Matthew Hauenstein and Madhav Joshi
On November 8, 2019, the parties to South Sudan’s 2018 peace agreement approved a second extension of its initial implementation period. This new extension is intended to conclude with the inauguration of a unity government between incumbent President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar. This hundred-day period leaves little time to implement the agreement’s outstanding provisions before the new deadline.
In this article, we highlight some recent findings from the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) project’s recent policy brief on the status of the implementation of the agreement, and we offer potential policy solutions based on comparative peace process research.[1] We emphasize the need for greater political space and more frequent face-to-face meetings of Kiir and Machar to resolve implementation impasses. In addition, we call on regional and international actors to re-engage with the peace process. Lastly, we emphasize the need for greater civil society involvement in the implementation process. Read the rest of this entry »