REF: South Sudan’s Decades of Displacement: Understanding Return and Questioning Reintegration
February 2023
Displacement has affected the lives of generations of South Sudanese. The cycle of violence, displacement and returns marked the lives of generations of South Sudanese, before and after independence, despite return and reintegration support provided by local actors and international agencies in the wake of previous peace processes. Samuel Hall in collaboration with Research and Evidence Facility (REF) in this study, explores the experiences of displacement, return and reintegration among South Sudanese refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
The overall objective of the research is to understand the factors influencing displacement within and from South Sudan, and return to South Sudan from refugee hosting areas. In addition to directly informing policy discussions around return and peace-building processes in South Sudan, the study considers the ways that the country was affected by the 2020 ‘triple shock’ of intensified conflict and violence in several parts of the country, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate-related disasters for a second year in a row, which led to one of the world’s worst food security emergencies.
Our findings show that many of these movements are towards urban centres, presenting challenges in terms of pressure on infrastructure, availability of services, access to livelihood resources, and housing, land and property ownership. Displacement also alters gender norms and produces empowering and disempowering effects on South Sudanese women and men. The study proposes to integrate provisions for cross border mobility, invest in area-based, community-based and locally driven peace and development initiatives among others.
Download the Policy Brief: Leveraging Cross-Border Cooperation Here
Download the Policy Brief: Youth Conflict Here