatives. The South Sudan Seed Hub, established under the programme, remains operational as a national platform to support coordination, knowledge sharing, and policy engagement among seed sector stakeholders. In parallel, the Accelerating Food Systems Resilience in South Sudan (AFSRiSS) initiative builds directly on FNS-REPRO’s foundations by continuing efforts around seed system development and resilience, with a particular emphasis on integrating research, capacity building, and value chain strengthening in fragile contexts.

Ultimately, FNS-REPRO exemplified how seed systems in protracted crises can be strengthened through deep local engagement, cross-crop strategies, and sustained partnership. Its legacy lies not only in tangible outputs like seed policy briefs and community gene banks, but also in its broader shift toward systems thinking and programming - one that centers around local resilience as the cornerstone to develop a resilient seed sector, and systems within, to strengthen local food systems and their outcomes in particular food security and healthy diets.