Education, Conflict, and Stability in South Sudan

Abstract

This Emerging Issues Report explores the relationship between education, conflict, and (in)stability in South Sudan, drawing on a wide range of academic, policy, and programming literature. There is a growing body of research on the ways in which education can both exacerbate conflict and contribute to peace. The 4Rs framework (focusing on aspects of Redistribution, Recognition, Representation, and Reconciliation) provides a holistic way to explore and address the education system’s relationship to economic, social, cultural and political development processes; and its role in producing or exacerbating inequalities that fuel grievances and ultimately conflict (Novelli et al., 2019, 2016). The 4Rs framework is adopted throughout this report, at the start of each main section, providing summaries of key issues in the delivery of education and outcomes in South Sudan. These summaries are also presented in this overview. The report also looks at the interaction of donor interventions in education with conflict and stability in South Sudan, focusing on the Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS) programme (see below), but also drawing on a few other interventions. While there is a range of donor reports and other literature that outline and discuss these initiatives and their impacts, there is limited research that makes explicit connections to their interactions with conflict and (in)stability.