South Sudan’s rotten state finances are derailing the young country from its already fraught path to peace and stability after a brutal civil war. Top officials hold the country’s oil riches close, barring scrutiny of spending and allowing rampant misappropriation of funds. This slush-fund governance is at the heart of South Sudan’s system of winner-take-all politics and helps explain why so much went so wrong so quickly after independence in 2011. The peace deal signed…
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CSRF Research Repository
The CSRF Research Repository aims to support greater contextual knowledge for policy makers, programme managers, and implementers by providing a searchable repository of research, analysis, and resources, and providing periodic updates on new research and analysis.
This report presents the results of a conflict assessment carried out in Maban County, South Sudan in October-November 2020 by the Danish Refugee Council’s Peacebuilding unit (also known as Danish Demining Group – DDG). Maban County in Upper Nile State is a complex area that has a long history of conflict and is of key strategic importance in South Sudan’s wars. This situation was further complicated by the arrival of refugees in 2011 from the…
The October/November 2020 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis process in South Sudan broke down when the South Sudan IPC Technical Working Group (TWG) was unable to reach technical consensus on the severity of food insecurity in six critical counties. In response, and following a request from the Government of South Sudan (GoSS), the three IPC resource partners – United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office…
This report examines the intersection between conflict and connectivity, including social media. The report identifies five factors that shape the nexus between conflict and connectivity, including infrastructure, population density, a fluctuating economy, third party interference and digital media. The report provides a set of recommendations on how to leverage the benefits of digital technology in peacebuilding. Although dated, this report resonates with the current ban on the use of social media in the country following…
This report looks at cooperation between the military and human rights components of the UN peace operations in South Sudan and Mali. The authors identified cultural differences between military and human rights components and turnover among the military peace keepers as key challenges for both missions, and areas of good practice that can address these challenges, such as information-sharing, joint coordination mechanisms, communications, and advocacy. Recommendations include the need to revisit the frequency of military…
The first of two papers, this analysis explores the magnitude and ramifications of ‘communal’ violence in South Sudan in recent years and challenges those who attempt to portray it as ‘ethnic’ or due to the absence of state control. Linking the increased incidence of violence to national and inter-elite rivalries, it argues that these are playing out at the sub-national and local levels due to changes in South Sudan’s political economy, with elite power being…
The purpose of the paper is to reflect on peacebuilding approaches and methodologies adopted by the UK’s Peacebuilding Opportunities Fund (POF) within conflict affected communities for the purpose of drawing relevant lessons for peacebuilding interventions in South Sudan. The paper identifies both learning that strengthens peacebuilding engagement and informs what can be done better when engaging conflict affected communities, and pitfalls and poor practice to be avoided. This paper is written from a peacebuilding practitioner…
This article examines the provision of basic education services after the end of the Second Sudanese Civil War in 2005, focusing on the condition of the services and its implications for national cohesion during the period after the birth of the South Sudanese state. It argues that the way basic education services were provided after the Second Sudanese Civil War has contributed to the trajectory of inequality that characterised the period before the onset of…
This report offers a consolidated account of MSF’s experience in South Sudan since 9 July 2011. In so doing, it seeks to serve as a record and reminder of the human toll of violence, since independence, as seen by MSF – through its staff and patients. It is based on interviews with more than 100 of MSF’s South Sudanese staff, operational research, internal reports, and public communications over the last decade. It also draws on…
The conference is part of the work envisaged under equal land rights from women and youths. The IGAD Land Governance Unit focuses on strengthening the implementation of land governance in-country, translating regionally developed tools and frameworks into implementable tools by Member States for improved tenure security, reduced conflict, improved food security, and increased economic wellbeing of the citizens. This is hinged on improving land administration systems to enable the documentation of land rights and resolve…
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