Definition: This article revisits debates about the root causes of civil wars with the aim of providing a coherent framework for addressing such drivers and building sustainable peace. It is argued in this article that the civil war is better explained by the absence of resilient social contract rather than the dominant theoretical perspectives that attribute causation of civil wars to grievances or greed. The resilient social contract framework with its three postulated drivers is…
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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.
Executive Summary South Sudan’s peace process remains in intensive care, its health dependent on continual attention from its external sponsors, namely neighboring governments and the international community. This is not sustainable. At worst, it provides opportunities for the military and political elite to continue to run the country in pursuit of their own interests. At best, it buys time to create a more substantial peace process that can enact more far-reaching change. This policy brief…
This report provides insights into how domestic resource mobilization and debt governance can be effective tools for economic transformation in South Sudan. The insights shall additionally generate knowledge and information that shall be used by parliamentarians and civic society for advocacy for reforms in the country’s fiscal governance sector. The knowledge and information sharing shall offer an interface between civic actors, legislators and government in many ways. Download
Abstract This paper takes a localized conflict over a non-demarcated stretch of the Uganda–South Sudan boundary in 2014 as a starting point for examining the history of territorial state formation on either side of this border since its colonial creation in 1914. It argues that the conflict was an outcome of the long-term constitution of local government territories as patches of the state, making the international border simultaneously a boundary of the local state. Some…
The effects of climate change are expected to be greatest in the Horn of Africa countries, particularly those, such as South Sudan, whose populations are reliant on rain-fed agricultural production to meet their food and income needs. As one of the least developed countries in the world, South Sudan’s population is dependent on climate sensitive natural resources for their livelihoods, making the country particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. South Sudan’s future economy…
Over the past four decades, most South Sudanese people have begun buying staple foods rather than eating self-grown grains and tubers. This is part of a wider move towards markets, closely connected to South Sudan’s first encounters with modernity in the nineteenth century, as well as the conflicts and mass displacements of the past fifty years. This move has deeply affected food systems, diminishing the availability of indigenous grains and impoverishing many people’s diets. South…
Over the past decade, a body of scholarship on civilian self-protection (CSP) has emerged, advancing understandings of civilian agency in war. In this article, the authors argue that CSP has been conceptualized in a narrow manner, reflecting the nascent status of the field. Scholars have focused on responses to threats directly related to the dynamics of conflict, physical in nature, and caused by the presence of armed groups. Using the case study of the Protection…
There is a regular echo of consensus that South Sudan’s agenda for reconciliation needs to be indigenous to the country and based on the particularity of the experience here. Yet, there is no digestable synthesis of the lessons learned or reflection among key actors as to how lessons from the earlier national-level processes could be integrated into the structures foreshadowed in the R- ARCISS. The Peacebuilding Opportunities Fund is pursuing elsewhere in its programme of…
There is a normalisation of violence that permeates the reality of the cattle camps in Lakes State. There is also rich tradition, legacy, community, discipline, organisation and an aspiration for a peaceful and prosperous future. Often the conversation around the cattle camps is anchored around the moment of violence and the ‘problem’ of cattle camp youth. This research approaches the inquiry from the foundation of broader cattle camp values and identity. We distil from that…
This briefing provides information about members of the new Cabinet in South Sudan. The Mapping Actors and Alliances Project in South Sudan (MAAPSS) provides current information on over 400 actors, and charts connections among political and military alliances and armed groups. Download
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