Conflict and peacebuilding

The drivers, impacts, experiences and dynamics of conflict and peacebuilding.

Background report

The Politics of Humanitarianism: Perspectives from South Sudan

South Sudan has for decades been a crucible of experimentation in the field of humanitarianism in situations of conflict. Humanitarian operations have been critical in saving lives, providing essential medical care, documenting the plight of South Sudan’s people, and connecting…
Central and East Africa Hub
2018
Background report

CSOs/CBOs and Faith-Based Organizations-Led Peace and Reconciliation Efforts

This policy brief explores the state and role of civil society and community-based organisations and faith-based organisations in peace and reconciliation efforts in South Sudan following the outbreak of violent conflict that began in December 2013. A key reason for…
Central and East Africa Hub
2014
Background report

Complexities of Service Delivery and State-Building

The SLRC South Sudan programme has been working since 2012 to identify and understand the realities of livelihoods, access to basic services, and perceptions of governance in post-independence South Sudan. This briefing paper summarises findings from the publications of SLRC…
Central and East Africa Hub
2016
Background report

Livelihoods and Conflict in South Sudan

The SLRC South Sudan programme has been working since 2012 to identify and understand the realities of livelihoods, access to basic services, and perceptions of governance in post-independence South Sudan. This briefing paper summarises findings from the publications of SLRC…
Central and East Africa Hub
2016
Background report

Statebuilding and Legitimacy: Experiences of South Sudan

Using South Sudan as a case, this report interrogates people’s perceptions of the state, focusing on sources of legitimacy that are not primarily related to service delivery. It covers the period from the onset of civil war in 1983 to…
ODI
2017
Research paper

Is promoting war trauma such a good idea?

The introduction of trauma narratives has created a market where some are able to thrive, but many deeply troubled individuals remain invisible. The authors found no social benefits from promoting trauma, and few positive effects for individuals. Arguments for urgently…
Central and East Africa Hub
Research paper

What Happened to Children Who Returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda?

This article draws on research carried out in 2004–06 and from 2012 to 2018, and compares findings with other publications on reintegration in the region. It argues that implementing best-practice guidelines for relocating displaced children with their immediate relatives had…
Central and East Africa Hub
2020
Research paper

Humanitarian Fables: Morals, Meanings and Consequences for Humanitarian Practice

This article describes how events are turned into fables in humanitarian organisations. It explores how these fables circulate, the lessons they come to embody and their influence in maintaining an organisational status quo. The article argues that such stories teach…
Central and East Africa Hub
2022
Research paper

Humanitarian Shapeshifting: Navigation, Brokerage and Access in Eastern DR Congo

This article examines the experience of Congolese humanitarians negotiating access with armed groups in eastern DRC. It describes how humanitarians become shapeshifters: they play different roles for different audiences as a tactic of social navigation in a context of uncertainty.…
Central and East Africa Hub
2022
Research paper

Moral Spaces and Sexual Transgression: Understanding Rape in War and Post Conflict

Evocative language describing rape as a ‘weapon of war’ has become commonplace. Although politically important, overemphasis on strategic aspects of wartime sexual violence can be misleading. Alternative explanations tend to understand rape either as exceptional — a departure from ‘normal’…
Central and East Africa Hub
2019
Thesis

After rape: justice and social harmony in Northern Uganda

This thesis explores responses to rape in the Acholi sub-region of northern Uganda, based on ethnographic research in two villages. Northern Uganda has been at the heart of international justice debates in the context of ongoing conflict between the Lord’s…
Central and East Africa Hub
2013
Research paper

War, Displacement and Rural–Urban Transformation: Kivu’s Boomtowns, Eastern D.R. Congo

This article addresses rural–urban transformations in the war-torn Kivu provinces. The spectacular growth and development processes of fast-expanding boomtowns in Kivu’s rural areas serve as an entry point to investigate the relationship between conflict, displacement, urbanisation and development in Eastern…
Central and East Africa Hub
2018
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