This article investigates contestations over the roles and legitimacy of gangs within the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Protection of Civilians (PoC) site in Bentiu, South Sudan. Drawing on qualitative interviews, it argues that ‘gangs’ represented the medium through which everyday struggles and processes of social contestations were negotiated between youth, elders, and protection actors. Prevailing narratives of gangs as violent criminal entities structured conflict with elders and protection actors, but to their…
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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.
KEY MESSAGES • Nearly all households who were interviewed in South Sudan were South Sudanese nationals who reported having fled active conflict in urban areas in Khartoum State. • Findings indicate households endured dangerous journeys to reach the border, with most households reporting having faced difficulties, including racism and discrimination, transportation issues, and difficulties due to a lack of documentation. Some households recounted having been subjected to violence. • Households overwhelmingly reported being in urgent…
This Working Paper explores the interaction between social protection and conflict in the Horn of Africa. Conflict and political instability are habitual risks identified in the Horn of Africa, where social protection is a well-established field of intervention. By drawing from three country case studies, the paper provides recommendations for development partners on how to use their resources and leverage to strengthen conflict sensitivity of social protection at both strategic and operational level. Read more…
This paper presents five lessons on community engagement in the context of the Humanitarian- Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus in South Sudan. More coordinated and collaborative approaches to community engagement have potential to address weaknesses in current approaches that prioritise the short-term information needs of the aid system at the expense of community priorities. The lessons focus on: (1) designing community engagement processes that respond to community priorities, capacities, and preferences, (2) ensuring less fragmented approaches to…
The humanitarian, development, and peace (HDP) nexus as an attempt to enable a more coherent and efficient collective response to dynamic and interconnected crises has received increasing prominence in South Sudan. While there are examples of how an HDP nexus can contribute to more effective aid in conflict-affected contexts, its application also carries conflict sensitivity risks. This analysis piece looks at what a conflict-sensitive HDP nexus might mean in the context of South Sudan. This…
The Protection Cluster has recorded an increase in incidents of rights violations associated with the current foodcrisis that is intensifying in South Sudan. In addition, food distribution as well as agencies engaged in these effortsare at significant risk of having their operations disrupted and their staff put in danger by sub-national andintercommunal violence, bureaucratic impediments, and physical constraints due to unprecedented flooding,combined with poor road conditions. The food security crisis in South Sudan is worsening…
A reshuffle of Jonglei’s state government is underway, precipitated by the out-going leadership’s inability to quell chronic armed violence and raiding in the state.. While the current rainy season will prevent large-scale raiding in the coming months, attacks on humanitarian convoys and low-level raiding continue, with women and children abducted. There are alarming signs that abductions are becoming commercialized, with the money paid for abductees’ release being used to purchase ammunition and other materiel, sometimes…
South Sudan is home to one of the world’s worst hunger crises, a consequence of decades of armed conflict and devastating extreme weather events. Conflict, climate change and hunger have forcibly displaced nearly seven million people, out of a population of 11 million. The World Food Programme (WFP) operates in the middle of this intersection. In 2022, WFP provided food assistance to nearly 6 million people. This food assistance has an impact on conflict and…
This brief presents findings and takeaways from a research study focused on the process and perceptions of implementing early action in South Sudan, including in the Bentiu Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp. These include insufficient knowledge transfer from headquarters to sub-national offices within UN agencies, lack of discretionary decision-making power at these offices and underdeveloped adaptive management structures and processes, and missing link-up of early warning with development components. Finally, it provides a set of…
ABSTRACT This article attempts to position education not only in the peacebuilding debate but also in the larger good governance debate about what makes a resilient social contract. We subscribe in this paper to a theoretical perspective that attributes the driver of civil wars to governance deficit that is manifested in absence of resilient social contract in terms of sustained agreement between citizens and state. We then ask the key question of whether and how…
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