Publications: Policy Briefs

This Brief reviews South Sudan's economic diversification challenges and opportunities, focusing on agriculture, mining, and tourism. The research employs a systematic literature review to identify gaps and assess the complexities of diversification in resource-rich, post-conflict nations.

This Brief explores the causes of South Sudan’s spiraling inflation and depreciating currency, as well as the policy interventions needed to stabilize the currency and by extension, the economy. The immediate cause of the crisis is clear: pipeline disruptions due to the ongoing conflict across the border in Sudan have...

Anaerobic technology is a biotechnological intervention that has been employed for decades to treat organic waste streams producing methane-rich biogas as a significant energy carrier capable of being turned into electricity and heat. Biogas is an important component of the green energy sources which could partially solve energy crisis in...

Recently the Council of Ministers of the Republic of South Sudan passed the country’s first land policy that says the “land shall belong to the people of South Sudan and shall be regulated by the government.” This has created emotional debates and contestations among citizens as it goes against the...

South Sudan is a country with longstanding history of international assistance. In fact, her hard-won independence was birthed in part through external financial and political backstopping. Certain international actors have since deepened their engagement by supporting constitutional designs dating as far back as 2005.

Charcoal is increasingly becoming a primary energy choice, accounting for 96% of cooking fuel for the growing urban population of South Sudan (NBS, 2012; Tiitmamer & Anai, 2018). Yet not much is known about the level of government regulation to make the woodfuel, especially the charcoal sector, sustainable.

Local content requirements promote national capacity, employment, economic diversification, and economic growth (Kazzazi and Nouri 2012, Tordo et al., 2013). Local content develops capacities that link the oil and gas sector to other industries. While over 80% of the oil and gas sector’s workforce is South Sudanese, little is known...

The implementation of the R-ARCSS is stalled, as the parties have had difficulty gathering sufficient momentum to push the Agreement forward. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had serious negative impacts on the ability of the parties to implement the Agreement.

The justice versus peace dichotomy or lack thereof has spawned both legal practice and international law literature for decades. As the debate pertains to the application of transitional justice specifically against the backdrop of mass political violence or civil wars, some jurists, legal practitioners and other scholars suggest that, on...

This policy brief studies the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Sudan. The findings are educative. First, the health effects of the pandemic in the country have been surprisingly less pronounced than expected, marked by very low morbidity and fatality rates.

This policy brief rings alarm bells for the parties to the R-ARCSS, its guarantors, and civil society actors that unless certain actions are urgently taken, reforms under the revitalized peace agreement may fail to yield positive change in facilitating South Sudan’s transition to constitutional democracy, peace and national unity.

This paper reviews the existing literature to determine the adequacy of evidence and extent of the environmental impacts in the oil producing areas in South Sudan. The following is revealed:

In this Policy Brief we have analyzed COVID-19 mortality in South Sudan. The Brief examines the distribution and correlates of the pandemic. State testing capacity unaccounted for, we find that South Sudan is actually one of the least hit countries in the region.

This analysis uses laboratory data to examine the COVID-19 infections in South Sudan. Preliminary findings point to the underlying concerns. First, the COVID-19 preventive measures instituted in March are ineffective, with at least 100 new cases of the virus likely to be recorded daily in the coming weeks or even days.

This analysis identifies and discusses the COVID-19 vulnerability factors in South Sudan, summarized as follows:

The COVID-19 outbreak presents three lessons for South Sudan, with 156 confirmed cases to-date. First, the government’s policy to clamp down on social gatherings is not as effective as assumed. Granted the streets are indeed empty now compared to the pre-policy period, but the crowds have shifted elsewhere—residences, neighborhoods’ tea...

This policy brief discusses how the recently proposed environmental and social audit of the petroleum companies’ operations by the Ministry of Petroleum can be conducted to generate scientific evidence that can assist in finding a permanent solution to pollution in South Sudan’s petroleum producing areas.

The question of whether the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU) would be formed on the 12th of November 2019, as the parties have agreed, is most desired and this Policy Brief attempts to answer it.

This paper reviews the existing transparency and accountability rules to understand the extent to which these have been implemented. Despite the existence of strong petroleum transparency and accountability legal rules, we find that compliance with them has worsened in the last three years.

