The Need For A Good Enough Territorial And Economic Governance In South Sudan

Abstract

Peace and conflict dynamics in South Sudan are intertwined with political
governance, institutional capacities, and leadership. Nevertheless, in the
specific South Sudanese intractable civil wars since signing of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, territorial and economic governance
are also certainly strictly connected to any possible prospect of sustainable
peace for the country. As such, after carefully defining these concepts, this
article emphasizes that territorial governance in South Sudan relates to
boundaries definition and to the division of the national territory in states
with a certain degree of autonomy. The issues and divergences engendered by
territorial governance are intertwined with economic governance concerns.
The uneven distribution of natural resources (especially oil) produces wealth
and power redistribution concerns that are at the core of contentious relations
between social and ethnic groups. These circles of tensions rapidly degenerate
into conflict in a context of widespread poverty, inequality, and consequent
social vulnerability. The article defines and illustrates a “good enough”
territorial and economic governance framework for the South Sudanese case
study.