The purpose of this paper is to critically reflect on the Pieri Action Plan for Peace to explore learning to inform the direction of future organisational peace programming in Jonglei State. It does so by drawing on an established Dealing with the Past conceptual framework which has been used in many conflict and post-conflict environments. The Pieri Action Plan for Peace is a peace agreement and a roadmap for the Murle, Lou and Gawaar Nuer,…
Entries by Peacebuilding Opportunities Fund
This case study sets out learning from programmatic engagement from the UK’s Peacebuilding Opportunities Fund (POF) among the Otuho people of Eastern Equatoria State. The programme promoted a cultural engagement process aimed to strengthen women’s peace and security at a time when Otuho society undergoes a 22-year cycle of generational change when leadership structures are renewed. This case study draws on POF experience from this engagement, sharing learning associated with influencing cultural processes through public…
This ‘Lessons Learned’ Paper combines a narrative section with the peacebuilding principles that the team has identified through the process. The narrative element below deliberately also takes the updates as they were written at the time, rather than re-editing after the fact. Whilst this makes for a less flowing narrative, it allows another angle of engagement for the reader; seeing what the team was emphasising as the process iterated. The hope is that, collectively, this…
The core argument of this paper is that it is possible to engage in meaningful peacebuilding and reconciliation activities in South Sudan, despite the many complexities and tensions. However, serious re-thinking is required to develop and design more strategic and context-sensitive approaches. Consideration of the tensions raised here, and devising methodologies to manage them that accurately reflect the complexities of the context and of action within it, will help. All actors, whatever their role, position…
This research project was commissioned in response to a growing concern among civil society, faith-based organisations, affected communities, and refugees about the negative impact of logging on local communities in South Sudan, particularly in the Equatorian Region and Greater Bahr El Ghazal. It was envisaged that through the initial research and deeper understanding of the issues involved, opportunities for engagement would be identified to inform strategic programming in a subsequent phase. This document therefore is…
There is a regular echo of consensus that South Sudan’s agenda for reconciliation needs to be indigenous to the country and based on the particularity of the experience here. Yet, there is no digestable synthesis of the lessons learned or reflection among key actors as to how lessons from the earlier national-level processes could be integrated into the structures foreshadowed in the R- ARCISS. The Peacebuilding Opportunities Fund is pursuing elsewhere in its programme of…
There is a normalisation of violence that permeates the reality of the cattle camps in Lakes State. There is also rich tradition, legacy, community, discipline, organisation and an aspiration for a peaceful and prosperous future. Often the conversation around the cattle camps is anchored around the moment of violence and the ‘problem’ of cattle camp youth. This research approaches the inquiry from the foundation of broader cattle camp values and identity. We distil from that…