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Using the cases of South Sudan and Myanmar, this brief reflects on the impact of aid cuts on conflict sensitivity, and provides recommendations to donors, implementing organisations, and policymakers. Particularly, the report considers different key elements of conflict sensitive programming, including conflict analysis, implementation, partnership, inter-agency collaboration.

The end of the R-ARCSS transition period and the possibility of elections make this a key moment for peace and stability in South Sudan. In many areas, despite an escalation of incidents of violence after R-ARCSS, increased government control in areas across South Sudan means that many state and county governments are actively pursuing an agenda of stability. Yet, for most South Sudanese, this current state of affairs is not what the Dinka could call…

Key Messages: • Another major flood event is likely to occur in South Sudan over the second half of 2024, according to government officials, UN agencies, and independent research groups, threatening to deepen an already severe humanitarian crisis. Though piecemeal hydrological data enable only a rough prediction of the floods’ scale and whereabouts, humanitarian actors are planning for a scenaio in which more than three million people are affected and 2.4 million are in need…

KEY FINDINGS • Tong Akeen Ngor, the governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, has consolidated his grip on power by buying support, detaining members of the opposition, and ingratiating himself with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir. Tensions have emerged between Tong Akeen and his patron, Vice-President Hussein Abdel Bagi. • The war in Sudan has transformed the political economy of Northern Bahr el Ghazal. Goods— including petrol destined for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—now…

Income from oil exports is critical to keeping South Sudan’s factious elites together. The war in neighbouring Sudan has led earnings to fall precipitously, threatening instability in Juba and highlighting anew the need to bring the Sudanese conflict to a close. Link to publication

In common with many other African countries, the Republic of South Sudan is increasingly experiencing devastating floods linked to climate change. The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and El Niño regulate the climate of Equatorial Eastern Africa. In 2019, a dipole warming in the western Indian Ocean, worsened by climate change, created higher than average evaporation off the African coastline. This water vapour fell inland as rainfall over Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan and South Sudan, causing…

This policy brief highlights the role that donor headquarters play in shaping the incentives and rules of the aid system, influencing implementing partner decisions, policies, and investments. It takes a deeper look at how some well-meaning policies can unexpectedly backfire, leading to new challenges, inefficiencies or in some cases, perpetuate conflict. To do so, it analyses five well-meaning policies common to many donors that can have unexpectedly negative results within conflict-affected countries, providing examples from…

South Sudan has a diverse array of ecosystems, rich biodiversity in both flora and fauna, and an abundance of natural resources, including large areas of natural forests, considerable water sources and deposits of petroleum, gold and other minerals. The majority of the population in South Sudan are dependent on natural resources for subsistence livelihoods, particularly poorer and more vulnerable communities in rural areas. A combination of a shift to over-use of natural resources due to…

Women in South Sudan are subject to limited access to political, economic, social resources due to the country’s rigid patriarchal structure. Nevertheless, women have been negotiating their agency and influence for decades, playing a crucial role in state-building, peacebuilding, and development processes. Beyond their formal role as agents of peace, considering the informal dimensions through which South Sudanese women influence peace and conflict are vastly significant for aid actors to grasp conflict dynamics and the…

The devastating war in Sudan between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has also had a profound impact on the country’s neighbours, particularly South Sudan. This is especially the case for areas that border Sudan, including Upper Nile, the Ruweng Administrative Area, and Northern Bahr el-Ghazal (NBG). RVI has been working in NBG under the XCEPT programme since 2018, producing a body of work on the borderland economy and systems of…

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