South Sudan’s decades of displacement: Understanding return and questioning reintegration

People in South Sudan have experienced decades of forced displacement and cross-border mobility, resulting in families split across the country and neighbouring Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. According to the United Nations as of 2021, more than four million South Sudanese citizens were displaced either internally or internationally.
Samuel Hall in collaboration with Research and Evidence Facility (REF) explored the experiences of displacement, return, and reintegration among South Sudanese refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). This podcast, based on the report released by Samuel Hall and REF, explores the experiences of displacement, return and reintegration among South Sudanese refugees, returnees, and internally displaced persons. Through their stories, expert insights and our analysis, we understand key systemic and discuss potential durable solutions for sustainable reintegration.

With thanks to, Chris Siracuse, Devyani Nighoskar, Tanya Kathuria, Nassim Majidi and Joseph Malish.

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Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters

Transcript

 Intro Welcome to the Global Development Institute podcast based at the University of Manchester. We are Europe's largest research and teaching institute, addressing poverty and inequality. Each episode we will bring you the latest thinking, insights and debates in development studies. 

This episode is produced by Samuel Hall, a social enterprise that conducts research, evaluates programs and designs policies in contexts of migration and displacement for REF, which is the research and evidence facility at the Horn of Africa, a research consortium led by SOAS University of London with partners from the University of Manchester and Sahan Research Kenya. 

Speaker 3 South Sudan only gained independence in the north in 2011. But now the world's youngest country has already slipped into civil war.No, no. Outside observers know for sure How the war began. The government claimed that the vice. President, Riek Machar, tried to launch a coup against the president, Salva Kiir, and when that failed, fled north to begin the Bush rebellion. The rebels claim with some accuracy that the government is consolidating power into the hands of the dominant Dinka tribe Threatening the transition to true democracy. What is known is that thousands. Of people have been killed. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled their homes and that both sides have committed major human rights abuses. 

Speaker 4 There are insecurity and safety factors, that hinder the return because of fear of life in South Sudan. If there is peace and security, we might go back to South Sudan because our situation is not good in the camp. There is also a socio economic problem in the country. The prices of the goods and services have increased to unexpected levels. Since our arrival here in the camp we form some unity instead the unity, we have teamwork.  

Chris Syracuse The first audio clip you heard was from Vice News back in 2014 at the beginning of the most current conflict in South Sudan. The second, narrated by a voice actor, was the story of a South Sudanese man who has been in an Ethiopian refugee camp for nearly eight years following the start of civil conflict. Hello, I'm Chris Syracuse, your host for today's episode and a podcast consultant with Samuel Hall. The following episode is produced by and based on a study led by Samuel Hall, exploring the experiences of displacement, return and reintegration among South Sudanese refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons, or, as we will refer to them throughout this podcast, IDPs. The study was conducted for the Research and Evidence Facility REF in Nairobi with support from the European Union Trust Fund for Africa. Our aim with this research was to understand the factors influencing displacement in South Sudan, as well as returns of South Sudan from refugee hosting areas in the neighbouring countries. To do this, Samuel Hall researchers travelled to various cities in South Sudan, such as Juba, Kajo Keji and Malakal. The study also had a regional remit. We went to refugee hosting areas in Ethiopia and in Kenya to Kakuma and Kalobeyei, as well as theBidi Bidi refugee settlement in Uganda. Across these locations we interviewed over 1000 respondents over a span of three months from December 2021 to February 2022. In addition to directly informing policy discussions around return and peacebuilding processes in South Sudan, study considers the ways the country was affected by the 2020 triple shock of intensified conflict and violence in several parts of the country, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate related disasters for a second year in a row, which led to one of the world's worst food security emergencies. The dipping economy has also put further pressure on livelihoods, specifically for those in urban areas where much service infrastructure, schools, hospitals, government offices have been destroyed, damaged or closed. This happens along decades long patterns of conflict and disaster driving displacement within South Sudan and across the region. Here's Kennedy Mabonga, the country director in South Sudan from the Norwegian Refugee Council, describing the situation. 