The proportion of older persons in the world is increasing due to the gradual decline in death rates and rise in life expectancy, catching many governments totally unprepared. In South Sudan, the number of older persons was projected to increase by 1.1% of the total population in 2016 (UNDESA 2016).

James Dak is a national of South Sudan who sought refugee status in Kenya in 2015 due to the civil war in South Sudan. In 2016, however, the Kenyan government cancelled his visa and returned him to South Sudan where he was charged with treason, among others, and sentenced to death.

Public financial management (PFM) is a key pillar in reforms aimed at building more credible, transparent and accountable governments, especially in post-conflict contexts. The PFM reforms are the focus of multilateral financial institutions and bilateral aid agencies, and in many cases, drive donors’ financial support.

Many analysts and observers of politics in South Sudan point to weak governance as the malefactor for the political crises and lack of progress on socio-economic development in the country. This policy brief, therefore, identifies major governance challenges in South Sudan and assesses whether the recently signed R-ARCSS addresses them.

Using experimental data from a pilot project administered in rural Tonj South, Aweil West, and Aweil North, this paper studies climate services reception and application in South Sudan. The pilot climate service was first of its kind directly delivered to farmers and agro-pastoralists in the country.

Based on interviews with various informants, this paper attempts to evaluate the implementation status of the security arrangement provisions of the Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS), as well as its future implications for the Security Sector Reforms (SSR) endeavor in South Sudan.

This policy paper evaluates the prospects of peace in South Sudan within the context of the recently proposed revitalization process of the 2015 political pact. The paper broadly argues that the revitalization process is important, but it must contend with factors that led to the collapse of the original agreement.

Despite no direct politically driven armed conflict in former Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap States, assessments have shown deteriorating food security and nutritional conditions. More generally, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) shows a growing food security problem in South Sudan, with a large proportion of people sliding...

The South Sudanese parties to the conflict signed the Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS) in August 2015 and essentially agreed to establish a federal system of government. This raises three critical questions.

This paper discusses the state of South Sudan’s national unity. Our insights are based on interviews conducted with members of parliament, representatives of women and youth, civil society organizations, intellectuals, and representatives of political parties residing in Juba, South Sudan.

Land tenure systems have implications for food security, access to water, natural resources, pastures and settlement during droughts and flood disasters. Although the South Sudanese Land Act 2009 recognizes both formal and customary land tenure systems, little is known in practice about the extent to which these systems promote climate...

As South Sudanese warring parties are set, albeit be grudgingly, to embark on implementing the peace agreement they signed in August 2015, a sense of cautious optimism is being expressed, and rightly so. Since it broke out in mid-December 2013, the war has heavily inflicted on the young nation...

There have been flurries of calls to place South Sudan under the UN trusteeship. The calls come mostly from the U.S. experts, with the most recent one coming from Hon. Kate Almquist Knopf, who testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

The Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCISS) contains important provisions on transitional justice, including a mandate to put on trials those responsible for masterminding atrocities during the 2013-2015 war.

We live in an era where the need to ensure proper administration of justice has never been so imperative. However, the fulfilment of this desire, as an aspiration of every citizen, depends largely on the competence, independence, and integrity of judges as the custodians of the laws.

Transparency and accountability have become international norms due to inherent range of social, economic and political benefits. These benefits include the reduction of corruption, minimization of conflict over natural resources, building of trust among government, extractive companies, and citizens, enabling of regulatory authorities to hold extractive companies, government institutions, and...

Environmental conditions in South Sudan’s petroleum producing areas have continued to deteriorate. This is demonstrated by recent reports of oil leaks and spills, inappropriate handling of produced water and mud pits, birth defects, people and animals getting sick and dying after drinking water contaminated by petroleum activities (Moro, 2014, Rueskamp...

The Republic of South Sudan, although fairly nascent as an independent state, aspires to become a democracy that embraces constitutionalism. Constitutionalism is simply a commitment to restrain the power of state and government to the will of people.

Although South Sudan publicly commits to a culture of human rights protection, whether through the bill of rights in the national constitution or by creating a cabinet level human rights commission or the establishment of a parliamentary committee on human rights or other public pronouncements to this effect, human rights...

