Paper short abstract:

This paper studies the participation of South Sudan civil society in the mediation led by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) from 2013 to 2015. It examines structural challenges to their equal participation and the different ways by which the mediation addressed them.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on a particular event in the South Sudan mediation process led by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), namely, the attempt at including civil society in the 2013-2015 mediation. Despite this attempt and at the end of the talks in 2015, the warring parties, namely the Government of the Republic of South Sudan (GRSS) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement - In Opposition (SPLM-IO), dominated most of the debates and were observed to have co-opted civil society in the talks. The paper finds that there are two groups of structural challenges to civil society's equal participation in the mediation process, namely, (1) the norms dominant in South Sudan, IGAD, and mediation processes in general, and as a result (2) civil society's lack of autonomy from donors and state actors. Using the constitutive localization framework, the paper argues that these challenges were addressed, although only partially, due to the mediators' localization of the norm of inclusivity to build congruence with strong regional norms in South Sudan, and particularly IGAD's regard for its centrality in peace processes. This resulted in some form of inclusion of civil society but also the continued domination of the warring parties.

Qualifying claims of change towards greater inclusivity, the paper analyses the co-existence of exclusive and inclusive norms in the South Sudan peace process. Overall, this paper aims to contribute to the systematic study of norm diffusion in mediation processes and to the conceptual development of constitutive localization.

Paper short abstract:

The Peace process in South Sudan has been largely elite-led and managed with an 'inclusive element' of civil society. This paper interrogates the nature and impact of the inclusion of South Sudanese civil societies since the outbreak of the civil war in South Sudan.

Paper long abstract:

This paper interrogates bottom-up/ peace-from-below peacebuilding and peace-making strategies used in South Sudan. Since the outbreak of the war in South Sudan, the peace process has been arguably been inclusive. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), East Africa's peace and security organization, and the African Union made provisions and invited independent South Sudanese actors to form a "multi-stakeholders" approach meant to initiate an inclusive phase of IGAD-led peace talks in Addis Ababa. However, the inclusion of civil society in efforts to defuse the South Sudan crisis has so far been fraught.

Joining the conversation of local turn and local ownership narrative, the paper argues that the inclusiveness of civil societies in peace process in South Sudan only enjoys rhetorical acceptance and proves to be difficult to operationalise. Although there has been a notable increase in civil society in official peace processes, they have mostly been assigned a sub-contractual role. Given the mainstream Liberal Peacebuilding framework and the 'local turn' as manifested in the strategies adopted by peacebuilding organizations in Africa, the paper will interrogate not only the nature of inclusivity of civil society organization but provide an interrogating critique of the subcontracting nature that is assigned to them.

Through the case of South Sudan, the article exposes the reproduction of top-down processes through arguably inclusive processes. This is presented in critically interrogating the nature and impact of the inclusive peace process.

Paper short abstract:

This paper interrogates intergovernmental and inter-agency cooperation against terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin countries and the roles that civil society organisations play; and whether they are performing these roles effectively and, if not, what could be impinging on their ability?

Paper long abstract:

Nigeria and its neighbouring countries, Niger, Chad and Cameroon have been battling a decade old insurgency - Boko Haram, around the Lake Chad Basin. The Boko Haram terrorist organisation (also known as the Islamic State West African Province, ISWAP) has been terrorising Nigeria's northeast and the bordering countries since 2009. The protracted conflict has sparked one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world that includes over 20,000 deaths, over 3 million internally displaced persons, high levels of food insecurity yielding to hunger and malnutrition. The crisis has attracted high level intergovernmental and inter-agency cooperation including a regional counterterrorism force and several development and humanitarian interventions by the development agencies such as the World Bank and the United Nations, yet the crisis remains protracted and dire. This paper interrogates intergovernmental and inter-agency cooperation against Boko Haram with all of its corollary effects and the implications for civil society engagement. On one hand, it critically examines how far and effective or otherwise the intergovernmental and inter-agency cooperation have been. And, on the other hand, it considers the role that civil society organisations are playing and whether they are performing these roles effectively, and, if not, what could be impinging on their ability?

Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to analyze the involvement of civil society in regional organizations through a comparative analysis of Mercosur and SADC Social/Civil Society Summits by assessing their institutional structure, agenda and performance at the regional level.

Paper long abstract:

The aim of this paper is to analyze the involvement of civil society in regional organizations through a comparative analysis of Mercosur and SADC Social/Civil Society Summits by assessing their institutional structure, agenda and performance at the regional level. First, we incorporate a conceptual literature to discuss the relations of civil society and regional integration in order to clarify why civil society involvement is relevant for regionalism, particularly in the Global South. Then, we introduce how social actors have been engaged in Mercosur and SADC over the past years, highlighting the formal and informal channels employed with the aim of introducing their demands to the executive representatives gathered in the High Level Summits. We contrast the instruments and strategies employed by civil society actors in both regions, aiming to understand how prominent and successful they have been in terms of influencing the decision making-processes of Mercosur and SADC, which have often been marked by their intergovernmental and interpresidential characters. Thus, this article seeks to contribute to the comparative regionalism literature, setting out an analytical comparative framework for assessing the role of civil society in regional organizations from the Global South, something still neglected in this particular research agenda.