‘And Then He Switched off the Phone’: Mobile Phones, Participation and Political Accountability in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State

This paper uses qualitative and quantitative original data to investigate the impact of mobile phones in situations of political contestation or conflict. We derive hypotheses from theories in general political science, and on the role of mobile phones specifically. These suggest that a link exists between access to better communication structures, political participation and government accountability. Given such a link, information and communications technologies—specifically mobile phones—could play a positive role in building a more accountable government, and with that, contribute to statebuilding. We examine to what extent these hypotheses hold true for ordinary citizens in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State (WES).
Using interdisciplinary methods, we use data gathered through in-depth interviews and a quantitative survey and find little evidence that mobile phone coverage contributes to statebuilding or peacebuilding through a causal link between information, voting, political participation and government accountability. In a situation where administrative structures and mechanisms do not exist for citizens to hold politicians accountable,

Fettered Self-determination: South Sudan’s Narrowed Path to Secession

The interpretation of self-determination as a vote for secession shaped the state that South Sudan has become since the 2011 referendum. Self-determination, this paper argues, is a democratic political process in which citizens determine their preferred form of statehood and nature of governance for their country.
In South Sudan, however, political actors—with international support—established conditions that reduced such complex democratic processes to narrow technical matters. Equating self-determination with secession consolidated political and military domination in a process designed to end such domination. This was done at the expense of a more inclusive, process-oriented and political interpretation of self-determination.

A Hard Homecoming: Lessons Learned from the Reception Center Process in Northern Uganda: An Independent Study

This independent report has been commissioned by USAID and UNICEF to examine assumptions and evidence about the needs and experiences of children and adults who have been forced to serve under the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and have subsequently escaped, surrendered or been captured by the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).
In particular it focuses on the process of ‘reintegrating’ formerly abducted people (FAPs) through reception centers, and the various challenges facing FAPs when they are reunited with their families. In addition it deals with a range of specific issues, outlined in the Statement of Work (SOW), including that of women who have been kidnapped, raped, impregnated by LRA combatants (commonly referred to as ‘child mothers’), the role of the UPDF in the FAP return process, and the part played by the Amnesty Commission.

‘A situation of security pluralism’ along South Sudan’s borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo

This article compares two cases of securitization along South Sudan’s border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By comparing how a security concern – the presence of the Lord’s Resistance Army – was interpreted and responded to, the article shows that border security practices in two borderscapes are improvised, contradictory and contested, and serve to establish authority rather than actually securing the border. This is apparent on three levels: (a) through the multiplicity of security actors vying for authority; (b) in how they interpret security concerns; and (c) in terms of what practice follows.
The article argues that by allowing authority at the border to be taken by actors that are not under direct control of the central government, the South Sudanese state is developing as one that controls parts of the country in absentia, either by granting discretionary powers to low-level government authorities at the border or through tactical neglect

South Sudan’s Civil War Will Not End with a Peace Deal

In early 2017, the government of South Sudan declared that parts of the country had been hit by severe famine. This famine was another sign of the many ways in which a disastrous war was killing people. South Sudan had at that point been in a civil war for three years, with the humanitarian situation steadily deteriorating since war broke out in December 2013.
After one and a half years of negotiations, and pressure applied by the international community, government and opposition signed the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCSS) in August 2015, which stipulated that the two warring parties would share power in government. What was intended as a peace deal, however, continues to make South Sudan more violent as despite the agreement, violence continues to spread.
How should we understand the paradox of a signed deal and talks of reconciliation on the one hand,

Southern Sudan at Odds with Itself: Dynamics of Conflict and Predicaments of Peace

This report aims to clarify reasons for increased intra-south violence in South Sudan. By reflecting on how people living and working in Southern Sudan experienced events since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), this report looks at ways in which intra-southern structures and international approaches created new predicaments of peace, and contributed to the dynamics of ongoing conflict. It questions established narratives about the influence of the government of Khartoum or ‘tribalism’ being at the heart of the region’s problems.
The report finds that other issues, some of which have been ignored or underemphasised – such as the lack of internal border demarcations – have a direct impact on local violence. It also identifies problems with the development/reconstruction/peace-building approach that have exacerbated tensions.

Deals and Dealings: Inconclusive Peace and Treacherous Trade along the South Sudan-Uganda Border

Since Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed, its border with Uganda has become a hub of activity. Contrasting developments on the Ugandan side of the border with those on the South Sudanese side, the paper draws on empirical fieldwork to argue that the CPA has created new centres of power in the margins of both states. However, in day-today dealings on either side of the border, South Sudanese military actors have become dominant. In the particular case of Arua and the South Sudan-Uganda border, past wartime authority structures determine access to opportunities in a tightly regulated, inconclusive peace.

