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South Sudan

CSRF Meta-Analysis: Gender - August 2023

Attachments

This Research Repository has been compiled by the Conflict Sensitivity Resource Facility (CSRF) to assist donors and aid workers in South Sudan to better understand the context in which they work.
The repository is searchable by key words, and it is categorized by “theory focus” and “practice focus” to enable easier exploration of specific topics. The CSRF has conducted a meta-analysis for eight theoretical categories, analysing a selection of relevant, key literature and extracting some of the most salient questions for donor-funded programming. This meta-analysis provides an overview of literature available on the gender in South Sudan.

The CSRF is implemented by a consortium of Saferworld and swisspeace and supports conflict-sensitive aid programming in South Sudan. The United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, the Netherlands and the European Union have joined forces to develop shared resources through the Conflict Sensitivity Resource Facility in South Sudan.

Introduction

The literature on gender in South Sudan focuses on gender inequality across different sectors (e.g., education, justice, politics) and gender-based violence (GBV). Post the Sudan wars, patriarchal values have become more entrenched contributing to harmful social norms that has led to normalising violence and gender inequality across the country. Women and men are negatively affected as a result of these norms with most available literature highlighting the impact on women, girls and children compared to the research on men and boys.

Prior to the outbreak of armed violence in December 2013, researchers explored topics such as women’s empowerment, livelihoods, and more importantly equal education for girls. The literature also studies the role of women in peacebuilding and state-building, including their role in politics and contribution to the implementation of the various peace agreements.

A special focus of the post-2013 literature is on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and more explicitly on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) committed by parties to the conflict.
The questions below were developed with the aim of connecting current gender trends, exploring the role of women in politics and peacebuilding, the interplay between conflict and gender, SGBV and CRSV and access to justice thereof, and the relations between gender dynamics and education