Women's participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict governance in South Sudan

Since its independence in 2011, South Sudan has endured protracted civil conflict and political instability that disproportionately affect women and girls, yet their substantive participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict governance remains severely constrained despite formal commitments such as the 35 per cent gender quota in the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) (Achuil et al., 2025). This study critically examines the barriers to and opportunities for women's meaningful participation, employing a qualitative feminist critical discourse analysis framework. Primary evidence draws on twenty-five semi-structured interviews with South Sudanese women peacebuilders, civil society leaders, and former combatants, alongside fifteen key informant interviews with policymakers, NGO staff, and male community elders, stratified across Juba, Bor, and Malakal. The findings reveal a persistent gap between de jure policy provisions and de facto outcomes: numerical representation has not translated into substantive political agency, as women are frequently relegated to symbolic or peripheral roles within formal peace processes while male counterparts retain control over agenda-setting and negotiation outcomes. Simultaneously, women's grassroots peacebuilding labour—including community-based reconciliation, mediation, and psychosocial support—constitutes a critical yet unrecognised dimension of peace infrastructure, systematically devalued and disconnected from formal governance structures. The study concludes that institutional mechanisms alone are insufficient to overcome deeply entrenched patriarchal norms, militarised masculinities, and the instrumentalisation of customary law that marginalise women's voices. Meaningful inclusion requires transformative approaches that bridge grassroots agency with formal decision-making spaces, challenging the hierarchies that international frameworks purport to dismantle. References Achuil, D., Nyuon, P., & Garang, M. (2025). Women's participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict governance in South Sudan. PARJ African Journal of Peace and Security Studies. Akinbi, J. (2025). Feminist critical discourse analysis of women's roles in transitional processes. Journal of Peace Research, 62(1), 45–60. Asmorowati, S., & Ceesay, A. (2025). Gender, conflict, and governance in the Horn of Africa. African Affairs, 124(495), 210–235. Arou, M., & Tounsel, T. (2023). Ethnic identity and women's vulnerabilities in South Sudan's political economy. Journal of Modern African Studies, 61(3), 389–410. Binder, C., & O'Reilly, M. (2023). Women's presence in peace negotiations: Beyond numerical representation. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 25(2), 178–201. Garang, M., & Sims, K. (2025). Substantive inclusion and transformative agency in post-conflict governance. Peacebuilding, 13(1), 67–85. Haastrup, T., & Kenny, M. (