Using case studies of several Sub-Saharan countries, including South Sudan, this paper explores the interplay between checkpoints, conflict, trade and political authorities. The paper finds that roadblocks or checkpoints enhances a claim to authority, which in turn affects trade and mobility. The paper shares insights on how checkpoints dynamics affect how statehood and territorial control are perceived. Read more here
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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.
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are key players in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 16 in South Sudan, with various components of the goal either implicitly or explicitly forming part of their agendas. As the world’s youngest state and a post-conflict society, South Sudan presents a challenging socio-political and logistical context for the work of CSOs. Although conditions for their operations have improved over time, veritable obstacles remain in place. As South Sudan’s Voluntary National…
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
Abstract This article offers a longitudinal study of the complex entanglements between infrastructure and sovereignty in the Horn of Africa. By analysing Ethiopia’s imperial transport corridors, the political economy of Djibouti’s Red Sea ports, and the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline between South Sudan, Khartoum, and global markets, we underline the co-production of infrastructure and sovereignty as a defining feature of regional politics in the last 150 years. In a region notorious for the redrawing of…
What people whose lives have been severely affected by armed violence actually think about peace and what peace means has been a vastly underrated area of research. The PEACEptions project addresses this research gap by conducting a series of mixed methods investigations in a number of countries. One case studies under investigation is South Sudan, a country that has seen armed violence almost throughout its existence, dating back to the Sudanese independence in 1956 and…
The paper reflects on the practice of good governance in South Sudan, focusing in particular on the forces hindering the fight against corruption in the country. Through data collection, the paper identifies the most common manifestations of corruption in South Sudan society as embezzlement, tribalism, and bribery, which thrive in the context of weak law enforcement system and economic catastrophe. Beyond its analysis, the paper provides recommendations for different stakeholders in the fight against corruption,…
ABSTRACT South Sudan has a long history of civil wars and intra-communal violence. Northern Bahr el-Ghazal (NBeG) state, including Aweil East County, similarly to other pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities, stood out in terms of intra-communal violence. However, since the second civil war (1983–2005), larger-scale local-level violence has substantially reduced and conflicts are settled in different dispute resolution forums. This paper explores factors reducing intra-communal violence in Aweil East. It demonstrates that the Sudan People’s Liberation…
Analysing South Sudan’s politics of taxation from 1899 to 2023, this article argues that the ethos of taxation in the region has been and remains primarily oriented around predatory and coercive strategies of rule. Patterns of taxation and their origin are presented by considering taxation practices in colonial, post-colonial rebel-led, and independent South Sudan, to showcase how these practices continued to be yielded as a technology of rule, of coercion, and to fulfill the interests…
This meta-analysis offers an overview of the literature on governance in South Sudan in the CSRF repository by exploring salient and timely questions for donor-funded programming. These questions focus on the reason why local governance structures differ in South Sudan and the implications for aid actors; the relations between national, state, and local governance institutions and the implications for state building endeavours; the impacts of conflict and food security induced displacement on governance and the…
Introduction Elephants are iconic animals in South Sudan, featuring on bank notes and state flags and in many myths and sayings. ‘When the elephants fight, the grass suffers’ is one example widespread across the African continent: a popular expression about the effects that conflicts among political and military leaders have on ordinary people. The size and power of elephants has always impressed people and made them important symbols in human cultures. Known for their equally…
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