Exploring the Impact of Women’s Organisations in Peacebuilding in South Sudan: Post-independence Progress

Abstract

Despite the grassroot breakthrough for South Sudanese women in peacebuilding, the unstructured interview carried out among women/women’s organisations in Juba, South Sudan revealed the invisibility of women in peace processes, or at any form of decision-making level, which was believed to have grossly affected the peacebuilding progress in South Sudan. Also, this study finds that ineffective and inadequate representation of South Sudanese women in decision-making negatively impacts their interests. This implies that the bottom-up approach in women’s peacebuilding may not be effective if women are not well represented in the peace process and decision-making levels. It was also discovered that 25% women’s representation was ratified on paper but was never implemented, considering the peace processes which excluded the majority of women’s representatives within this period of time. This chapter explores the progressive achievement of women’s organisations and their impact on sustainable peacebuilding in South Sudan in 2013 and beyond.