The Impact Of Youth On Peace Building And Post-Conflict Development In South-Sudan

ABSTRACT

This research examines the challenges that the youths in South Sudan face in their efforts

towards peacebuilding for a post-conflict developed nation. Using the secondary method of

analysis the researcher evaluates specific objectives of the study such as the efforts of the youth

in peacebuilding in face of an ongoing conflict in South Sudan, the challenges faced by the

youths in their endeavor and how they can access the critical resources to achieve post-conflict

development. The findings prove that efforts of the youth in peacebuilding is limited to few

activities like being vocal to enlightening the youths involved in the war to embrace a different

approach that aims at peacebuilding along ethnic lines, and it will overtime going to be difficult

to be sustained, because there is a lack of support mostly at the political level. This is definitely

not an easy escapade considering the lack of support from the political arena, the lack of

partnerships at the local level speaks volumes to the challenge of pursing such a grand goal with

insufficient resources. The study posits youths have to surmount the challenges of inadequate

resources, because one way to hold the youths who have participated as foot soldiers in the

conflict is to ensure that their basic needs like food, shelter and clothing are met. It easily keeps

then focused on the bigger picture of what can be achieved. Another challenge found is

inaccessibility to the traditional media like Radio and television to garner support, but they are

under the control of the government who are not going to support the youths. The study

recommends that the youths can pull the change necessary for access to the funding and support

needed for peacebuilding for post-conflict development. Since the local media is out of reach,

adopting the Arab Spring strategy of deploying social media will prove a veritable method.

Although, this could be very slow process since only 2.5% of the total population of South Sudan

uses social media, and 1.8% of them are youths. Consistently slow and steady use of the social

media platforms will obviously result in international support to the process.