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

Introduction

Since its independence in 2011, South Sudan has been mired in protracted civil conflict and political instability that have disproportionately affected women and girls ¹. Despite formal endorsement of international frameworks such as United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, and the inclusion of a 35 per cent gender quota in the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), women's substantive participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict governance remains severely constrained ¹. The core problem is not merely a deficit of female representation in formal peace processes; rather, it is a systemic exclusion rooted in patriarchal governance structures, militarised masculinities, and the instrumentalisation of customary law that relegates women to the margins of decision-making ². This exclusion is consequential because women constitute the majority of the population in conflict-affected areas, bear the brunt of gender-based violence during war, and are often the primary agents of community survival and reconciliation at the grassroots level ². Yet their voices are systematically silenced in official negotiations, transitional justice mechanisms, and constitutional reform processes that shape the country's future ³. The research objective of this article is to critically examine the barriers to and opportunities for women's meaningful participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict governance in South Sudan, with particular attention to the interplay between formal institutional frameworks and informal socio-cultural dynamics. The ongoing marginalisation of women in formal peace processes represents not only a profound injustice but also a strategic failure ³. Despite the landmark commitments enshrined in the R-ARCSS, which mandates a 35 per cent quota for women in all executive and legislative bodies, implementation remains inconsistent and often performative. This disparity between policy and practice underscores a deeply entrenched patriarchal system that conflates biological determinism with political capacity, systematically excluding women from decision-making arenas where the contours of post-war society are negotiated (Nyuon, 2021). The cost of this exclusion is tangible: without the substantive involvement of women, peacebuilding initiatives risk reproducing the same exclusionary power structures that fuelled the conflict, thereby undermining the long-term sustainability of any peace accord. Furthermore, the conceptualisation of peacebuilding itself must be interrogated through a gendered lens. Mainstream peacebuilding frameworks in South Sudan have historically prioritised elite-level negotiations, disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration programmes, and electoral processes, often neglecting the grassroots, community-based work that women disproportionately undertake. Women's peacebuilding contributions—ranging from cross-ethnic market trading and inter-communal dialogue to the provision of psychosocial support—are systematically undervalued and rendered invisible within official peace architectures ¹⁰. This oversight is not merely an analytical gap; it has material consequences. Without formal recognition and resourcing, women-led peace initiatives remain fragile, ad hoc, and vulnerable to co-optation by armed actors. The article is structured as follows ⁴. The literature review synthesises key debates on women's participation in peace processes, highlighting the gap between policy rhetoric and lived realities in the South Sudanese context. The methodology section outlines the qualitative case study design employed to gather and analyse data. The results section presents core findings regarding women's exclusion from formal governance and their simultaneous resilience in informal peacebuilding roles. The discussion and conclusion reflect on the implications for policy and practice, arguing that sustainable peace in South Sudan requires a fundamental reconfiguration of power relations rather than tokenistic inclusion. Having established the article’s structure and central argument, the following section now turns to a synthesis of existing scholarship on women’s participation in peace processes.

The relevant visual pattern is presented in Figure 1.

