South Sudan government on Tuesday increased registration and licensing fees for both national and international aid groups seeking to operate in the world’s youngest nation.
The new order requires an international non-governmental organization (NGO) seeking to operate in South Sudan to pay $3,500 up from $600. Local organizations wound pay $500, up from $450.
Registrar general of NGOs at South Sudan’s Relief and Rehabilitation, Deng Tong Kenjok, said in a memo that the change comes as a result of increasing demand of humanitarian needs in the country.
Tong pointed out that the changes are effective immediately. He added that the commission would continue to facilitate the work of the NGOs under the NGO Act 2016.
South Sudan counts 130 international non-governmental organizations and 500 local ones, including civil society groups, according to Kenjok.
In February, the United Nations and South Sudan government declared a famine in some parts of South Sudan, where some 5.5 million people face hunger.