Peace in Transition: The Case of South Sudan

What people whose lives have been severely affected by armed violence actually think about peace and what peace means has been a vastly underrated area of research. The PEACEptions project addresses this research gap by conducting a series of mixed methods investigations in a number of countries. One case studies under investigation is South Sudan, a country that has seen armed violence almost throughout its existence, dating back to the Sudanese independence in 1956 and the colonial period before. In an investigation throughout the year 2023, South Sudanese perceptions of what peace is and how it may look like have been collected, quantitatively, through a nationwide perception survey, and qualitatively, through narrowed data gatherings in the four locations Malakal, Rumbek, Yambio, and Yei.

This report presents the findings of this research and, as the first endeavour of its kind, paints a comprehensive picture of how peace looks like for those directly affected by armed violence. It unpacks the main pillars people expect from peace and which institutions they trust in pursuing it. It also explores the elements of peace, what the participants think constitute everyday peace in their communities, focusing on the three pillars as defined in the PEACEptions project: physical integrity, human rights, and institutions for conflict transformation. For its quantitative component, the report draws on responses from a perception survey conducted in 2023 by Detcro and PeaceRep. The survey captured the views of 4,482 people from fifteen counties across all ten states and one special administrative area, encompassing urban, rural and IDP camp environments. Besides questions on their views on peace, respondents were asked questions about their daily experiences of safety based on indicators of everyday peace developed through qualitative research during the project’s inception phase. They also shared their views on a wide range of governance and security topics.