South Sudan and Sudan’s borderlands are run by a patchwork of armed authorities. This report reflects on the Sudan-South Sudan borderland economic systems to understand the impact of disrupted oil income on state stability. The research found that economic system and public authorities in the borderlands are relatively stable within their zones of control. However, issues of water, flooding and pollution, alongside the resulting resettlement aimed at accessing market incomes have deeply affected the population,…
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CSRF Research Repository
The CSRF Research Repository aims to support greater contextual knowledge for policy makers, programme managers, and implementers by providing a searchable repository of research, analysis, and resources, and providing periodic updates on new research and analysis.
This analysis paper examines the political and environmental implications of the war on Sudanese and South Sudanese oil infrastructure. Specifically, the paper finds that the attacks by warring parties in Sudan on oil infrastructure and refineries have caused environmental pollution from crude oil contamination that affected soils and nearby ecosystems, promoting the construction of unsafe open-air reservoirs, which may cause environmental disaster due to flooding. Finally, the paper provides a set of recommends on how…
Fossil Fuel Industry adds Despair to South Sudanese Communities Facing Flood Disaster A new analysis by PAX, with contributions from Utrecht University, demonstrates how severe flooding in South Sudan spawns environmental risks around its national oil infrastructure. The report uses satellite imagery and a hydrological model to identify how the increasing seasonal flood impacts can pose additional environmental health risks to civilians and their livelihoods from potential pollution sources. Download
South Sudan’s rotten state finances are derailing the young country from its already fraught path to peace and stability after a brutal civil war. Top officials hold the country’s oil riches close, barring scrutiny of spending and allowing rampant misappropriation of funds. This slush-fund governance is at the heart of South Sudan’s system of winner-take-all politics and helps explain why so much went so wrong so quickly after independence in 2011. The peace deal signed…
This Conflict Series Brief analyses the effects of the recent pandemic-induced oil price shock on three vulnerable, conflict-affected countries. This is done by testing the two competing theories of the resource curse and of the rentier state, each offering a different interpretation of the oil-conflict nexus: The resource curse theory posits that an abundance of natural resources, and in particular oil, raises the probability, frequency, and intensity of conflict. The rentier state theory sees the…
Publication Summary Local content requirements promote national capacity, employment, economic diversification, and economic growth (Kazzazi and Nouri 2012, Tordo et al., 2013). Local content develops capacities that link the oil and gas sector to other industries. While over 80% of the oil and gas sector’s workforce is South Sudanese, little is known about their earning levels, experience, and educational attainment, compared to their expatriate colleagues (Tiitmamer, 2015). This paper analyzes human resources data from two…
Abstract Resource nationalism, political disputes between national and local authorities over revenue sharing, and insecurity, are common country level political risks in Africa’s oil and gas industries. But the boom decade gave new significance to regional risk. High international oil prices between 2004 and 2014 incentivized exploration and development in frontier countries and led to new oil and gas discoveries across the continent. In East Africa, regional cooperation and cross-border pipeline infrastructure is necessary to…
South Sudan’s state-owned oil company, the Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet), has been captured by predatory elites at the heart of the country’s brutal civil war. The company is almost entirely unregulated and has fallen under the direct control of the President and his inner circle, including the head of South Sudan’s oppressive Internal Security Bureau, who sits on Nilepet’s Board. This combination of capture and secrecy has allowed it to funnel millions in oil revenues…
This article points at the challenging political geography of oil in the two Sudans and the tensions undermining economic logics of ‘mutual interests’ and ‘peace dividends’ between, and within, these two countries. Link to publication
This paper evaluates the extent to which the environmental provisions of the South Sudanese Petroleum Act (2012) have been enforced, and attempts to identify the gaps and challenges facing the implementation. To determine the level of enforcement, the Sudd Institute conducted structured interviews with key officials from the ministries of Environment and Petroleum and Mining and Nile Petroleum Corporation.
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