Peacebuilding

Generating Sustainable Livelihoods and Leadership for Peace in South Sudan: Lessons from the Ground

Year of Publication
2019
Document Publisher/Creator
Paul Mulindwa and Bradley Petersen
NGO associated?
Source URL
https://www.africaportal.org/publications/generating-sustainable-livelihoods-and-leadership-peace-south-sudan-2-lessons-ground/
Summary
In the context of South Sudan, as may be the case with other conflict and fragile communities, the nexus – in terms of causal relationship – between conflict and livelihoods is outstanding. The common denominator of the current conflict in South Sudan is loss of livelihood resulting from prolonged poverty and lack of alternatives to meet basic human needs. It is hypothesised that enhanced local conflict management skills, combined with resilience from improved livelihoods – all of which are seen to be fundamental to building trust both between and among local communities – will create a pathway through which the root causes of what has proven to be repeated cycles of both conflict and economic shocks in South Sudan can be addressed. Thus this programme is constructed upon a “theory of change” that emphasises the building of resource resilience and strengthening inter-communal conflict management mechanisms as a means of leading to three interrelated long-term outcomes: resilient livelihoods and food security; social cohesion; and peaceful conflict resolution. This policy brief is the second in a series of five briefs (to be published by the end of the programme) that seek to disseminate lessons learned from the project as well as to share the challenges faced by local communities in their respective peace building initiatives.
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Date of Publication
30/09/2020

Simplifying the Arusha Intra-SPLM Reunification Agreement

Year of Publication
2015
Document Publisher/Creator
Augustino Ting Mayai Jok Madut Jok
Institution/organisation
The Sudd Institute
NGO associated?
Summary
1SComment
outh Sudan broke apart and plunged into a violent confrontation in December 2013 following bitter disagreements within the top leadership of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), splintering the party into several groupings. The conflict shockingly started merely 2 years after the country seceded from the Sudan, in 2011. The violence has claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions others, both locally and to the international borders. The tragedy has not only caught many by surprise given the long history of struggle for statehood in the region, but has also confirmed well expressed reservations especially from the northern Sudanese about South Sudanese ability to self-govern. Since its commencement a little over a year ago, an army of mediators and envoys has been mobilized not only to understand both the proximal and distal drivers of, but also exert efforts to arrest the substantially devastating violence as quickly as possible. The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional political and economic development block for Eastern Africa, has been in the forefront in these sorts of endeavors. These have been frustratingly slow, nevertheless, with the parties to the conflict showing limited signs of seriousness about ending the violence peacefully. Several other significant processes meant for nudging the belligerent parties toward peace have recently propped up, such as international sanctions, arms embargoes, and intraparty dialogues. A plethora of these initiatives have culminated in a range of agreements, most of them subsequently dishonored by the parties.
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WHEN ETHNIC DIVERSITY BECOMES A CURSE IN AFRICA: THE TALE OF THE TWO SUDANS

Year of Publication
2020
Document Publisher/Creator
Luka Biong Deng, Ph.D
NGO associated?
Source URL
https://www.csrf-southsudan.org/repository/when-ethnic-diversity-becomes-a-curse-in-africa-the-tale-of-two-sudans/
Summary
​This article assesses when diversity becomes a curse in Africa. The review of literature on the causation of civil wars shows gaps, weaknesses and lack of holistic framework of analysis. It is argued in this article that the risk of violent conflict is better explained in Africa by absence of social contract as a manifestation of governance deficit rather than the presence of grievances and greed. Recognizing these gaps, this article uses the heuristic social contract framework to assess the drivers of diversity-related conflicts in Africa. Applying this social contract framework to analyze the case of the two Sudans that have been susceptible to recurrent diversity-related conflict, it is argued in this article that ethnic diversity is not a curse and it becomes a curse when there is governance deficit that is manifested in social contract and system of government that abhor and detest diversity. Transforming diversity to become a virtue requires forging a system of government and a resilient social contract that addresses the core conflict issues as well as building inclusive and accountable institutions that promote social cohesion and democratic governance.

Date of Publication
12/11/2020

ADVOCATING FOR INCLUSIVE SECURITY IN RESTRICTED CIVIC SPACES IN AFRICA: Lessons learned from Burundi, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Niger, Somalia/Somaliland, and South Sudan

Year of Publication
2020
Document Publisher/Creator
OXFAM
NGO associated?
Source URL
DOI: 10.21201/2020.6157
Summary
Civil society has a vital role in advocating for inclusive, people-centred security provision which meets the everyday safety and security needs of all. This is especially crucial in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, characterized by high levels of insecurity. Restricted civic space shackles civil society’s ability to engage and influence. Despite this, civil society in Burundi, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Niger, Somalia/Somaliland, and South Sudan has developed strategies to navigate, maintain and open civic space to advocate for inclusive, people-centred security and peace. This paper argues that regional and international stakeholders can support civil society to enhance the power of people’s voices in the security sector
Date of Publication
04/09/2020

Housing, Land and Property Disputes in South Sudan: Findings from a survey Nimule, Torit, Wau and Yei

Year of Publication
2019
Document Publisher/Creator
David K. Deng and CSRF
NGO associated?
Source URL
https://www.csrf-southsudan.org/repository/housing-land-and-property-disputes-in-south-sudan-findings-from-a-survey-nimule-torit-wau-and-yei/
Summary
Introduction
This report presents findings from a survey of 677 households in four towns in South Sudan – Nimule, Torit, Wau and Yei. The survey gathered data on respondent perceptions of and experiences with HLP disputes.
South Sudan is currently experiencing a crisis of displacement on a scale that not been seen since the height of the previous civil war in the mid-1990s. In just five years, the current conflict has displaced two in five of all South Sudanese in the country.
Public authorities and development partners should address problems of housing, land and property (HLP) as they relate to displaced populations as an integral component of the emergency response. This would encourage safe, voluntary and dignified returns and prepare the ground for more substantial return and resettlement efforts in the future.

