South Sudan’s leaders signed a renewed peace agreement in September 2018. In this policy brief, the authors assess the implementation progress on the agreed reforms through the first six months. They find modest, but stalled, progress on some reforms. Critical provisions such as the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) program have not been initiated. Compared to the 2015 agreement, more progress has been made in the first six months of the 2018 agreement, however, South Sudan’s reforms remain well behind the average rate of progress when compared to 34 CPAs signed since 1989. The authors offer recommendations to mitigate some of the risks that could hamper the transition to a unity government, which was recently postponed until November 2019. Specifically, they suggest the signatories adopt a policy of simultaneous implementation, renegotiate missed deadlines, and allow the United Nations a more active role in the implementation process.

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