Year of Publication
2020
Topic
NGO associated?
✔
Source URL
https://www.csrf-southsudan.org/repository/priorities-for-peace-in-south-sudan/
Summary
South Sudan’s peace process remains in intensive care, its health dependent on continual attention from its external sponsors, namely neighboring governments and the international community.
This is not sustainable. At worst, it provides opportunities for the military and political elite to continue to run the country in pursuit of their own interests. At best, it buys time to create a more substantial peace process that can enact more far-reaching change.
This policy brief takes stock of recent trends and developments in the peace process and offers a number of considerations to inform efforts by political actors in South Sudan and their international partners to consolidate peace.
The paper proposes the following three short-term steps to restore the implementation of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS):
1. Sustained pressure from neighboring countries, coupled with increased investment in track II initiatives, could be used to overcome deadlock and increase communication among the various parties in the new unity government and between the new government and non-signatories to the R-ARCSS.
2. The creation of space for citizens to share their views on the way forward for the country could help to increase South Sudanese ownership over the peace process and create an environment that is conducive to more transformative change. Critically, any such civic engagement process should go beyond a simple airing of grievances and listing of the many things that should be done to helping people organize, set priorities, and determine what they can do at a local level to enact the changes that they want to see.
3. Policymakers and civic actors should make necessary preparations so that they are ready to respond decisively should the agreement collapse and large-scale violence resume.
This is not sustainable. At worst, it provides opportunities for the military and political elite to continue to run the country in pursuit of their own interests. At best, it buys time to create a more substantial peace process that can enact more far-reaching change.
This policy brief takes stock of recent trends and developments in the peace process and offers a number of considerations to inform efforts by political actors in South Sudan and their international partners to consolidate peace.
The paper proposes the following three short-term steps to restore the implementation of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS):
1. Sustained pressure from neighboring countries, coupled with increased investment in track II initiatives, could be used to overcome deadlock and increase communication among the various parties in the new unity government and between the new government and non-signatories to the R-ARCSS.
2. The creation of space for citizens to share their views on the way forward for the country could help to increase South Sudanese ownership over the peace process and create an environment that is conducive to more transformative change. Critically, any such civic engagement process should go beyond a simple airing of grievances and listing of the many things that should be done to helping people organize, set priorities, and determine what they can do at a local level to enact the changes that they want to see.
3. Policymakers and civic actors should make necessary preparations so that they are ready to respond decisively should the agreement collapse and large-scale violence resume.
Date of Publication
15/09/2020