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Date of Publication
20/11/2020

The Politics of Numbers: On Security Sector Reform in South Sudan, 2005-2020

Year of Publication
2020
Document Publisher/Creator
Joshua Craze
NGO associated?
Source URL
https://www.csrf-southsudan.org/repository/the-politics-of-numbers-on-security-sector-reform-in-south-sudan-2005-2020/
Summary
The Politics of Numbers: On Security Sector Reform in South Sudan, 2005-2020 is the first comprehensive study of what has happened to South Sudan’s military forces since the end of the Sudanese second civil war in 2005. Based on extensive fieldwork in the country, the report argues that all of the international community’s efforts to create a unified armed forces in South Sudan have paradoxically only escalated the process of fracturing that led to the current civil war.

Through a rigorous analysis of the current military situation in South Sudan, the report shows that the current peace process has not brought about peace, but the intensification of a war economy based on predation and increasingly ethnicized military forces. Peace, this report argues, is not the opposite of war, but merely one of its modes.
Date of Publication
07/09/2020

The Normative Agency of Regional Organizations and Non-governmental Organizations in International Peace Mediation

Year of Publication
2020
Document Publisher/Creator
Jamie Pring and Julia Palmiano Federer
NGO associated?
Source URL
https://www.csrf-southsudan.org/repository/the-normative-agency-of-regional-organizations-and-non%e2%80%90governmental-organizations-in-international-peace-mediation/
Summary
This article analyzes the increasingly prominent role of regional organizations (ROs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in promoting norms in mediation processes. In particular, we seek to understand the processes by which RO and NGO mediators promote the inclusivity norm to negotiating parties and the outcomes that result. We employ the concepts of local agency and social practices in examining the normative agency of ROs and NGOs in promoting and redefining the inclusivity norm. Through illustrative case studies of peace processes in South Sudan and Myanmar, we argue that ROs’ and NGOs’ mediation practices reflect their
claims to alternative resources of power, such as long-standing expertise and insider status in the context, and build congruence with strong local norms. We provide nuanced theoretical insights on RO and NGO mediators’ claims to agency and provide empirical illustrations on how these claims contribute to constitutive changes to norms.
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Date of Publication
04/01/2021

Japan’s Contemporary Approach to Foreign Policy Aligns With Its Strategic National Interests: A Case Study of United Nations Mission in South Sudan

Year of Publication
2020
Document Publisher/Creator
Prakash Paudel
NGO associated?
Source URL
https://www.csrf-southsudan.org/repository/japans-contemporary-approach-to-foreign-policy-aligns-with-its-strategic-%e2%80%8bnational-interests-%e2%80%8ba-case-study-of-united-nations-mission-in-south-sudan/
Summary
This essay assesses UNMISS as a case study of Japan’s foreign policy which is being implemented in order to fulfill its strategic national interests. In order to trace these interests firstly, it analyzes UNMISS as Japan’s tool to attain the international power; secondly, as an economic strategy to secure its access to the oil and other critical natural resources in Africa; and thirdly as a political strategy to outweigh China’s strategic influence in the region. Before assessing these three different strategic interests, this essay describes Japanese peacekeepers’ activities in a way to consolidate peace in post-conflict South-Sudan
Date of Publication
08/09/2020

Contributing to people’s safety and peace in Cueibet, South Sudan

Year of Publication
2021
Document Publisher/Creator
SAFERWORLD
Institution/organisation
https://www.csrf-southsudan.org/repository/contributing-to-peoples-safety-and-peace-in-cueibet-south-sudan/
NGO associated?
Summary
Cueibet – a county in Lakes state – is the current epicentre of intra-communal violence in the state. Although most people living in the county are from the Gok Dinka sub-tribe, relations among people from various clans within the Gok Dinka have been conflict-ridden, exacerbated by an abundance of small arms and light weapons in civilian hands.

This brief provides a context update about the current situation in Cueibet –a county in Lakes state in South Sudan.

The authors present safety and security challenges identified by communities, authorities and civil society for all levels of government, and national/international organisations to consider.

They also provide recommendations for how best to address the challenges identified such as the easy availability of weapons, cattle raiding, weak justice systems and a lack of security services to turn to.
Attachment
Date of Publication
09/02/20221

A Missing Mandate: Casualty Recording in UN Peace Operations

Year of Publication
2020
Document Publisher/Creator
Hana Salama
Institution/organisation
Small Arms Survey
NGO associated?
Source URL
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/T-Briefing-Papers/SANA-HSBA-BP-UN-casualties.pdf
Summary
This Briefing Paper examines how UN peace operations are using casualty data to enhance the implementation of key elements of their mandates, including the protection of civilians (PoC), the promotion and protection of human rights, and conflict prevention, thereby contributing to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.1: ‘Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related deaths rates everywhere’.

It argues that, in the absence of data from state institutions, UN peace operations can be a good alternative source of data in conflicts where they operate for measuring SDG 16 Indicator 16.1.2: ‘Conflict-related deaths per 100,000 population, by sex, age and cause’. The paper assesses the current casualtyrecording efforts of three of the largest UN missions operating in highly volatile contexts: the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). The aim is to obtain a fuller understanding of these missions’ functions—and the gaps in aligning their data collection efforts with the fulfilment of elements of their mandate and the recording of data relevant to SDG Indicator 16.1.2.
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Date of Publication
09/09/2020