Search results

Education can be a powerful tool to transform harmful gender norms and stereotypes and address sexual and gender-based violence. Yet, in South Sudan women, men, girls and boys all face distinct challenges in accessing quality education. This report argues for increase investment in education in South Sudan, particularly focused on supporting, reinforcing and harnessing its potential to promote gender equality. As teachers are the most important school-level factor for improving learning, supporting their wellbeing and investing in their training and resources – working…

More than half the population of South Sudan – 6.6 million people – are severely hungry, including 2.2 million people at risk of starvation. Yet the humanitarian response remains woefully underfunded and without an urgent increase in aid now, 7.7 million people or two-thirds of the population will face severe food shortages next year, Oxfam warned today.

In reaction to the formation of a new South Sudanese unity government today, Elysia Buchanan, Oxfam South Sudan’s Campaign Manager said: “We welcome this decision as an important first step in South Sudan’s journey towards sustainable peace, but it cannot be the last. The country’s leaders must now work together to urgently end the suffering of 7.5 million South Sudanese facing a dire humanitarian crisis.

The influx of over half a million people fleeing Sudan’s conflict meant that transit centers in Renk – a border town in neighboring South Sudan- are swelling with people three times their capacity, with more than 300 people sharing one water tap. The lack of clean water and sanitation is increasing the risk of cholera, warned Oxfam today.  

The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting closure of South Sudan’s schools in March 2020 exacerbated many of the challenges female learners face in pursuing an education. Research conducted for this paper found that increased poverty, domestic care work, early and forced marriage, and teenage pregnancy would make it difficult for female learners to return to schools when they reopened in May 2021.

Oxfam's new research - Our Search for Peace: Women in South Sudan’s National Peace Processes” - highlights the under-recognized but crucial role South Sudanese women played in the country's most recent national-level peace processes. With less than a month until the country forms a transitional government, South Sudanese women are demanding more leadership roles at all levels of decision making.