Hundreds of thousands killed, injured, and raped. Millions more displaced. After five years of violence in South Sudan, the peace agreement signed in September 2018 is a hopeful attempt to end the corruption-fueled war. But this is an uncertain time in South Sudan. The overall commitment to the peace agreement is low and implementation of some key provisions of the agreement has stalled completely. At the same time, President Salva Kiir continues to control South…
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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.
Trade and markets in weak states are often discussed in relation with violence, security and peace-building. A case in point are marketplaces in the Sudan-South Sudan borderlands where communities separated by insecurity and hostility meet, not only to trade but also to negotiate and exchange information. This does not imply that establishment of such markets automatically results in peace and stability. Based on new empirical research on the Amieth market in Abyei – an area…
What role does business play in peace-building and conflict reduction? This is the introduction (article) to a special issue that tackles this complex question, exploring varied business efforts to bring peace through six rigorous qualitative cases in Myanmar, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Somaliland, Brazil, Guatemala and El Salvador. Three main findings cut across this issue. First, local context is paramount to success; there is no one universal formula that a regulator, business or…
For the past several weeks, there have been rising voices of both optimism and frustration, as reports of progress in the implementation of the so-called Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) continued to highlight violations, fresh military attacks, delays in executing ceasefire and security mechanisms and irregularities in the use of funds allotted to this process. This Weekly Review is a commentary on these mounting frustrations, some of which have…
The following criteria for more effectively resolving the conflict in South Sudan were de-veloped by the South Sudan Reflection Group, facilitated by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung South Sudan Office. The Reflection Group was comprised of experts and senior civil-society representatives from South Sudan and other African countries who have long engaged in and with South Sudan. The Reflection Group sought to identify what is needed to externally support efforts to end the conflict – inclusively, collectively and…
This memo addresses the future of the nearly 200,000 residents of the Protection of Civilians Sites (POCS) in South Sudan in the context of the implementation of the current peace agreement which envisages the closure of the POCS and the return of the residents to their former homes. The authors draw attention to the changing nature of public authority in the POCS during the five years since their establishment, and the significant role these local…
A mere two years after achieving independence, South Sudan in 2013 descended into violent civil war, refuting US government claims that the country’s succession was a major foreign policy success and would end endemic conflict. Worse was to follow when the international community declared famine in 2017. In the first book-length study of the South Sudan civil war, John Young draws on his close but critical relationship with the rebel SPLM-IO leadership to reveal the…
In September 2018 the warring parties in South Sudan signed the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS). The R-ARCSS will be implemented in a daunting environment – over the course of the five-year conflict, political and security arenas have grown increasingly fractured. For the agreement to succeed, political and military leaders must convince the population of South Sudan and the broader international community that they are…
Refugees are one of the most affected yet least consulted groups when it comes to issues of peace and conflict in South Sudan. This report attempts to address that gap by presenting findings of refugee interviews in Ethiopia and Uganda. Understanding and incorporating their views into the peace processes is crucial to ensuring that the needs of this substantial group are considered. This will also help deliver a more inclusive and durable peace process. Download
Many analysts and observers of politics in South Sudan point to weak governance as the malefactor for the political crises and lack of progress on socioeconomic development in the country. This policy brief, therefore, identifies major governance challenges in South Sudan and assesses whether the recently signed R-ARCSS addresses them. Among key governance challenges is lack of strategic direction, that is, no vision to rally the people around and without this, the country has difficulty…
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