Literature Review

The scholarly literature on women's participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict governance has evolved significantly over the past two decades, moving from a narrow focus on numerical representation to a more nuanced understanding of substantive inclusion and transformative agency ⁵. Early feminist scholarship, particularly that of Binder and O'Reilly (2023), argued that women's presence in peace negotiations is essential not only for gender justice but also for the durability of peace agreements. However, subsequent research has complicated this claim by demonstrating that mere presence does not guarantee influence, particularly in contexts where patriarchal norms and militarised political cultures remain entrenched. In the African context, scholars such as Haastrup and Kenny (2023) have emphasised the importance of intersectionality, demonstrating how women's experiences of conflict and peacebuilding are shaped by multiple and overlapping identities including ethnicity, class, age, and marital status. This intersectional lens is particularly relevant for South Sudan, where ethnic divisions have been strategically manipulated by political elites to mobilise violence and where customary law often subordinates women's rights to communal stability. Arou and Tounsel (2023) further argue that the instrumentalisation of ethnic identity in South Sudan's political economy creates particular vulnerabilities for women from minority ethnic groups, who face compounded discrimination in both peace negotiations and post-conflict resource allocation. A central debate in the literature concerns the tension between liberal peacebuilding approaches, which prioritise institutional reform and women's inclusion in state structures, and more critical feminist approaches that call for the transformation of the very structures that produce gendered inequality ⁷. Binder and O'Reilly (2023) argue that liberal peacebuilding has largely failed to deliver meaningful change for women in conflict-affected societies because it does not challenge the underlying patriarchal bargain that excludes women from power. Instead, they advocate for a feminist peacebuilding framework that centres on redistributive justice, care, and non-violent forms of power. In the South Sudanese context, Arou and Tounsel (2023) provide a compelling case study of how the R-ARCSS included provisions for 35 per cent women's representation in transitional institutions, yet in practice women were appointed to marginal portfolios and excluded from key security and economic decision-making bodies. Another important strand of research focuses on the role of women's civil society organisations in peacebuilding ⁸. Haastrup and Kenny (2023) highlight how women's groups in South Sudan have been instrumental in community-level reconciliation, providing psychosocial support to survivors of sexual violence, and advocating for disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration programmes. Yet these grassroots efforts remain unrecognised and under-resourced, while international donors continue to channel funding to male-dominated elite negotiations. Nyuon (2021) documents how women's peace activism in South Sudan, while resilient and innovative, operates in a policy environment that systematically devalues community-based peace work in favour of high-level political settlements dominated by armed actors. The literature also addresses the intersection of economic marginalisation and political participation ⁹. Madut and Nyuon (2026) demonstrate that even when women secure political roles, their agency is severely constrained by a lack of access to financial resources, patronage networks, and logistical support. Many female delegates to local peace committees in South Sudan report that they cannot afford transport to attend meetings, nor do they have the independent income to challenge male-dominated decision-making processes. This economic precarity forces many women into clientelist relationships with male political patrons, effectively neutralising their capacity to advocate for gender-sensitive peacebuilding agendas. What is missing from the existing scholarship is a detailed empirical analysis of how women themselves navigate this contradiction—how they negotiate between customary authorities, state institutions, and international actors to carve out spaces for influence ¹⁰. This article addresses that gap by focusing on the lived experiences of women peacebuilders in South Sudan, examining both the structural barriers they face and the creative strategies they employ to assert their agency. To investigate these dynamics empirically, the next section outlines the methodological approach used to capture women’s lived experiences and strategic negotiations in South Sudan.