Speaker 4 South Sudan is one of the most complex displacement contexs in the African continent. It is the largest refugee situation in Africa, and all neighbouring countries are hosting South Sudanese refugees. There are up to 1.4 million internally displaced persons living in the protection of civilian sites now turned into IDP camps. The key drivers of displacement are conflict and violence, but also disasters such as flooding and the food crisis. What makes the situation more complex is that protracted conflict is overlapping with new crises. At the moment, there is ongoing fighting in areas like Malakal and Fashoda Upper Nile, Tambura in Western Equatoria, Tonj in  Warrap State and Abyei. In general the conflict is increasing because of political interests. The revitalised peace agreement is not being fully implemented, so people on the ground are getting impatient. The fragmentation of the various factions, increased violence, as well as the fact that some groups are not part of the peace agreement. 

Chris Syracuse Welcome to chapter one, No Way Home. In this section, we hear from the people of South Sudan to understand their histories, their journeys, and the pursuit of peace. The following audio is based on an interview conducted by Nassim Majidi, founder and executive director of Research and Policy, and Migration, Pillar Lead at Samuel Hall and a person from South Sudan, but does call him Jon to protect his identity. 

"Jon" I was born in 1980. I was three when the war broke out in Sudan. With the SPLM, which is the government of South Sudan today. We stayed in South Sudan between 1983 and 1991. Then in 1991, there was another war with the SPLM. In that year, I lost my father. I did not see him. I just lost him. We separated. We went alone on our own. I ran out to the bush, then to the riverside. I had lost my mother in 1988 due to sickness, so my relatives were taking care of me. We moved from South Sudan. Some went to Kenya, some to Ethiopia, some to Uganda. For my family those who went to Kenya and Ethiopia managed to make it to the United States through resettlement programs that started in 2001. These were all people displaced by the war. My life is the life of an orphan. I met my wife in 2000. I came back to South Sudan to marry, and then we left again to Uganda, where I had my first son. In 2005, When South Sudan returned to peace, the head of government fell from power. So we came back and after independence in 2011, many people came back, but the war broke out again in 2013, forcing people back to Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. In 2014, I went back to Uganda with my family. We stayed there from 2014 to 2015 and I came back to South Sudan in January of 2016, but the war came back there. So I returned to Uganda and stayed there for 2017, 2018 and 2019. When the COVID 19 pandemic hit, the restrictions were too much in Uganda. Things were so bad in Uganda because of COVID. So we came back to South Sudan in 2020. In 2021, we joined a camp for IDPs in Mangalla it is just under a one hour drive from here. I settled my family there, then left for a few months until we establish ourselves in the ... neighbourhood of Juba in November 2021. 

Chris Syracuse The story you just heard was one of millions from South Sudan. Chapter two fieldwork journeys. In order to better understand the situation and possible solutions. I spoke with the Nassim Majidi and Joseph Malish, one of the lead South Sudanese researchers at the Windle Trust International. Together, they represent the team that led this research and they'll speak to us about their experiences and insights. All right. Hello, Naseem. How are you? 

Nassim Majidi Hello. How are you, Chris? 

Chris Syracuse I'm doing well, thank you. So we've already introduced you so the listeners know who you are and and what your role in this project is. So why don't we just go ahead and jump into the first question here. Can you give us, you know, based off of your extensive research that you've led here, could you summarise how South Sudanese people and communities experience displacement, return and reintegration? 

