Paper short abstract:

As acting subjects, who are subject to the conditions of humanitarian regimes, South Sudanese refugees in Uganda engage in endeavours to improve their situations. A long-term ethnographic study with peer researchers reveals how these, often unrecognized, endeavours unfold.

Paper long abstract:

For generations South Sudanese have been living in and out of displacement. During these periods, they have been subject to violent conflicts in their locations of origin and often in their location of displacement. At the same time, they have been subject to many trainings and interventions on peacebuilding, income generation, protection and other such topics. These experiences of past and present conflicts and humanitarian interventions have provided extensive knowledge on what to expect from their surroundings, in terms of conflict, peace and aid. They manage these surroundings to best suit their needs for self-protection, peace, influence on humanitarian decisions and better futures in general. We define these efforts as ‘endeavours’.

This paper examines cross-cutting issues of humanitarian protection, participation and peace based on ethnographic data from a refugee settlement in Uganda, between 2018 and 2024. On the one hand, our findings feed into the growing body of literature on the effect of the colonality inherent in humanitarian action. On the other hand, they suggest a way forward by re-directing attention to what refugees are doing – their actions towards self-protection, peace and influence: their ‘endeavours’.

By following and documenting a large number of endeavours in this specific humanitarian context, we suggest a way of rethinking agency and participation in humanitarian action, which could contribute to reconceptualising humanitarian protection beyond the colonial imaginary.

This paper builds upon an ethnographic research project (ASPIRE) conducted by DRC and University of Copenhagen (2023-2038), in partnership with UNHCR and implemented through refugee peer researchers.