This Working Paper explores the interaction between social protection and conflict in the Horn of Africa. Conflict and political instability are habitual risks identified in the Horn of Africa, where social protection is a well-established field of intervention. By drawing from three country case studies, the paper provides recommendations for development partners on how to use their resources and leverage to strengthen conflict sensitivity of social protection at both strategic and operational level. Read more…
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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.
Abyei has been a center of tension and violence in recent years. This report focuses on the recent round of violence in and around Abyei, explaining the underlying causes of the conflict, the escalation of violence over the past year, and what likely lies ahead if political measures are not taken to address the unresolved political status of Abyei and local disputes over resource-sharing. Download
A three-year investigation by The Sentry into a loan deal between a local company and a regional bank— with the backing of the South Sudan government—has uncovered red flags for illicit business practices, including bribery, tax evasion, and trade-based money laundering. The investigation found clear indications that the arrangement enabled powerful individuals to benefit from the manipulation of business worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The loan deal skirted legislation on oversight, transparency, and competition…
This commentary focusses on South Sudan’s regional diplomacy in relation to the Nile Bassin. Download
The African Union (AU) and Regional Economic Communities (REC) have become pivotal peacemakers in the two decades since they began the construction of a joint African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) with the objective to provide “African solutions to African problems.” The African organisations have developed normative policy frameworks and organisational structures for mediation and preventive diplomacy. The peacemaking institutions, which were developed with the assistance of international development partners, reflect the long-standing peacemaking experience,…
Conflicts in Africa are increasingly becoming violent and endemic. Many of these conflicts are related to crises of identities, struggles for resources and power contestations. A few of these conflicts escalate to self-determination, separatist movements, and secession. These conflicts mostly transcend national borders and trigger the alteration and redesigning of national borders, which itself becomes a source of continued violent conflicts across borders. For instance, the attainment of independence by South-Sudan in 2013 has raised…
Do states circumvent embargoes by supplying weapons across borders to sanctioned countries? We report evidence that arms imports systematically increase in the neighborhood of conflict states under an embargo. Using several alternative research-design specifications, we contend that this pattern is consistent with arms exporters shifting the arms trade to neighbors of conflict states under sanctions, where it is easier to move arms clandestinely across the border. Despite the lack of direct evidence of clandestine cross-border…
Executive summaryOn 3 October 2020, Sudan’s Transitional Government and representatives of several armed groups signed the ‘Juba Agreement for Peace in Sudan’ (hereinafter ‘Juba Agreement’). This Summary and Analysis paper discusses the Agreement’smain elements, with a particular focus on the main ways in which it impacts the current and future system of government. The main points that are made in this paper can be summarized as follows: 1. The Juba Agreement amends the 2019 Constitutional…
Key points • Since Salva Kiir appointed Hussein Abdel Abgi as one of his five vice-presidents he has strengthened his control over the borderland region between South Sudan and Sudan, now occupying political space previously filled by Paul Malong (former SPLA Chief of Staff). • Abdel Bagi has deepened his control of the re-formed Northern Bahr el-Ghazal by successfully negotiating the appointment of Tong Aken Ngor (former governor of Aweil state), who operates under his…
On the 4 September 2020, the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) in South Sudan announced in a press conference that UNMISS had begun to ‘progressively withdraw its troops and police from the Bor and Wau PoCs’, and to redesignate the sites ‘no longer PoC sites but camps for internally displaced people (IDP) under the jurisdiction of the government’ (UNMISS 4 September 2020). Later on in September UNMISS also removed its troops and police…
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