Expanding the Reach of Justice and Accountability in South Sudan

This policy brief explores options to consider in expanding the reach of justice and accountability processes as part of any post-conflict transition in South Sudan.
The brief is structured in three sections. After a short introduction, the first section examines comparative state practice in the use of amnesties. Though often viewed as impediments to justice and accountability, partial or conditional amnesties can also provide useful means of coping with widespread conflict-related abuses and states’ inability to bring all suspects to trial.
The second section presents survey data on perceptions of amnesties and the overlap between victim and perpetrator to understand the implications of conditional amnesties in South Sudan.
The third section provides policy options for South Sudan to consider in its transitional justice program moving forward, most notably, the use of alternative sentencing and referrals to customary justice mechanisms for certain categories of perpetrators who admit wrongdoing and seek forgiveness.

The Legacy of Kokora in South Sudan

This briefing paper presents a historical case study on Kokora, a word associated with the decentralization policy enacted in southern Sudan in 1983. The policy divided the semi-autonomous Southern Region in Sudan, into three smaller administrative regions. While the events took place over three decades ago, they continue to influence the current political debates, especially on highly contested topics of federalism and decentralization.
This paper does not focus on federalism and decentralization, and does not take a position in these debates. Rather, this report gives a historical overview of the events of Kokora, and investigates how these have been experienced in South Sudan. In doing so, it aims to contribute to a better understanding of the events and the different narratives thereof, and to support an open dialogue about the lessons that can be learned.

‘Land Belongs to the Community’: Demystifying the ‘Global Land Grab’ in Southern Sudan

Sudan is among the global ‘hotspots’ for large-scale land acquisitions. Although most were thought to occur in the country’s north, recent research indicates a surprising number of large-scale land acquisitions have taken place in the South in recent years. Now that Southern Sudanese have opted for independence, investment activity will likely increase.
This paper presents preliminary data concerning large-scale land acquisitions in two ‘Green Belt’ states of Southern Sudan: Central Equatoria and Western Equatoria. It explores the concept ‘land belongs to the community’, a statement taken up by communities in their demand for greater involvement in decision-making regarding community lands. It also examines processes of company–community engagement and the extent to which rural communities are involved in investment projects. Finally, the paper presents case studies that illustrate the complex interplay between cultural sovereignty, conflict, and post-war reconstruction in Southern Sudan. It concludes with recommendations for the government moving forward.

Gender relations and women’s reproductive health in South Sudan

Drawing on Connell’s relational theory of gender, the authors of this study conducted focus group discussion and interviews with Fertit women in South Sudan concerning their ability to control their reproductive lives. Women reported little choice over the childbearing demands of their husbands and families, intersecting with poverty and insecurity that leave men few sources of pride and achievement other than fatherhood. The authors conclude that as long as economic and social opportunities for women remain restricted, and as long as insecurity and uncertainty remain, many women will have little choice but to resort to having many children to safeguard their fragile present and future.

Health Sector Recovery in Early Post-Conflict Environments: Experience from Southern Sudan

Health sector recovery in post-conflict settings presents an opportunity for reform: analysis of policy processes can provide useful lessons. The case of southern Sudan is assessed through interviews, literature review, and by drawing on experiences of former technical advisers to the Ministry of Health. In the immediate post-conflict phase, the health system in southern Sudan was characterised by fragmentation, low service coverage, dismal health outcomes and limited government capacity. Health policy was extensively shaped by the interplay of context, actors and processes: the World Bank and the World Health Organization became the primary drivers of policy change.
Lessons learned from include the need for: sustained investment in assessment and planning of recovery activities; building of procurement capacity early in the recovery process; support for funding instruments that can disburse resources rapidly; and streamlining governance structures and procedures adopted by health recovery financing mechanisms and adapting them to local context
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Livelihoods, Access to Services and Perceptions of Governance: An Analysis of Pibor County, South Sudan from the Perspective of Displaced People

Based on qualitative interviews in Juba with displaced people from Pibor County in 2013, this article examined internal state-building processes, international engagement with the state, and livelihoods and response in rural Pibor County.
The authors focus in particular on how violence and subsequent displacement have impacted people’s livelihoods, charting the severity of cattle raids and livestock destocking. They describe how underserved the county is in terms of essential services such as schools and health facilities, which ire largely operated by NGOs. Participants perceive Murle people to be underrepresented and marginalised at state and national levels.

