Security Promotion Seen from Below: Experiences from South Sudan

Abstract

The report is based on 8 weeks of field research in South Sudan between March and April 2011, and looks at the linkages between security interventions such as DDR, SALW control and SSR in relation to community security. It opens with an analysis of what security constitutes and assesses what various actors’ capacities and limitations for security promotion at the grassroots level. It then looks at the peculiarities of the three areas visited in order to address its specific security dynamics and concludes with a brief summary of the key dynamics found. The second part analyzes security promotion in past, present and future and addresses particularities found in the three states in this research. Attention is also given to various challenges for programmes as DDR, community disarmament and SSR related to contextual, political and institutional challenges. The conclusions then summarize the findings towards practical recommendations for local communities, security promotion actors, the GoSS and international donors.