The Impact of Political Accommodation on Peace-building in Post-conflict States: the Case of South Sudan, 2006 – 2020

Abstract

This study examines the impact of political accommodation on peace building in South Sudan from 2006 to 2020. The main objective that guided the study was: to determine the extent to which political accommodation has impacted peace building in South Sudan from 2006 to 2020. This was further operationalised by the following specific objectives: to assess the impact of elite consensus and compromise in enhancing peace building in South Sudan from 2006 to 2020; to examine the impact of inclusivity policies in enhancing peace building in South Sudan from 2006 to 2020, and to assess the challenges hampering the effective implementation of political accommodation in South Sudan from 2006 to 2020. A longitudinal case study research design was employed by the study. Additionally, nonprobabilistic sampling methods were used to gather primary data whilst secondary data was collected from the existing literature. The collected data was analysed largely through qualitative approaches. The main finding of the study was that the peace-building process was to a large extent influenced by elite consensus and compromise and inclusivity. However, the effective implementation of political accommodation in South Sudan was found to be hampered by a number of factors, including tribalism, mistrust and lack of consensus among the elites, exclusion of women, youth and other minority groups, as well as regional dynamics and interests. The study concludes that the peace-building process in South Sudan remains on course despite the country having experienced several instances of false starts. Specifically, elite consensus building and inclusivity policies were found to be the major drivers of this process. However, the establishment of a stable South Sudan, the desired end will remain a distant goal as long as the root causes of the systematic and structural constraints are not addressed. As such, the study recommends the need to redesign the peace-building instruments to make them more responsive to addressing the systematic and structural root causes of instability, and the need to do more research on the impact of religious accommodation on peace-building.