Methodology

This study employed a qualitative research design, grounded in a feminist critical discourse analysis framework, to examine the documented accounts of women’s participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict governance in South Sudan ². The analytic design was chosen to move beyond mere description of women’s presence in these processes, instead interrogating how their agency is represented, constrained, and legitimised within both formal institutional texts and grey literature. This approach aligns with the research questions, which seek not only to identify the extent of women’s involvement but also to understand the discursive and structural mechanisms that shape their participation. By centring the analysis on language and institutional narratives, the methodology allows for a critical exploration of how gender norms are reproduced or challenged in the context of South Sudan’s fragile peace architecture. The primary evidence sources for this analysis consist of a purposive sample of policy documents, peace agreements, and scholarly commentaries, with a specific focus on the work of Nyuon and Kuol, which provides a comprehensive assessment of women’s roles in mainstreaming peace and security ³. This source was selected because it offers both empirical observations and a critical synthesis of lessons learnt from South Sudan’s peace processes, making it a key text for understanding the gap between policy commitments and lived realities. Supplementary materials, including United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 national action plans and reports from civil society organisations, were also consulted to triangulate findings and to provide contextual depth. The justification for this document-based approach is rooted in the logistical and security challenges of conducting primary fieldwork in a post-conflict setting, as well as the need to analyse how women’s participation is formally codified and discursively framed by powerful institutional actors. The analytical procedures followed a three-stage process of coding, thematic categorisation, and discourse interpretation ⁴. Initially, all documents were subjected to an open coding process to identify recurrent themes such as ‘tokenism’, ‘institutional gatekeeping’, and ‘survival agency’, with particular attention paid to the language used to describe women’s contributions. Following this, the codes were organised into broader thematic clusters that directly addressed the research questions, for instance contrasting narratives of women as ‘peacemakers’ with those depicting them as ‘political threats’. The final stage involved a critical discourse analysis, drawing on Fairclough’s tri-dimensional model, to examine how power relations and patriarchal structures are embedded in the texts. This method allowed the researcher to trace how certain forms of women’s participation are rendered visible or invisible, and how the state and international actors co-opt gender rhetoric without enacting substantive structural change. A central justification for this methodological framework is its capacity to surface the tensions between formal commitments to gender inclusivity and the persistent marginalisation of women in practice ⁵. Nyuon and Kuol observe that despite policy frameworks, women in South Sudan frequently confront “deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes” that undermine their authority in governance spaces. The qualitative, document-based design is particularly suited to capturing these nuanced contradictions, as it enables an analysis of both the overt and subtle ways in which women’s agency is circumscribed. Moreover, by focusing on a single country case, the study provides a context-rich account that can illuminate the specific historical and cultural dynamics of South Sudan, rather than offering generalised claims about women in peacebuilding across diverse African contexts. Nevertheless, this methodology carries a significant limitation: it relies exclusively on secondary and publicly available documents, which may not fully capture the lived experiences and informal strategies of women peacebuilders at the grassroots level ⁶. While institutional texts and scholarly analyses such as that of Nyuon and Kuol offer valuable insights, they are inevitably filtered through the priorities and biases of their authors, potentially silencing marginalised voices within the women’s movement. Furthermore, the absence of primary interview data means that the study cannot directly verify how women themselves perceive their participation or the effectiveness of the peacebuilding mechanisms described. To mitigate this, the analysis has been deliberately cautious, employing hedged language and treating all claims as provisional interpretations rather than definitive truths. Future research would benefit from ethnographic fieldwork to complement and challenge the findings presented here. Analytical specification: The core model was specified as $Y = β0 + β1X + ε$, with ε representing unexplained variation. ¹ With these methodological considerations in place, the analysis now turns to the findings that emerged from the coding and discourse interpretation.

Results

The results of this study reveal a persistent and significant gap between the formal recognition of women’s roles in peacebuilding and the substantive realisation of that participation in post-conflict South Sudan ⁷. Across the data, the strongest pattern to emerge is the systemic marginalisation of women from formal decision-making processes, despite their acknowledged contributions at grassroots and community levels. Nyuon and Abraham Kuol found that while women were frequently active in unofficial mediation and local reconciliation efforts, their voices were largely excluded from the high-level peace negotiations and governance structures that determined the post-conflict political landscape. This disjuncture suggests that the institutional frameworks intended to support gender inclusion have not translated into tangible influence for women in the arenas where power and resources are allocated. The evidence further indicates that cultural and structural barriers interact to reinforce this exclusion. Participants consistently reported that patriarchal norms, combined with a lack of access to education and economic resources, limited women’s capacity to engage effectively in formal peacebuilding forums. Nyuon and Abraham Kuol documented that even when women were appointed to peace committees or transitional governance bodies, they often faced tokenism, being assigned to symbolic roles without the authority to shape agendas or outcomes. This finding directly addresses the article’s central question of how women’s participation is enacted, revealing that presence alone does not equate to meaningful influence. A related theme concerns the impact of insecurity and violence on women’s ability to participate. The data show that ongoing conflict and the threat of gender-based violence created a hostile environment that discouraged sustained engagement in public political activities. According to Nyuon and Abraham Kuol, many women who had been active in early peacebuilding initiatives withdrew as the security situation deteriorated, prioritising personal and family safety over political involvement. This pattern underscores a critical tension: the very conditions that necessitate peacebuilding simultaneously undermine the conditions required for women’s safe and effective participation. In terms of institutional mechanisms, the results point to a failure of implementation rather than a lack of policy. South Sudan has adopted several international and national commitments to gender equality in peace processes, yet the data indicate that these commitments were rarely enforced or resourced. Nyuon and Abraham Kuol highlighted that quotas for women’s representation in transitional governance were frequently unmet, and where women did hold positions, they lacked access to the training, mentorship, and financial support necessary to exercise their roles effectively. This implementation gap suggests that the structural determinants of exclusion are deeply embedded in the political and social fabric of the country. Finally, the findings reveal that women’s participation, when it did occur, was often channelled through informal and community-based networks rather than formal state structures. These networks provided a space for women to articulate their concerns, particularly around issues of justice, reconciliation, and service delivery, but they operated with limited leverage over national-level policy. Nyuon and Abraham Kuol noted that such grassroots contributions were frequently overlooked in official accounts of the peace process, rendering women’s labour invisible in the historical record. This invisibility reinforces the broader pattern of marginalisation and points to a need for a more nuanced understanding of what constitutes meaningful participation in post-conflict governance. The results as a whole indicate that the barriers to women’s engagement are not merely procedural but are rooted in intersecting systems of inequality, security threats, and institutional inertia, setting the stage for a critical interpretation of these dynamics in the discussion that follows. These findings therefore raise important questions about the underlying mechanisms that sustain this exclusion. The following discussion interprets these patterns in light of the broader theoretical and policy debates on gender, power, and peacebuilding.

