Gender

This study was conducted with funding from the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) provided specifically to prepare for the launch of Oxfam education projects in Pibor and Juba in South Sudan. However, its findings will also be useful to the wider NGO community working in the country, with recommendations provided for the Government of South Sudan and for future programming by donors. The analysis focuses specifically on education, but it also aims to analyse gendered power relations between men and women and boys and girls and the differences in their roles and responsibilities, decision-making power, the barriers and constraints they face and their coping mechanisms, along with the specific needs and concerns of girls and boys both in and out of school and gendered vulnerabilities and differential access to education in the locations selected. The analysis concludes with a set of recommendations to ensure that agencies can move forward in a way that meaningfully addresses the gender inequalities that prevent access to their programmes for women, men, boys and girls.

This report is the result of a short-term study on the traditional and changing roles of gender and women in peace-building. The study involved field research in five locations (Aweil, Bentiu, Bor, Rumbek and Torit). The purpose of the study is to research how the traditional and changing roles of women/ girls and men/boys, conflict dynamics in South Sudan and to recommend to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), potential partners, on possible further peace initiatives. This study contributes to UNDP’s work with women, with regard to resolving peace and security issues in the region. The study offers critical analysis in understanding the unique potential contribution of South Sudanese women in national reconciliation and peacebuilding. The study aims to enable the government of South Sudan and international donors to more effectively mainstream gender initiatives into their policies, programs and future activities.

This rapid review focuses on identifying evidence on the secondary impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It aims to enable a greater understanding of the unique circumstances of women and girls in the region, which could assist with the provision of effective support throughout the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath. Guided by available evidence, the review explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls in SSA across various issues. These include some of the following – girls’ education, social protection, unintended pregnancies, access to health services, poverty, livelihood, land rights, women’s and girls’ informal employment, food security and nutrition, female health workforce, and access to WASH. The review touches upon, but does not thoroughly investigates the following topics as they are considered in other reviews - Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), girls’ and women’s rights, child marriage, harmful social norms, and women’s political participation, leadership and empowerment. Despite the limited data, the review found that based on emerging evidence and lessons from past health crises, there is strong evidence to suggest that women and girls in SSA will suffer from extreme and multifaceted negative secondary impact as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Some of which may include higher poverty rates, increase in unplanned pregnancies, a surge in school dropout rates and child labour of adolescent girls, loss of income and reduced financial empowerment, increased household work, reduced access to healthcare and WASH alongside increased maternal deaths, and greater food insecurity and malnutrition.

This rapid review focuses on identifying evidence on the secondary impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It aims to enable a greater understanding of the unique circumstances of women and girls in the region, which could assist with the provision of effective support throughout the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath. Guided by available evidence, the review explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls in SSA across various issues. These include some of the following – girls’ education, social protection, unintended pregnancies, access to health services, poverty, livelihood, land rights, women’s and girls’ informal employment, food security and nutrition, female health workforce, and access to WASH. The review touches upon, but does not thoroughly investigates the following topics as they are considered in other reviews - Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), girls’ and women’s rights, child marriage, harmful social norms, and women’s political participation, leadership and empowerment. Despite the limited data, the review found that based on emerging evidence and lessons from past health crises, there is strong evidence to suggest that women and girls in SSA will suffer from extreme and multifaceted negative secondary impact as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Some of which may include higher poverty rates, increase in unplanned pregnancies, a surge in school dropout rates and child labour of adolescent girls, loss of income and reduced financial empowerment, increased household work, reduced access to healthcare and WASH alongside increased maternal deaths, and greater food insecurity and malnutrition.

The mapping examines the enabling environment for South Sudan’s social protection system. Despite ongoing peace processes, the country remains volatile and
its population highly vulnerable. The basic needs of the population remain largely unmet. In early 2019, the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare commissioned
mapping of the social protection system, based on the Inter-Agency Social Protection Assessments Core Diagnostic Instrument (CODI).

This study of Conflict and Gender in South Sudan was undertaken in support of the ‘Addressing Root Causes
Fund Programme’ (ARC). Being implemented over a five-year period between September 2016 – August
2021, the Programme is to be undertaken by a consortium of three organisations including: the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD), Dan Church Aid (DCA), and the Centre for Conflict
Resolution (CCR) (here-after referred to as the Consortium). Funding is provided by the Addressing Root
Causes (ARC) Fund of the Government of the Netherlands. This study, conducted between February 20 to
March 27, 2017, was meant to contribute to the baseline upon which the Programme is being constructed.

This report examines women’s leadership in locally led humanitarian action with case studies from Bangladesh and South Sudan. It seeks to understand whether and how local humanitarian leadership (LHL)—with its transfer of resources and power to local and national humanitarian actors (LNHAs)—can promote or constrain women’s leadership.

Despite the end of the civil war in 2005, many people in South Sudan continued to experience a deep sense of insecurity due to the many different types of violent conflict in the country. This sense of insecurity is exacerbated by the lack of protection from the state and the perceived injustice in how power is distributed at the national level. Based on a study carried out in 2013, prior to the country’s relapse into large-scale violence, this article discusses gendered insecurity and agency among the Latuko in Imatong state. In response to their sense of insecurity, the Latuko have developed security arrangements that represent forms of hybrid security governance. Using a notion of masculinity, the article will reflect on the gender dynamics in these local security arrangements. This shows that the social order that customary institutions create can contribute to an increase in violence against women at the domestic level. However, although women are excluded from the decision-making institutions that govern the security arrangements, they exercise subtle forms of agency to influence them.

This report examines the scale of child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) in fragile and conflict-affected states. Studies focusing on the displaced Syrian population, the conflict-affected population in Yemen, and displaced groups in several Sub-Saharan African countries highlight recent increases in child marriage in FCAS. While evidence shows that globally, girls from poor and/or rural backgrounds are more likely to be married than girls from richer and/or urban backgrounds, this is not a linear pattern and it varies across countries. There are some consistent drivers of CEFM across countries, whether they are stable or fragile. These include gender inequality and unequal gender norms, poverty, barriers to education, unpaid family caring responsibilities, weak law enforcement, concerns around girls’ safety, and fears around controlling girls’ sexuality or ‘honour’. In fragile and conflict-affected states, some additional, interconnected drivers are at work. These include: displacement, being out of school, threat or experience of violence, conflict or crisis fuelled poverty and food insecurity, conflict or crisis fuelled weakening of the rule of law and conflict or crisis fuelled strengthening of harmful social norms.