South Sudan
Executive summary
This report presents the findings of a research project on the reintegration of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to South Sudan since the signing of the 2005 Peace Agreement, an internationally mediated accord that marked the end of Africa’s longest-running civil war in recent history and paved the way for the secession of the South from the Khartoum-based Northern Government. More specifically, the study focuses on the role played by displaced youth as they find themselves differentially situated vis-à-vis the various determinants of sustainable return and reintegration. The research found that intergenerational tensions are resulting from many displaced youths’ aspirations to a “modern” – often meaning urban – way of life perceived as incompatible with traditional livelihoods and social relations. In turn, these dynamics are impacting the way in which access to material assets, education, employment opportunities, political participation and other key resources is negotiated among displaced groups and those who stayed behind. Significant gender differences are also evident.
Displaced youth
Central to negotiating continuity and change in any context, youth represent the focal point of the profound transformations that characterize post-independence South Sudan. Interest in “youth” as a category of social, political and economic importance has become increasingly evident in scholarly and policy circles over the past few decades. Most of this focus on young people has been directed to the global south, which hosts roughly 85 per cent of the world’s youth population (Abbink, 2005; Jeffrey et al., 2008). Earlier studies of youth in conflict-affected societies tended to adopt a negative outlook, with younger children typically categorized as victims while adolescents and youth were largely perceived as a potential force for social disruption and upheaval. International attention has progressively shifted from an exclusive concern with the negative impacts of unsustainable development and/or violent conflict to a positive awareness of the creative roles that young people can play as agentive participants in the process of post-conflict reconstruction, not just passive recipients of others’ provisions (Ensor, 2012).
South Sudan: Hard-won Hope Turns to Ashes, op-ed article, Los Angeles Times 10 May 2014
By the end of this year, half of South Sudan‘s 12 million people will either be in flight, facing starvation or dead. That was the shocking but all too real prognosis presented to me on arrival Tuesday in Juba, the nation‘s capital.
No. 48976. United Nations (United Nations Development Programme) and South Sudan
Exchange of letters constituting an agreement between the United Nations Development Programme and the Republic of South Sudan concerning the interim legal measures to ensure continuity of UNDP’s operations in South Sudan (with annexed Agreement). Juba, 9 July 2011
No. 48977. United Nations (United Nations Population Fund) and South Sudan
Exchange of letters constituting an agreement between the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Government of the Republic of South Sudan on the applicability of the Agreement between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Gov-ernment of South Sudan regarding interim legal measures to ensure continuity of UNDP operations in the Republic of South Sudan after the declaration of independence of the Republic of South Sudan. Juba, 9 July 2011