Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the forms of civic leadership emerging amongst national NGOs in South Sudan in the context of growing authoritarianism and a large-scale, internationally-led humanitarian response. It shows how NGO leaders use the humanitarian space to pursue civic and political goals.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on participant observation and over 50 life history interviews with the leaders and staff of a range of South Sudanese NGOs, this paper explores the changing fortunes of different forms of civil society in South Sudan. The outbreak of widespread conflict in 2013, and the resulting large-scale humanitarian response, provided opportunities for some organisations which, through their brokering role, have grown rapidly. The paper reveals the forms of civil society that are flourishing in this context, and those that are struggling. It also examines how organisational tactics and strategies are shifting, and how they leverage the power of the international humanitarian response.

Ultimately, the paper argues that the founders and leaders of national humanitarian NGOs in South Sudan represent a form of emerging civic leadership in an exceptionally harsh environment. To access funding, South Sudanese NGOs must conform to some degree to the professionalised 'work rules' of the international system (Massoud 2015). Yet, we also see actors taking advantage of these spaces to articulate and pursue their own civic agendas, behind or alongside the conventional demands of the humanitarian system. This paper shows how, as brokers of transnational flows of care (Fechter 2019), South Sudanese NGO leaders can draw on the material resources, social and political capital and, to some degree, protection, that come from association with the international humanitarian system, in order to pursue their own civic and political goals, and to enact forms of care that are not prioritised by international actors.