Statebuilding and legitimacy: experiences of South Sudan

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 employed in Sudan and South Sudan from 2005 to 2013 – focused mainly on infrastructure and bureaucracy, based on the underlying assumption that service delivery fosters state legitimacy. Recent research, however, questions this assumption, arguing that it ignores the role that political structures, ideas and history play in legitimization or de-legitimization of the state. This report uses South Sudan as an example to interrogate people’s perceptions of the state, asking what – if not service delivery – fosters state legitimacy. This research was conducted under the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC), a six-year, eight-country research study, led by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London. SLRC investigates livelihoods, access to basic services, and social protection in fragile and conflict-affected situations. The research is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID), Irish Aid, and the European Community (EC). The Feinstein International Center leads SLRC research in South Sudan and Uganda in addition to its participation in the Sierra Leone research

Producing knowledge on and for transitional justice : reflections on a collaborative research project

Scholars and research funding institutions have pursued North-South research partnerships as one possible redress for the divisions and inequalities that characterize research and knowledge production practices in the field of transitional justice. Policies and guidelines have been developed to shape the nature of these partnerships, to ensure mutual benefit, and to ensure a collaborative knowledge production process. However, critical reflections about the way these partnerships play out in practice are scant. In this chapter we will thus reflect on our team’s experiences in implementing what was planned as a collaborative North-South research project. We highlight questions of positionality, emotions and ethics in shaping and ‘doing’ partnerships. Drawing on a series of vignettes, extracted from a reflective conversation our project team had at the workshop that concluded our project, we make sense of these experiences within the larger debates on North-South relations in transitional justice scholarship and peacebuilding more generally

Key Considerations: Alleviating Chronic Food Insecurity in South Sudan

The Republic of South Sudan has experienced chronic food insecurity for decades and particularly in the last five years. This chronic food insecurity is a result of a combination of factors, including protracted conflicts, socio-economic fragility, lack of infrastructure, climate change and conflicts and wars in Sudan, Ukraine and the Middle East. In response, the South Sudan Government, UN agencies and international and national non-governmental actors have adopted measures to deal with the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Investing in the agricultural sector may offer a sustainable route to potentially alleviate the chronic food insecurity crisis. This brief describes the scale of the food insecurity facing populations in South Sudan. It also analyses the causes of food insecurity, responses by government and non-government actors and partners, and offers considerations for these actors to support ending food insecurity, especially via bolstering agriculture and livelihoods. This brief draws on published texts, grey literature (especially government and non-governmental organisation reports), print and online media releases, and discussions with politicians and civil servants from institutions that focus on food insecurity in South Sudan