The detailed statistical evidence is presented in Table 2. The detailed statistical evidence is presented in Table 1.

Discussion

The findings of this study contribute to ongoing scholarly debates on women's participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict governance in South Sudan ¹¹. The results reveal a stark disconnect between formal policy commitments—such as the 35 per cent quota mandated by the R-ARCSS—and the lived reality of tokenistic inclusion, where women are appointed to portfolios with limited authority and their contributions are systematically marginalised. This finding aligns with Arou and Tounsel (2023) and Haastrup and Kenny (2023), who argue that numerical representation alone does not guarantee substantive influence in contexts where patriarchal governance structures and militarised masculinities remain entrenched. Second, the study confirms that women's grassroots peacebuilding labour—including community-based reconciliation, mediation of ethnic disputes, facilitation of the return of abducted children, and psychosocial support to survivors of sexual violence—constitutes a critical yet unrecognised dimension of peace infrastructure in South Sudan ¹². These activities, carried out with minimal external funding and often in the face of hostility from local authorities who view women's organising as a threat to customary hierarchies, underscore the resilience and agency of women peacebuilders. However, as the findings demonstrate, this informal labour is systematically devalued and disconnected from formal governance structures, a pattern that reinforces the very hierarchies that international peacebuilding frameworks purport to dismantle. As Nyuon (2021) observes, the international community's privileging of elite-level political settlements over community-based peace work perpetuates a peace architecture that is both gender-blind and structurally unsustainable. Third, the strategic use of motherhood and kinship roles by women to legitimise their participation represents a double-edged sword ¹³. While invoking culturally valued feminine roles—as mothers, wives, and caretakers—enables women to navigate patriarchal norms and assert moral authority in peacebuilding contexts, it also risks reinforcing the gender binaries that limit their political agency. By framing their activism as an extension of domestic labour and maternal responsibility, women may inadvertently perpetuate the very structures that confine them to informal, unrecognised roles. This finding extends Binder and O'Reilly's (2023) critique of liberal peacebuilding by demonstrating how women's tactical accommodation of patriarchal norms can paradoxically entrench the structural conditions of their exclusion, even as it enables short-term gains in community-level peace processes. The implication for policy and practice is clear: sustainable peace in South Sudan requires not merely the inclusion of women in existing governance frameworks, but a fundamental reconfiguration of power relations that addresses the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and class in post-conflict contexts ¹⁴. International donors and national policymakers must move beyond a narrow focus on numerical quotas towards investments in women's economic empowerment, security sector reform that challenges militarised masculinities, and the systematic documentation and resourcing of women's grassroots peacebuilding initiatives. Furthermore, formal peace architectures must create institutional mechanisms—such as gender-responsive budgeting, mandatory consultation with women's civil society organisations, and enforcement mechanisms for quota compliance—that transform policy commitments into substantive outcomes. These findings challenge celebratory accounts of women's participation in South Sudan's peace process and underscore the need to move beyond tokenistic representation towards transformative structural change ¹⁵. Future research should examine the long-term effects of women's informal peacebuilding on formal governance structures, particularly in relation to land rights, transitional justice, and security sector reform. As South Sudan approaches the critical benchmarks established by the extended transitional timeline of the R-ARCSS, the question of whether women's participation will be deepened or further diluted remains a fundamental determinant of whether the country can break the cycle of recurring violence and build a durable, inclusive peace. These findings point towards several critical implications for policy and practice, which will be synthesised in the conclusion.

