This blog reflects on COVID-19 related risks that elderly people face in South Sudan and provides recommendations on how to protect them in more conflict sensitive ways. Unlike many Western countries, where some elderly people reside in care homes or on their own, in South Sudan older people usually live within their family households. As such they are looked after by their children, usually their sons and daughters-in-law, and sometimes daughters. Being with the family…
Chiefs play a critically important role in communities’ right across South Sudan. They play a vital role in settling disputes, preventing armed conflict and fostering peace within and between communities. As the key intermediaries between local communities and higher levels of government, UN agencies and international NGOs, they have an essential role to play in informing, sensitizing and mobilizing community members around critical social issues, such as COVID-19. However, due to their age many chiefs…
In this blog, Paul Richards reflects on what aid agencies in South Sudan can learn from the Ebola response in West Africa. Perhaps the most critical is that the response to an infectious disease is most effective, and conflict sensitive, when it works with communities and supports their initiatives, and is least effective when local knowledge is ignored or disregarded. The number of cases of COVID-19 in South Sudan is rising, and there is a…
In this blog post, Leslye Rost van Tonningen, the Director of CSRF, reflects on conflict sensitivity implications of COVID-19 responses in the South Sudanese context. Conflict sensitivity is more important in times of crisis or rapid change. In current crises, such as South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia or Myanmar, conflict sensitivity and context analysis are particularly critical, as the decisions with regards to who is supported, how they are supported and the support they…
As South Sudan prepares its response to COVID-19, Ranga Gworo shares reflections on how COVID-19 prevention measures have interacted so far with deeply embedded cultural practices and the implications for conflict sensitivity, alongside some practical recommendations for how aid agencies could design cultural, and conflict, sensitive measures. Even before the Government of South Sudan confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on 5 April, it had already begun to implement measures to control transmission of the…
This blog post presents the CSRF’s initial thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on aid in South Sudan. The ground has shifted beneath our feet in ways that we have never known before. Governments around the world are grappling with how to effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, borders have closed, and economies are screeching to a halt as entire countries impose lockdowns. A global humanitarian crisis on an unknown scale continues to unfold due…
Local government and conflict sensitivity This blog seeks to shed light on the interplay between peace, conflict and local government in South Sudan, and how aid agencies can more effectively engage at the local level to support peace and reconciliation. As widespread violent conflict in South Sudan has declined following the signing of the R-ARCSS, aid agencies are increasingly engaging local governments in their programmes. Local government can play an important role in both supporting…
The foundation for conflict sensitivity is a strong understanding of the context. Such an understanding helps aid organisations to identify emerging risks of doing harm and opportunities to strengthen their contribution towards peace. At the CSRF we are frequently asked for tools that will help aid organisations to understand the context. Whilst these are often reasonable requests, our experience shows that tools often struggle to tap into the rich pool of local knowledge that often…
