This paper aims to shed light on opportunities and challenges of the implementation of the humanitarian, development, and peace (HDP) nexus in South Sudan, and particularly investigating how localisation can be embedded in the HDP nexus in line with a decolonial perspective. This is achieved by identifying the origins of the HDP nexus in South Sudan as a top-down and largely state-centric effort, moving onto a problematisation of the localisation agenda both within UN-led implementations…

The purpose of the paper is to reflect on peacebuilding approaches and methodologies adopted by the UK’s Peacebuilding Opportunities Fund (POF) within conflict affected communities for the purpose of drawing relevant lessons for peacebuilding interventions in South Sudan. The paper identifies both learning that strengthens peacebuilding engagement and informs what can be done better when engaging conflict affected communities, and pitfalls and poor practice to be avoided.  This paper is written from a peacebuilding practitioner…

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….

Abstract Common to most protracted conflicts that relapse into war is a disconnect between elites and local communities, which typically suffer the most when the former undermine peace agreements to further their own narrow interests. The central argument in this chapter, drawing heavily on the recent history of Sudan/South Sudan and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), is that African conflict resolution and peacebuilding relies too heavily on political agreements between politico-military elites. These deals focus…

Introduction Transitional Justice Mechanisms, including the establishment of a Hybrid Court for South Sudan (HCSS), were incorporated as part of the September 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS). Chapter Five of the R-ARCSS was a blueprint for the state to deal with its past, address impunity, and to foster state stability and peace. However, the political and military elites continue to resist the establishment of the HCSS because…

Education is not only a human right. It is also tool for peacebuilding. In 2019, Reuben Garang conducted a feasibility study with South Sudanese refugee families living in refugee camps in Uganda. This project and report were fueled by Garang’s own personal experiences with periods of interrupted schooling both in refugee camps and in Canada. And it was fueled by the fundamental insight that education can serve as a tool for peacebuilding and mutual understanding…

Primary school textbooks can provide space for learning about peace and inclusion but can also reinforce messages of inequality and division. This article describes a thematic analysis of South Sudan’s textbooks for pupils in Grade 4 Social Studies, English, and Christian Religious Education. The analysis uses a conceptual framework that positions education as having multiple potential overlapping roles in relation to conflict—victim, accomplice, and transformer—to show that the textbooks’ content contains some motions toward social…

South Sudan is one of the world’s most divided and unstable countries. Since achieving statehood in 2011, the country has plunged into civil war (2013-15) and become the scene of some of the worst human rights abuses on the African continent. Despite ongoing political turmoil, states and international institutions have pledged enormous resources to stabilize the country and shore up the current peace process, but have had limited influence in dealing with the effects of…

Land is often a critical aspect of conflict: it may be a root cause or trigger conflicts or may become an issue as the conflict progresses. Conflicts lead to forced evictions; the people who are displaced by conflict need somewhere to live and some land to farm or to graze their animals, often leading to further disputes over the use of land and other resources. This publication – which also refers to South Sudan -…

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