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.