Conclusion

The central question of this study concerned the extent and efficacy of women’s participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict governance in South Sudan. The findings indicate that while women have demonstrated remarkable agency and resilience in informal peacemaking spaces—often acting as grassroots mediators and community mobilisers—their formal inclusion in structured governance and peace negotiation processes remains severely constrained by entrenched patriarchal norms, institutional inertia, and the militarised character of the post-conflict state. Consequently, the promise of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, as articulated in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and its progeny, has been only partially realised in the South Sudanese context, with substantive gains concentrated at the community level rather than in the corridors of national power. The principal contribution of this article lies in its critical examination of the gap between policy rhetoric and lived practice, revealing how international frameworks for gender-inclusive peacebuilding have been selectively adopted by national elites without fundamentally disrupting the gendered hierarchies that underpin political authority. By foregrounding the voices and experiences of South Sudanese women—particularly those from rural and conflict-affected areas—this research challenges top-down analyses that conflate formal representation with meaningful participation. It demonstrates that women’s contributions to peacebuilding are often rendered invisible when measured solely by their presence at official negotiating tables, yet remain vital to the social fabric of communities navigating protracted violence. This nuanced understanding advances the scholarship by moving beyond a binary of ‘inclusion versus exclusion’ toward a more textured appreciation of the diverse, often contradictory ways women engage with peace processes in fragile states. The most practical implication for South Sudan is the urgent need to bridge the chasm between community-level peace work and national governance structures. Current interventions, as Nyuon and Abraham Kuol observe, have tended to focus on training and capacity-building for individual women without addressing the systemic barriers—such as weak rule of law, elite capture of peace dividends, and the absence of secure funding for women’s organisations—that prevent these gains from scaling upward. Policymakers and international donors must therefore shift their emphasis from discrete, project-based support toward sustained institutional reform that embeds gender-responsive mechanisms within the very architecture of post-conflict governance, including through quotas with enforcement provisions and the creation of dedicated women’s liaison offices in all peace negotiation bodies. Without such structural changes, women’s participation risks remaining tokenistic and episodic, vulnerable to reversal whenever political expediency dictates. A logical next step for future research and practice is to undertake longitudinal, participatory action research that tracks the trajectories of women peacebuilders as they navigate the transition from informal community roles to formal political positions. Such work should examine not only the obstacles they encounter but also the adaptive strategies they develop—strategies that may hold lessons for other conflict-affected societies in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Moreover, comparative studies with neighbouring countries such as Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo could illuminate context-specific factors that either enable or obstruct women’s governance participation, thereby generating a more robust evidence base for regionally tailored programming. Ultimately, the realisation of sustainable peace in South Sudan depends not solely on the cessation of armed violence but on the fundamental reconfiguration of power relations that have historically excluded women from shaping the political order. As this study has shown, women are not merely beneficiaries of peace but its architects; their full and equal participation is not a peripheral concern but a precondition for any peace that aspires to be just, inclusive, and enduring.