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A reshuffle of Jonglei’s state government is underway, precipitated by the out-going leadership’s inability to quell chronic armed violence and raiding in the state.. While the current rainy season will prevent large-scale raiding in the coming months, attacks on humanitarian convoys and low-level raiding continue, with women and children abducted. There are alarming signs that abductions are becoming commercialized, with the money paid for abductees’ release being used to purchase ammunition and other materiel, sometimes…

This article examines the forms of ‘civility’ promoted by South Sudanese NGO leaders and staff in their efforts to navigate a context of pervasive political repression. Drawing on in-depth, life-work history interviews, it shows how the careful cultivation of a ‘non-political’ identity was a way of securing space to operate in a highly militarised, politically restricted environment, of working across the divisions created by conflict, and of creating small spaces for change. The article also…

South Sudan is home to one of the world’s worst hunger crises, a consequence of decades of armed conflict and devastating extreme weather events. Conflict, climate change and hunger have forcibly displaced nearly seven million people, out of a population of 11 million. The World Food Programme (WFP) operates in the middle of this intersection. In 2022, WFP provided food assistance to nearly 6 million people. This food assistance has an impact on conflict and…

This brief presents findings and takeaways from a research study focused on the process and perceptions of implementing early action in South Sudan, including in the Bentiu Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp. These include insufficient knowledge transfer from headquarters to sub-national offices within UN agencies, lack of discretionary decision-making power at these offices and underdeveloped adaptive management structures and processes, and missing link-up of early warning with development components. Finally, it provides a set of…

ABSTRACT This article attempts to position education not only in the peacebuilding debate but also in the larger good governance debate about what makes a resilient social contract. We subscribe in this paper to a theoretical perspective that attributes the driver of civil wars to governance deficit that is manifested in absence of resilient social contract in terms of sustained agreement between citizens and state. We then ask the key question of whether and how…

This book (OPEN ACCESS) provides a fresh perspective on conflict and peace-making that highlights the cosmologies and invisible entities that state, society and religious authorities draw on to claim or reclaim legitimacy and control. Drawing on archive, ethnographic and oral history research, as well as participant observations of the elite peace negotiations since 2013, Pendle describes the peace-making efforts of a range of actors from international diplomats to chiefs, Nuer prophets and local priests, to…

Ma’ Mara Sakit Village, in partnership with the Feminist Humanitarian Network, did research in seven states in South Sudan to understand how women and girls in the informal economy mobilize, organize, and form support networks, the impact of COVID-19 on these groups, and initiate discussions on women’s important role in the informal economy across South Sudan. This research is part of Ma’ Mara Sakit Village’s more extensive South Sudanese feminist community building, the “Mojtama al…

Whether or not, and if, when, and then, how? Open questions on South Sudan’s first elections planned for December 2024 abound. On the one hand is the people’s demonstrated will for election to happen rather sooner than later, on the other is the magnitude of challenges against the backdrop of slow implementation of the peace agreement – and fear that an election gone wrong could exacerbate violence and humanitarian crises. The FES South Sudan Office…

In the last decade, there has been a renewed interest in ‘self-reliance’ as a remedy for protracted refugee crises. While self-reliance has been articulated as a key policy objective, scholars have been preoccupied with a key question: what is self-reliance and what interests does such a policy ultimately serve? Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s post-structuralist thought, this paper puts forward a deconstructive approach to examine how the concept of self-reliance is discursively constructed. Through an analysis…

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