South Sudan-Sudan Cross-Border Relations. In: State Building and Development in South Sudan

As a contribution to international, regional and national processes aimed at informing state building in South Sudan, the African Research and Resource Forum in partnership with University of Juba, organised a two-day international dialogue called “State Building and Development in South Sudan” in Juba in 2011. It brought together national and local government officials and political leaders, academics, civil society, development partners and the media.
The objective was to critically examine and evaluate the post-conflict reforms in Southern Sudan, to inform debate and consensus on the salient features, challenges and future direction of the post-conflict reforms.
This publication is an outcome of the dialogue. It is comprised of five papers and two speeches. The papers examine a range of topics, including challenges of state building and development; human resource capacity development; security challenges; South Sudan-Sudan cross- border relations; liberation movements with post-Liberation state-building;

Civil Wars and State Formation: Violence and the Politics of Legitimacy in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and South Sudan

Civil wars destroy existing political orders, shape new ones, and play crucial roles in the dynamics of state formation. This working paper is based on a 2-year research project reflecting on the social construction of order and legitimacy during and after violent conflict. It focuses on political orders put in place by armed groups.
Drawing on case studies in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and South Sudan, it shows how strategies of legitimization are central to understanding the politics of armed groups and their relation to the state, how international aid agencies impact on the legitimacy of armed groups and state actors, and how continuities between war and peace, especially in key sectors such as security forces, need to be taken into account in any effort at establishing long-term peace and stability.

Livelihoods, Access to Services and Perceptions of Governance: An Analysis of Uror and Nyirol Counties, South Sudan

This report is one of a series based on qualitative fieldwork conducted by the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) South Sudan team in Uror and Nyirol Counties, Jonglei State, South Sudan in January and February 2013 (prior to the outbreak of violent conflict in December, 2013). It focuses on SLRC programme questions around internal state building processes, and livelihoods in fragile and conflicted affected settings.

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 South Sudanese with the international community. Aid operations have also become woven into the daily lives, languages and cultures of South Sudanese people. Both scholars and humanitarian practitioners need to continue to explore and respond to these complex dynamics.
This paper offers reflections from a panel of twelve prominent South Sudanese scholars, academics and activists, exploring humanitarianism in South Sudan across four thematic areas: accountability, activism, authority and access. It concludes with recommendations for humanitarian actors to consider in their efforts to design and implement programmes in a highly fluid context.

Interethnic Relations in Exile: The Politics of Ethnicity among Sudanese Refugees in Uganda and Egypt

Refugees are diverse and often politically active. The case of Sudanese refugees forced into exile by civil conflict illustrates these characteristics. Sudanese belong to various ethnic groups that became highly politicized by conflict. Sudanese identities are also politicized in exile due to competition over resources, memories of victimization, and current circumstances in their countries of origin and asylum.
In the Adjumani district of Uganda, refugees from the Sudanese ethnic groups of Madi and Kuku, which had been good neighbours in Sudan, became hostile to each other due to competition over resources. The Dinka were denied settlement among other refugees due to past grievances. In Cairo, conflicts between the Nuer and Dinka were fuelled by atrocities committed by factions of the armed opposition in southern Sudan. These conflicts led to the dissolution of the inclusive South Sudan Students Association (SOSSA) and the emergence of ‘tribal’ organizations.

Food Security and Nutrition Vulnerability and Risk Analysis in Former Warrap and Northern Bahr el Ghazal States

The trends reported in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) show a growing food security crisis in South Sudan, with a high proportion of people sliding into crisis in almost all parts of the country, with millions of people, many of them rural women and children, affected.
In January 2017, the Sudd Institute, with support from FAO, used Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools to explore the proximal risk factors undermining food security resilience and triggering or perpetuating emergency level vulnerabilities in the former states of Warrap and Northern Bahr el Ghazal. The results highlight important insights into appropriate response options for combating food security vulnerability in this region.

Dirty Things: Spiritual Pollution and Life after the Lord’s Resistance Army

Drawing on insights gleaned from ethnographic fieldwork over the last decade, we focus here on targeted research from January to August 2014 with former LRA individuals who were part of a bigger study of clients at an ex-combatant reception centre.
We explore how these persons have experienced, described, and responded to the suffering caused by ajwani (“dirty things”) – the stuff of a polluted cosmos. We further discuss the politics of “belief” and doubt in contemporary Acholi.