Nassim Majidi Of course. So I will take a step back first so that our listeners understand how sensitive and political as well the topic of return and reintegration is in South Sudan. So these are the key theme themes of our study, return and reintegration. And they involve high political stakes because they're really crucial factors in peacebuilding processes for those in power, but also for for South Sudanese. So for example, return has been set as a priority by the government of South Sudan. There have been commitments to ensuring that reintegration can be sustainable. So this is when we talk about durable solutions more broadly to the issue of displacement in in South Sudan. So this is really an integral part of the peace agreement, which is referred to as the Revitalised Peace Agreement that was agreed upon in 2018.,So South Sudanese leaders have been actively encouraging returns. So especially after this peace agreement came into force. Now, more recently in August 2021, the president himself explained that the return of the South Sudanese has a direct link to the full implementation of the peace agreement and the holding of credible elections. So as you can see, these policy processes have been designed to to integrate the displaced, to integrate durable solutions to their displacement, but they actually need to be further developed, solidified so that they can fit with what people need, what they experience and what they want. And so this is where we come in with this study. And this is really our hope that our research can inform these policy discussions in a way that mirrors the needs, the priorities, the expectations of South Sudanese people. So that is the main question we ask in this study. The main question is how are South Sudanese people and communities experiencing displacement, return and reintegration? And what does that mean for policymakers and for practitioners within the aid community? So now coming back to your question, there are three critical facts to highlight from people's experiences. First, return needs to be understood as one step in people's lifetime of complex movement and mobility patterns. So return is just one step. It's not necessarily the end of a migration cycle or return home. So this notion of return home makes little sense in a context where generations have been displaced abroad or within their own country, where families have been split across multiple locations. So the second fact is that movements are back and forth. South Sudanese people rely on migration as a circular practice. They frequently move across borders to Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan to access services, education and health services, as we see in our study. So they keep one foot in areas where protection services are stronger. One foot in South Sudan, where they want to see if they have a future and if they can access sustainable reintegration. So now the third and last point is and let's not forget that South Sudan and our and our respondents often reminded us of this in our interviews. South Sudan is the youngest country in the world. South Sudanese people want to live in their homeland, but they very well know that their country and many of the communities within their country are not ready to absorb their return. And the study confirms that the conditions for voluntary, safe, dignified returns are just not present in South Sudan at this moment. And it will take time. So the pace at which returns happen must be one that people want and that their areas of return can support. So that's what we did in this, in this report we focussed on highlighting the voices of people inside and outside South Sudan to ensure that decision makers, those in power, take greater account of them in their in their efforts. 

Chris Syracuse I want to pivot a little bit here and talk specifically about women. So one of the key elements in this research is the impact of these movements on women. What can we say about the perceived agency of women in the decisions to move? And how is displacement impacting gender norms? 

Nassim Majidi So in many cases in our research, we saw that the decisions about when and where to move or to return were made by men or by extended family members or networks. So women were often not those making the decisions. It pushed us to look at how displacement affected gender norms. And here we saw that it created both disempowering but also empowering effects on South Sudanese women and men. So just to give you a few a few examples. As you saw from this story, we just we just discussed, women are frequently left behind in camps, in refugee camps, in IDP camps, to access protection services, to care for their children. And within these camps, we see that their mobility space is often more constrained than those of men who can move further along to seek better opportunities. Women have to abide by social norms, and when they don't, they risk being market marginalised and cut off from family support. So we also saw that women were most likely to live in camps when exactly when those family support was no longer available to them, when men left to find solutions. So there were, in other words, either left behind or forced to move into camp setting where they might no longer be able to connect with their home networks. But at the same time, what we saw was that living without adult male relatives can actually increase the decision making power in day to day matters. So even in especially in camp settings where women can access certain programs, for example, programs that support their skills, building their livelihoods or their literacy levels, they can gain more agency through those programs and in camps and even in the city, they can establish solidarity and support networks that cut across ethnic lines so they're no longer bound by the same traditional structures of support. 

Chris Syracuse Talking specifically about split families, so people from the same family residing in camps and spaces and various bordering countries. Can you tell us more about this phenomenon and the impact it has on individuals well-being? 

Nassim Majidi So as we mentioned before, return is not necessarily a one way movement, nor does return result in everyone returning together. So we discussed how families are split. Women and children can be left behind. And so we knew from previous research as well that households are split across borders and often across multiple locations or even countries. This is a key coping strategy that they have to cope with displacement. And just to illustrate this, I want to share another life story of one of our respondents. So this is a man we interviewed in Juba who spent most of his life as a refugee between Ethiopia and Kenya. His son is living at the moment in Kakuma refugee camp with with the grandmother. But her his daughter moved to Nairobi in Kenya to access education services to integrate the public school system and lives with his cousin. And now his sister has been resettled in Australia. So you have one family's story spread across three countries, two continents, four locations. Now they've split so that the grandmother and his son could access services in the camps so that his daughter could fulfil her dreams of a stronger education outside of the camp. But now, again, shocks happen. The COVID pandemic happened. The Ukraine, the war in Ukraine happened, which means that, for example, I know in Nairobi, the costs of living have have have tripled, quadrupled, and his cousin can no longer afford keeping his daughter in Nairobi. So she might have to return to South Sudan. She was born in a refugee camp. She's never been to South Sudan. Will she be able to access education? Now, the interesting twist to this story is that actually her mother is Kenyan, so she could probably have access to Kenyan citizenship. But this is where many of these refugees don't necessarily have the full knowledge of their rights in displacement. They don't have access to referral or legal services where those would be essential to providing them with a durable solution. So here we see both challenges and opportunities. Had they been supported through legal, legal support, you know, they could have had a better life and it's not too late for for them to be supported. And these are some of the cases and stories that we tell, that we tell in our report. And this is one of the many stories we have heard overall from our survey, 44% of respondents had left some family member behind as they moved, and a higher percentage of female headed households reported that their family was split. So I research shows that those female households, female headed households, are even more vulnerable as a result to them of the multiple shocks that they have to live with and cope with. And so these splits can be voluntary, they can be chosen, they can be decided, They can be part of a coping strategy, again, to access services, but they can also be involuntary. And the results of the many crises, whether fighting, flooding, COVID, that they're faced with. So there are various degrees of choice involved in these decisions, but they're very much a reality of the South Sudanese displacement story and the reality that both policymakers and practitioners need to take into account so that services are provided across across the countries and across the contexts, and not just upon return, but also safeguarding this asylum protection space in in the hosting countries and also providing more of those hopes for resettlement. Because out of all of them, out of all of the members of this family, the one who is faring the best is the one who has been resettled to to Australia. So resettlement should also remain an option. 

