External actors have been engaged in what is now South Sudan from the colonial era through to the present day, providing humanitarian and development assistance and exerting political pressure during and since the second civil war that has helped to protect people, legitimize the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), broker the peace agreements leading to independence, and undergird the new state of South Sudan. After the civil war and especially at independence, many international actors…
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CSRF Research Repository
The CSRF Research Repository aims to support greater contextual knowledge for policy makers, programme managers, and implementers by providing a searchable repository of research, analysis, and resources, and providing periodic updates on new research and analysis.
In 2005, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement / Army concluded a peace agreement, formally ending the 22-year-old civil war. Following a referendum, South Sudan seceded; donors put billions toward the new state and Sudan’s recovery, supporting – among other things – the development of new state institutions for both countries. However, in December 2013, war broke out again in South Sudan. Prevalent approaches to state building – such as those…
This report (2016) reviews the weaknesses of three of South Sudan’s governance institutions that are most critical to establishing accountability: the Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Audit Chamber, and the Public Accounts Committee in the National Legislative Assembly. All three institutions face considerable operational challenges that have undercut their effectiveness in implementing their constitutional mandates. Download
The paper traces shifts in international engagement and the implications of these shifts for understanding the trends in service provision specifically, and recovery and development more generally, in South Sudan. This analysis is intended to offer some direction for the future of international engagement in fragile and conflict-affected states around the objectives of service delivery and state-building.
This article considers the 2005–12 Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programme in South Sudan. Current DDR practice centres on ex-combatants’ reintegration through encouraging entrepreneurship and selfemployment and thereby their willingness to take risks and responsibility. However, South Sudan’s DDR programme invisibilizes and obscures the excombatants’ endogenous capacity to adapt and generate an income. Based on in-depth interviews with participants of the DDR programme and key stakeholders, the article argues that DDR interventions seldom capture the…
This swisspeace publication attempts to explain why the international community has been unable to prevent the armed conflict (since December 2013) and what its responsibilities are.
This paper explores the possibilities for South Sudan of applying the “Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation” approach , a recent innovation to build state capability. Download
Drawing on interviews conducted during two periods of fieldwork in Juba, this article traces debates over land between a set of local actors whose interests collided in the Interim Period. The article focuses on land tenure in Juba. Link to publication
This discussion paper analyses some of the challenges faced by African rebel groups including the SPLM/A in their transition from liberation movements to political parties governing functioning state structures. Download
This policy brief argues that chiefs play an important role in governance and community life in South Sudan. They provide an array of vital services, from mobilising people for community projects to adjudicating disputes and administering customary law. Sometimes criticised as being an unelected group of old men, they will nevertheless play a vital role in South Sudan’s steps to building viable, effective, local government institutions. This policy brief looks at chiefs and suggests that…
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