South Sudan’s Devastating Floods: Why They Happen and Why They Need a Coherent National Policy

Drawing on flood incident data and climate change evidence, this paper argues that floods should now be viewed as a perpetual threat to lives, property and infrastructure in South Sudan.
The author calls for immediate efforts to adapt and mitigate flood and drought impacts, including enactment of climate change legislation and the establishment of a climate change authority, stablishing emergency food silos, and constructing flood-resistant infrastructure.

The COVID-19 Pandemic Vulnerability Factors in South Sudan

This analysis identifies and discusses the COVID-19 vulnerability factors in South Sudan, including the country’s reliance on humanitarian assistance and imports, economic reliance on oil, weak healthcare system, population density, informal settlements, natural disasters, poverty and illiteracy, and a fragile and untransparent state with limited capacity for response.
To counter these vulnerabilities, the paper also makes a set of recommendations including leveraging bilateral and multilateral humanitarian support; mass testing, border monitoring, case tracking, production and distribution of face masks, repurposing facilities as temporary COVID-19 care centers, improving security and revitalising peace agreements, restoring stability and improving accountable governance, diversifying the economy, and using oil revenue to provide basic services in health, education, security, and infrastructure.

The Nature and Magnitude of the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Sudan [May 2020]

This 2020 Policy Brief examines data on COVID-19 infections in South Sudan. It shows that COVID-19 preventive measures instituted in March were ineffective, that the effect of the virus varied by both age and sex of patients and that elderly and women were a greater risk of infection. Running nose and weakness were the most notable symptoms for the COVID-19 illness in South Sudan at this time, while borders did not seem to pose a significant health threat to South Sudan.
Policy options to reverse the onslaught of the virus are suggested, including widening testing coverage, adopting lifestyle and behavioral changes, and insulating low-risk populations. But mass testing and the promotion of lifestyle and behavioral changes in a country, where literacy rates are extraordinarily low, demand heavy investments in the health sector and health education/campaigns.

Economic Policy during the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Sudan

This Weekly Review, from October 23, 2020, analyses the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Sudan, and specifically focuses on production, the performance of the commodity and foreign exchange markets, and resultant government policy interventions. It concludes by recommending: sustained improvements in peace and security; investing in human and physical capital; investing in agriculture; improving non-oil revenue collection; and instituting and bolstering economic reform frameworks to combat corruption.

South Sudan’s Devastating Floods: Why There is a Need for Urgent Resilience Measures

Written in collaboration with Flood Management Initiative, this paper reviews the extent of the flooding in Bor Town in 2020. Using GPS depth measurements and discussions with local residents, the paper first charts the extent of flooding that year, before analysing its welfare impacts for local residents, exacerbating factors and efforts to contain or mitigate damage.
The report recommends that, given how frequent and severe floods are becoming due to global warming, the Government of South Sudan should urgently develop short, medium and long term policy interventions to build flood resilience capacity.

COVID-19 and the Political Transition in South Sudan

This Policy Brief assesses the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has hampered the political transition in South Sudan and how political actors have responded to the crisis in terms of their responsibilities implementing the Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
Overall, the process has stalled, with parties having difficulty gathering sufficient momentum to push the Agreement forward, and dealing with a range of interrelated global and domestic challenges.

Protecting South Sudan from the Ebola Virus Disease: Policy Implications

This Weekly Review, from October 25, 2022, draws from the Second Round of the EVD Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) assessment conducted in South Sudan in 2019 to highlight the implications of the recent Ebola Virus Disease events in Uganda on South Sudan. We focus attention on key risk areas, namely general awareness on infection sources, symptoms/signs, transmission modes, and how these outcomes vary by place (i.e., county) and sociodemographic factors (i.e., education, gender, age, and religion).
Understanding people’s knowledge on the above and its relation to one’s residence and sociodemographic factors can help better inform the Ministry of Health’s preparedness and readiness to respond to a potential EVD outbreak. Key lessons learned include that community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks.

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 the limited engagement of CSOs/CBOs specifically was the reluctance of the warring parties to include other stakeholders in peace talks. Indeed, in the peace efforts to resolve the violent conflict, the CSOs were only allowed to participate following significant pressure from regional and Western bodies. Also, the weakness of the CSOs and faith-based organizations has worked against their full engagement.
This briefing also suggests possible actions to enhance their roles include increasing pressure on the warring parties and building capacities of these organizations through sustained funding and training.

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