National Survey on Perceptions of Peace in South Sudan

Authors: David Deng, Sophia Dawkins, Christopher Oringa and Jan Pospisil

This report summarizes findings of a national survey on perceptions of peace in South Sudan in late 2021.

Based on empirical evidence from the survey, for the transitional process to be credible, it must go hand in hand with tangible improvements to security conditions in people’s everyday lives. Positive views can enable peace and security to grow from the bottom up, as people engage with the transitional process in a meaningful manner. When it comes to securing public trust in the transition in South Sudan, interventions that help communities to establish and protect security at a local level are more important than the ‘deadline diplomacy’ and implementation checklists that have characterized the transitional process thus far.

This briefing summarizes key findings from the survey. The sample was comprised of 2,276 respondents across 8 primary locations – Aweil, Bentiu, Bor, Juba, Malakal, Pibor, Wau, and Yei – and 25 secondary locations (including IDP settlements and villages outside of these towns), and data was collected in August and September 2021. The survey documented how people conceive of peace in their everyday lives and how their experiences shape their views on the peace process and on peace and security broadly.

This report was published by Detcro, the Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and PeaceRep: The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform.