Constitution making and the challenges of state building in South Sudan

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to contribute to debates about humanitarian governance and insecurity in post-conflict situations. It takes the case of South Sudan to explore the relations between humanitarian agencies, the international community, and local authorities, and the ways international and local forms of power become interrelated and contested, and to what effect. The paper is based on eight months of ethnographic research in various locations in South Sudan between 2011 and 2013, in which experiences with and approaches to insecurity among humanitarian aid actors were studied. The research found that many security threats can be understood in relation to the everyday practices of negotiating and maintaining humanitarian access. Perceiving this insecurity as violation or abuse of a moral and practical humanitarianism neglects how humanitarian aid in practice was embedded in broader state building processes. This paper posits instead that much insecurity for humanitarian actors is a symptom of the blurring of international and local forms of power, and this mediates the development of a humanitarian protectorate.

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State-building South Sudan

10.1163/9789004511903 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Sara de Simone

Keyword(s):

South Sudan ◽

State Building

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State Building and Constitution Making

The Constitution of Pakistan ◽

10.5040/9781509995424.ch-002 ◽

2018 ◽

Keyword(s):

State Building ◽

Constitution Making

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Doubts grow over reforms for Africa's fragile states

Emerald Expert Briefings ◽

10.1108/oxan-db197196 ◽

2015 ◽

Keyword(s):

Democratic Republic ◽

Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽

South Sudan ◽

Humanitarian Aid ◽

State Building ◽

African Union ◽

Infrastructure Development ◽

Fragile States ◽

Content Type ◽

Development Goals

Subject International state-building aid and interventions in Africa. Significance The five most 'fragile' states in the 2014 Fragile States Index are in Africa: South Sudan, Somalia, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan. Of these, South Sudan and Somalia in particular have been subject to major international efforts at 'state-building'. Meanwhile the DRC, Sudan and to some extent the CAR have for many years hosted high levels of humanitarian aid and large UN, African Union (AU) or sub-regional peace-keeping missions. Yet doubts are growing over the assumptions and effectiveness of international state-building aid and interventions. Impacts Countries in or emerging from long-running conflicts will remain vulnerable to fragmentation and perform worst on global development goals. Infrastructure development in the most conflict-affected countries will remain stunted, sometimes retarding regional linkage schemes. Despite generalised prescriptions for state-building, the specific context will be the decisive factor in success of any interventions.

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