South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan on July 9 2011through a referendum monitored by the parties of signatures at the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The CPA resulted from the brutal civil war waged between the North and South for two decades in which about two million people lost their lives, and many more people were displaced to nearby neighboring countries.

It is the world’s youngest nation and Africa’s 54^th country (The World Bank). Before South Sudanese adjusted to the nature of having a new country, a civil war broke out in 2013 between the President and his Vice President over what many experts called a power struggle within the SPLM party. All South Sudanese people viewed the SPLM as a credible entity that struggled to wage civil war with the Sudan government.

As a result, each man demanded to be the chairman of the SPLM Party; however, the two leaders have a unique historical background about the struggle that led South Sudan to become a separate nation from Sudan.

Without a better outcome between the two leaders, South Sudan entered a brutal civil war, causing thousands of civilians to seek shelter. Many civilians moved into the internally displaced persons known as IDP. The civil war destroyed expectations, the economy collapsed, and thousands of people sought assistance from the United Nations. Thus, the civil war ended by signing a Khartoum-based peace agreement in which the parties agreed to share powers until the election.

The parties postponed the election and extended it to 2024; nonetheless, the opposing party continues to demand that the election should not be done next year due to some versions of the agreement that are not implemented. This demand worries many citizens about the election in 2024.

Low levels of living and productivity

Even if South Sudan were not at war, it would still be considered a low-income country worldwide because of many reasons addressed by the World Bank, the UNDP and relevant Organizations or agencies working to facilitate development in South Sudan. South Sudan has low levels of living and productivity. As a new country, South Sudan lacks many essential things, such as human development, education, health, high crude birth, and low life expectancy rates. South Sudan’s population has been marginalized for a long time since Sudan gained independence from colonial rule in 1956. The World Bank puts it in the lower category. South Sudan is trailing far behind the rest of the developing countries regarding human development.

The level of education is unbelievable, and deteriorating health conditions contribute to high poverty. However,” the World Bank supports the government’s efforts to strengthen its institutions, support primary public service delivery, and promote resilience and livelihood opportunities across South Sudan.” Indeed, the World Bank and other organizations are committed to helping in terms of food, education, health and other basic needs in South Sudan. Some locals require more assistance since food insecurity has become high.

Low levels of human capital

Although South Sudan is incorporated into the world map, it battles low levels of human capital. As stated by the World Bank and many other organizations, South Sudan lacks human capital because the low number of South Sudan’s population acquired before independence was less than 20% due to the injustice marginalization of South Sudan from Sudan. Due to the injustice and marginalization, young children from South Sudan were given the same opportunities as young children in the North. I am the living witness of the story, and if there were no civil war, I would not be at this stage.

Human capital includes health, education and skills vital to economic growth and human development (Todaro and Smith, 2015). With the support of the UNDP and the World Bank, South Sudan will recover from the destruction of civil war if its population acquires vital knowledge and skills.

The USAID stressed that over 70 percent of South Sudan’s population is under 30, but South Sudan youth lack education skills and opportunities. According to the World Bank, only 48% of South Sudan’s youth are literate (The World Bank, 2020). Also, UNICEF (2017) explained that South Sudan has the world’s highest proportion of out-of-school children, with about 72% percent of primary-aged students out of school. Thus, it is a lot of work to do to change the demographic population in South Sudan.

Some parts of South Sudan have flooded since 2021, and water does not exceed back to the Nile because rains continue to pour down. Thus, many residents evacuated their homes, looking for dry land in different locations nearby. South Sudan lacks many things.

High levels of inequality and absolute poverty

According to the UNDP and many other relevant Organizations in South Sudan, the levels of inequality are high and absolute poverty is 91.9 percent in South Sudan (UNDP, 2019). The economic development is close to zero because of ethnic sectarianism that distorts the development in South Sudan. The South Sudan government does not have the capabilities to reduce violence since people are much divided by the conflict that erupted between the President and his Vice President in 2013. The conflicts caused a lot of destruction that would require some time to fix in years.

In this case, it is challenging to determine whether South Sudan will manage to rise from all these challenges. The country does not have infrastructures, such as roads, bridges and other means of transportation.

After the Khartoum-based peace agreement was signed, the government committed to initiating road and other projects. However, there are still remnants of rebels who refused the peace agreement continuing to sabotage the movement of people, goods and services to the far regions of South Sudan. That has become another challenge that prevents the everyday activities of ordinary citizens.

The cattle raiding also contributes to the situation’s complications because the cattle raiders never stop their activities in the country. It adds another setback for development in South Sudan. The new human development index states that levels of inequality and absolute poverty are high in South Sudan.

References

The World Bank (2023). The World Bank in South Sudan. #Africa CAN.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/southsudan/overview#1.

The USAID (2020). https://www.usaid.gov/south-sudan/education#:~:text=South%20Sudan.

UNICEF (2017). Education in South Sudan. https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/helping.

UNDP – MPI (2019). Going beyond averages to show substantial disparities.

https://hdr.undp.org/content/2019-mpi-going-beyond-averages-show-subnational-disparities