This paper simplifies and discusses our understanding of the exchange rate policy regime in South Sudan. After independence in 2011, South Sudan fixed the value of its currency, the South Sudan Pound (SSP), to the U.S. dollar.

This analysis examines the relationship between child health and per capita health spending in South Sudan. The nexus between public health spending and health outcomes lends insights into state effectiveness in service delivery. Net of background variables, we find that a percent increase in per capita health spending increases early...

While faith-based organizations have made significant contributions to peace and reconciliation efforts in the country, the CSOs have not done much. A key reason for this is the reluctance of the warring parties to include other stakeholders in peace talks.

This paper assesses the mediation process looking at both the Addis-based IGAD peace process and the intra-SPLM dialogue based in Arusha, Tanzania. It makes the point that part of the reason the parties wasted a lot of time from signing a final agreement had to do with the preference of...

The events of December 2013 have created a very divisive environment in South Sudan and so there is need for the country to start anew. The new beginning can only be realized when all the political forces in the country reach a common understanding on what binds the nation together.

Grounded in the prevalent under-representation of women in peace-building processes, this brief explores why women’s role in peace-building is critical more generally and particularly in South Sudan. Second, the brief examines the opportunities the recent Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCISS) offers women...

Much of the commentary in the media and the news reporting in South Sudan tends to be partisan either supporting the government or the opposition. It also tends to take a regional or ethnic line. Consequently, such stances have negatively affected the objectivity of the reporting and weakened the media’s...

Before independence, northern Sudanese, Chinese, Malaysians, Indians, and their firms dominated the South Sudanese petroleum industry. After South Sudan declared independence, many South Sudanese had hoped to realize so many dreams through the petroleum sector, including benefiting directly from the petroleum industry through a local content (South Sudanization) policy.

State effectiveness in meeting its public demands is measured using governance impact indicators, sometimes with emphasis on anti-corruption, accountability, and transparency measures (McFerson 2009). Thus, institutional instruments (laws and regulations) are normally deployed to guide against corruption and promote accountability and transparency.

When the South Sudanese Petroleum Act was enacted in 2012, a flicker of hope of a better environmental management was felt after many years of environmental degradation due to negligence by the government in Khartoum. However, since the Act was passed three years ago, environmental ruin has continued.

This paper analyses whether sanctions can stop the war in South Sudan. Prior evidence shows that when sanctions in any forms are imposed, they do little in most cases to change the behaviors of the warring parties.

As South Sudanese leaders, IGAD mediators and the rest of the international community, meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to seek a political settlement for the on-going conflict, there is need for a reminder that a peace agreement that they might reach on the basis of power-sharing alone will most likely...

This analysis illustrates the Government of South Sudan’s (GoSS) investment in basic services, especially health. It assesses planned government spending as a barometer of national priorities, focusing on the 2014-2015 fiscal year. The focus is on social accountability or justice—the need to ensure that South Sudanese have access to basic...

For eleven months now, the northeastern African regional bloc, the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), has been leading the world’s response to the crisis in South Sudan. In a move designed to supposedly ensure a comprehensive resolution of a violent conflict between South Sudan’s warring parties, the Government of South...

This paper analyzes the ‘Protocol on Agreed Principles on Transitional Arrangements towards Resolution of the Crisis in South Sudan.’ The Protocol was signed on 25 August 2014 by IGAD heads of states and governments as the basis for negotiating a mechanism to end the ongoing armed conflict in South Sudan.

This analysis weighs the cost of the stalemate of the South Sudanese peace process. It suggests that the stalemate is costly, and that the solution to the current crisis lies with the warring parties, the South Sudanese citizenry, and the international community.

On July 9th 2011, South Sudan became the world’s youngest nation. The untapped investment opportunities offered by this new nation are attracting both foreign investors and South Sudanese in the Diaspora. This homecoming of South Sudanese from the Diaspora and the influx of foreign investors and aid workers to South...

Basic education is a fundamental economic necessity, but circumstances such as armed violence often make its effective provision quite grim. This is particularly pertinent in South Sudan where the delivery of social services has been greatly undermined by a recent violence.

