Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 19:00:27 +0100
Economic Reforms Needed for Peace in South Sudan
By <http://www.ipsnews.net/author/charlton-doki/> Charlton Doki
JUBA, Feb 27 2014 (IPS) - Gatmai Deng lost three family members in the
violence that erupted in South Sudan on Dec. 15 and lasted until the end of
<http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/02/economic-reforms-needed-peace-south-sudan/>
Januaryhttp://cdncache1-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png. And he
blames their deaths on the government's failure to use the country's vast
oil revenues to create a better life for its almost 11 million people.
When the country gained independence from Sudan in 2011, many hoped that
their new government would provide them with the services that successive
Sudanese governments had denied the South Sudanese, Gatmai tells IPS.
"But that government is no different from the Khartoum governments that
marginalised South Sudanese citizens. Where are the hospitals? Where are the
schools, where is the clean drinking water they promised us?" Gatmai asks.
South Sudan earns 98 percent of its revenue from oil exports. Between 2005
and 2012 - when the country stopped production because of a pipeline dispute
with Sudan - South Sudan earned more than 10 billion dollars from oil
exports, according to both government and World Bank officials.
When South Sudan resumed oil production in
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Aprilhttp://cdncache1-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png 2013, the
Ministry of Petroleum reported that it made 1.3 billion dollars in the first
six months of production.
But despite this, most parts of the country are inaccessible by road. So
far, South Sudan has slightly more than 110 kilometres of tarmac roads in
the capital, Juba. There is only one 120-kilometre tarmac highway linking
Juba to the border with neighbouring Uganda.
"I think the oil money is benefiting [President] Salva Kiir and his
ministers," Gatmai says from Khartoum, Sudan's capital, where he sought
refuge following the outbreak of
<http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/02/longer-peace-takes-worse-gets-south-sudanese
/> violence in his country. The fighting left thousands dead and wounded,
displacing 863,000 others.
According to an interim human rights
<http://www.unmiss.unmissions.org/Portals/unmiss/Documents/PR/Reports/HRD%20
Interim%20Report%20on%20Crisis%202014-02-21.pdf> report released by the
United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan on Feb. 23, mass
ethnic-based killings, gang rapes and torture were carried out by government
troops and various opposition militia. Battles were fiercest in Jonglei,
Upper Nile, Unity and Central Equatoria states.
But analysts agree with Gatmai that the economic conditions here,
characterised by high unemployment amongst the youth, an almost non-existent
private sector and an over-dependence on the government as the biggest sole
employer, may have contributed to the current conflict.
Dr. Leben Nelson Moro, professor of development studies at Juba University
tells IPS that oil has been more a curse than a blessing for South Sudan.
Moro says once the violence started, "it became easy to recruit those who
felt excluded from the country's wealth into hostile activities.
"A lot of the oil revenues were taken by a few people in positions of
authority. Services were not provided to large sections of the population.
We don't have roads [and] we don't have other basic services such as health
care," Moro points out.
"The revenues were not
<http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/02/economic-reforms-needed-peace-south-sudan/>
usedhttp://cdncache1-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png to generate
employment for young people. This generated some grievance against the few
people in government who seem to be benefiting from the country's
resources," Moro says.
In practice, the government has no policy or strategy to increase the social
economic integration of its youth.
A large majority of the population relies on the agriculture sector for
survival and employment. However, the government is the
<http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/02/economic-reforms-needed-peace-south-sudan/>
singlehttp://cdncache1-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png biggest
employer in the country.
Badru Mulumba, editor of The New Times newspaper and a political
commentator, tells IPS that it is this reliance on the government that led
to the current conflict.
"In this case politicians who found themselves out of power wanted to get
back to positions of power in order to sustain their influence back in their
communities," he says.
He explains that many ordinary, unemployed people looked towards their
relatives in government being in positions of power as their source of
income and livelihood.
"If ordinary people had independent sources of income outside of the
government, they wouldn't have followed politicians who took up arms against
those in power," Mulumba explains.
According to the World Bank's African Economic Outlook for 2012, youth
unemployment in South Sudan remains quite high.
"Insufficient labour demand, lack of skilled labour supply, absence of a
coherent government policy, and the lack of a sound legal and regulatory
framework limit the absorption of youth by the labour market," the document
says.
There are no official figures on the rate of youth unemployment but figures
from Oxfam International show that only 12 percent of women and 11 percent
of men within the active population are formally employed.
The reliance on livestock by the country's largest ethnic groups may have
also contributed to the instability here. Both the Dinka and Nuer ethnic
groups, among others, use cattle to pay bride
<http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/02/economic-reforms-needed-peace-south-sudan/>
pricehttp://cdncache1-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png, pay
compensation and penalties under customary law and even exchange cattle for
food.
"A large population of the country relies on a cattle economy, so people
somehow accept this culture where you can raid cattle from the rival
communities so you can accumulate more and become powerful," Mulumba says.
Between July 2011 and
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Decemberhttp://cdncache1-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png 2012
alone, more than 3,000 civilians died in inter-communal fighting connected
with cattle raiding in South Sudan's Jonglei, Lakes, Unity and Warap states.
Anne Lino Wuor, a legislator from the country's restive Jonglei state
believes that if leaders engaged young people and provided them with
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jobshttp://cdncache1-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png, they would
abandon cattle raiding.
"I do think that the only way to bring stability and peace to South Sudan is
through development," Wuor tells IPS.
Pinyjwok Akol Ajawin, director general for youth at the Culture, Youth and
Sports Ministry, tells IPS that the country's "youth got politically
manipulated".
"They are following their elders and their tribesman. That's why we are
trying to reach out to them [to] enlighten them. Let them know that they are
the youth of one country, they belong to South Sudan and they must co-exist
so that they see themselves as brothers with those they are trying to
fight."
A National Youth Crisis Management Committee, a community service initiative
for the youth, has been created with support from the government.
"This is the only way to keep young South Sudanese busy and to discourage
them from joining the ongoing conflict between government and
anti-government forces," Ajawin says.
Edmond Yakani, executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress
Organisation, believes otherwise.
"It is only thorough economic reforms that we shall bring stability to this
country," he tells IPS.
Employment Figures South Sudan
- South Sudan's agricultural sector employs 76 percent of the labour force.
The sector contributes between 15 and 33 percent of national GDP.
- Only 12 percent of women and 11 percent of men within the active
population are formally employed.
Source: Oxfam International, 2013
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