Locally Driven Solutions for Social Cohesion and Early Recovery in the Country’s Former Breadbasket

In the past, southern Central Equatoria State (CES) was considered an island of stability and the breadbasket of South Sudan. This dramatically changed when South Sudan’s civil war spread into CES, destroying livelihoods and causing immense human suffering. Today, fighting between various armed groups as well as pastoralists and farming communities prevent local communities from reclaiming their lives. Conflict-related sexual violence is still pervasive. At the same time, returns from Uganda into southern CES, particularly to Kajo-Keji County, put additional pressure on already scarce resources and fragile community relations.

In response to the conflict, and to prevent further violence related to these returns, the RSRTF has launched an Area-Based Programme in southern CES. Under the leadership of IOM, the implementing consortium is bringing together national and international partners from across the humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding ‘Nexus’. The programme aims to promote stability in southern CES to pave the way for early recovery. The consortium draws on the comparative advantages and deep field presence of the five organizations involved. Partners adopt an ‘adaptive peacebuilding’ approach based on regular in-depth conflict analysis that allows the consortium to adapt activities to the evolving context. In close coordination with the UNMISS field office for CES, the consortium is delivering an integrated programme based on three inter-linked reconciliation, stabilization, and resilience components.