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South Sudan has been at the heart of a relentless civil war for more than 30 years, but its ongoing violence has recently reached a level of unprecedented severity. As armed insurgents continue to clash with the government’s military forces, thousands of civilians have lost their lives and millions remain displaced. Earlier this year, the country experienced a devastating and widespread famine that threatened to starve more than 100,000 people. Even now, as the country…

Humanitarian or development assistance delivered in complex, highly contested and conflict-affected contexts such as South Sudan will inevitably impact on conflict dynamics. These may be positive or negative, direct or indirect, intentional or unintended. Conflict sensitivity is an approach that helps humanitarian and development actors maximise the potential positive, and minimise any potential negative impacts of their interventions on conflict. This document provides context-specific guidance on conflict sensitivity for agencies operating in South Sudan.

This briefing document of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification outlines the key findings on the food security situation in South Sudan. It suggests that South Sudan entered the harvest season in September 2017 with 6 million people (56% of the total population) estimated to be severely food insecure , out of which 40,000 are in Humanitarian Catastrophe and 2 million are facing Emergency (IPC Phase 4) food insecurity. Post-harvest gains in October-December 2017 are…

On October 25th, 2017, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, visited Juba, South Sudan, as part of the first most high-profile tour of Africa by a senior US official since Donald J. Trump became President of the United States of America. The visit covered Ethiopia, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The visit was highly anticipated because it is thought as offering the first opportunity for the Trump Administration…

During times of severe food shortages, alternative sources of food are the only means of survival. When crops fail or are destroyed, markets, houses, livestock and food stores are demolished or stolen, and movement is limited due to conflict, local populations have only two sources of food left; aid and what is locally available in the surrounding environment. The utilization of wild plants, fish and game becomes a primary coping mechanism for people affected by…

Wild plants are a critical part of the regular South Sudanese diet and become even more important during the lean season. This paper explores seasonal consumption patterns and recent significant changes in those patterns in Panyijar County, Unity State during the acute food crisis in 2017. It provides information on local preferences and health perceptions of wild foods, and reconsiders the idea that wild food consumption is primarily a coping strategy. This report draws on…

Sudan from which South Sudan split in 2011 has been known for its years of political and social upheaval since the end of the British colonial rule. The two countries are intimately linked to one another by their history that anyone writing about what has become known as the Sudans cannot hope to provide a meaningful context without reference to that shared past. This is what the author has done in this volume of his…

This article examines an initiative by the USAID-funded Room to Learn South Sudan project (2013 to 2016) to encourage and enable community participation in improving education access, quality and safety. Project staff engaged parents and teachers as well as women, youth, and other community members in developing and implementing school improvement plans. These plans were informed by their participation in a “good school” visioning exercise; their interpretation of data on measures of access, quality, and…

This study asserts that women’s rights are far from being recognized in South Sudan despite its efforts to include the rights of women in the Transitional Constitution after its attainment of independence from Sudan in 2011. While the article acknowledges the traditional modernization theory and cultural sovereignty theory, it engages international human rights standards as its conceptual framework. Using documentary research methodology involving analysis of primary and secondary sources, the manuscript established that a plural…

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of South Sudan. A main argument is that its political economy is fundamentally atypical: achieving independence in 2011 and dissolving into renewed civil war in 2013, South Sudan is suffering the crisis of a weak, neo-patrimonial guerrilla government, with fragmented military-political systems that stretch across its extensive borderlands. This report locates the current crisis within a longer and deeper context, and explores the power dynamics…

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