Paper short abstract:

Premised on the importance of NGOs in providing services and stability in their area of operations, this paper explores how these groups are co-opted by government or opposition groups to establish legitimacy both at the local level in South Sudan and in the political negotiations in Addis Ababa.

Paper long abstract:

Numerous studies have pointed to the importance of NGOs in providing basic services in the absence of functioning government institutions. Their day-to-day operations help provide stability to societies and even shape the societal order during and after the war. In South Sudan, the ability of the Government or the Opposition to provide such basic services in their controlled areas is among the many sources of popular support in the on-going civil war. As a consequence, these two parties have often co-opted NGOs to make them their instruments of service delivery and sustain their legitimacy.

The same co-option can be observed in the South Sudan peace talks leading to the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan in 2015. Despite initially having a separate delegation in the IGAD-led peace process, NGOs' independence have been questioned at the latter stages of the talks as they allegedly splintered and allied with government or opposition delegations.

This paper aims first to describe the interactions between NGOs and government or opposition groups at the local operations level since the outbreak of violence in December 2013. It identifies the role of NGOs in maintaining stability in the areas where they operate and the mechanisms of NGO co-option by either government or rebel forces in order to sustain their legitimacy in controlled areas. Second, it explores the possible relationship between local-level dynamics and the co-option observed at the Track 1 negotiations.