The Violence in South Sudan worsened in the month of April amidst reports of mass atrocities against civilians in Bentiu just days after the rebels gained control of the town, and in what seems like a revenge attack, a pro-government angry mob broke into a UN base where thousands of...

This policy brief analyzes the newly proposed South Sudanese mining sector policy using Botswana’s mining policies as standard reference and with examples drawn from a number of expert literature in extractive resources. Most resource-rich developing countries suffer poverty, political instability, civil wars, corruption, low life expectancy, high illiteracy, and high...

For over two months, the people of South Sudan have been experiencing a renewed and devastating conflict that has inflicted significant suffering upon them. Triggered by an alleged failed coup, the International Crisis Group (ICG) estimates that 10,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands made destitute and forced...

This analysis is an attempt to make sense of the current crisis in the Republic of South Sudan. The country is experiencing a catastrophic violence since its independence merely two and half years ago. The conflict, which emanates mainly from a mismanaged political discord, has caused massive loss in lives,...

The recent violence in South Sudan has sparked a range of reactions comprising deep divisions in public criticisms between those supporting the government and those supporting the rebels. These public reactions also spurred analysis of contemporary and historical causes of discontents in the SPLM, what the role of the international...

South Sudan has been ranked as the third most corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released in December 2013. Since independence nearly two and a half years ago, South Sudan has witnessed a number of high profile corruption cases, which may have resulted...

The unfolding unrest in South Sudan, beginning with the events of December 15th, 2013 in Juba when fighting broke out within the presidential guard and had spread to Greater Upper Nile within two days, may not have been exactly predictable, but it was not entirely surprising.

At independence, South Sudan inherited an oil industry with pre-existing infrastructure and a number of production sharing agreements (PSAs) with multinational oil companies; however, it did not inherit the human resources, institutions, and experience necessary to manage them.

The Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) approximates resulting deaths at 2,000 or more in 1991; 1,000 in 2009; 2,167 in 2011; and 1,516 in 2012 (HSBA, 2012). On Sunday, 20th October 2013, another violence purportedly executed by largely Murle backed rebel group struck Jonglei’s Twic East County, killing nearly 80...

This brief provides updates on the political developments within the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party after the dissolution and the formation of the new government. This piece brief is a direct response to many inquiries that have come from multiple sectors of the society eager to understand what is...

The recent decision by the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of South Sudan to ban the use of motorcycles by foreign riders as commercial taxis known as Boda Boda has riled up the Ugandan workers in South Sudan who were victims of that decision. The events that followed, i.e.

The days surrounding the 2nd anniversary of independence have ushered in a tense political climate in Juba causing public concern across the country and beyond. This anxious political situation showcases the cracks within the top leadership of the nation’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

The shocking news of the killing of Abyei’s Paramount Chief, Kuol Deng Kuol in cold blood on Saturday, May 4, 2013 allegedly by the Misseirya militiamen confirms the daunting challenge that faces the normalization of relations between South Sudan and Sudan.

This brief examines the challenges to the participation of South Sudanese women in formal peace making processes, in particular the prevailing exclusion of women and the gender perspective from the post-independence negotiations process. Moreover, it identifies opportunities for governmental redress at the current junction of the implementation of the 9...

This policy brief attempts to draw public attention to an important debate on the question of the system of government in South Sudan. This is essential, as there has been a growing trend towards the concentration of authority at the center with power being increasingly centralized in the hands of...

The frustration over the impasse in the negotiations with Sudan, and the urgent desire to rescue the economy are understandable. However, this should not cloud the nation’s vision for long-term investment dealing with the oil sector.

One year after the decree issued by the president of the Republic of South Sudan effectively forming the National Constitution Review Commission, little is known about the progress towards writing the permanent constitution for the world's newest nation.

With oil revenue as its mainstay, from 2006 forward the government of South Sudan derived 98% of its budget from that single source. Now that the oil is shut down, however, the fiscal status quo in South Sudan is proving unsustainable, a fact that led the National Assembly to pass...

The recent set of Cooperation Agreements signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between the Two Sudans attempts to resolve many of the so-called "post-referendum issues" between the two countries. The popular reaction to the agreements are mixed.

How might less-informed policy-making lead to social injustice? How do the Government of South Sudan's budgeting decisions impact the delivery of security, health services, and education at the local level?