Chris Syracuse I'm glad that you brought up policymakers, because that's my my next question here. So what you're describing, it seems like there needs to be an overhaul of these various systems. So, broadly speaking, what do these experiences mean for policy and programming and for durable solutions for returnees? 

Nassim Majidi So the report acknowledges where national legislation and regional efforts need to step up because it will involve not just durable solutions initiatives in South Sudan, but a regional response to to those needs, as we just mentioned. Protection has to be safeguarded both in in in South Sudan but also across the region. Now, we caution that the national and regional efforts that currently emphasise returns over other solutions like local integration or resettlement are problematic. We need to look at all, all durable solutions. And so if you look back to the 1951 convention, the traditional durable solutions are return, local integration or resettlement. But we very well know from this study that mobility is also a solution. So we need to be able to invest more into the freedom of movement of people across across this border in the region. So let me just also remind everyone that the conditions, again, for returns are not ready. And so South Sudanese leaders have been encouraging returns. But we need to acknowledge that it will take time and a lot of political will, financial resources, support from the international community to make sure that this is done responsibly. So first, a key to solutions is to ensure that principles are upheld so that returns should not take place until and unless they're voluntary, dignified and safe, and that returns must be delinked from political processes. And that's a key lesson learned that has been learned from previous repatriation efforts to to South Sudan. Now, the second issue is that we need to see continued investments in regional strategies and in improving the space in the hosting countries. So here I'm talking about the asylum and the asylum space in the countries of the region. We've mentioned Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda. So this means integrating provisions for cross border mobility and regional plans to allow for people to safely move across all of the areas where they're currently living and where they're split. And this is where there are existing initiatives that need to be supported. And there are initiatives, for example, that the internal Intergovernmental Authority for Development, which is commonly referred to as IGAD. IGAD has a key role to play to ensure that freedom of movement is safeguarded. So we need to think about cross-border and regional funding from the international community as well as most of the assistance right now is mainly location or country specific. So we need to really shift the way funding works, the way policy and programmatic narratives have been built to plan for what people prefer, meaning the flexibility to move back and forth across borders. So in the short term, refugees should be allowed to move back and forth between host countries and South Sudan without, for example, sacrificing their access to services in refugee camps. And at a more local level, we need investments which will not just be humanitarian investments, but really development approaches, development investments in areas in communities of return. We need those to be locally driven. So there are real opportunities here for development actors to step in, not thinking in terms of a repatriation logic, but really thinking in terms of how to build the capacity of local governments, local municipalities, civil society groups to address the many shocks that they're confronted with, the disasters, the conflict, but also the returns of refugees. So communities need to be supported in being more resilient. Resilient. So how how can we do that? And here this is where the government of South Sudan, with the support from donors and development actors, should map, identify, support the capacity of local and civil society actors. We've seen in our research and it comes out really strongly how those local community based organisations, how faith based organisations are really stepping in as a first source of support for communities, the ones who strengthen, who can play a role in strengthening social cohesion, promoting local solutions, protecting men and women. So we need to invest more in those local groups and local actors in a very responsible way, and the support will also need to be obviously more infrastructure, also supporting investments in roads, infrastructures that connect rural and urban communities. If we know that people are split and that they need to move across many locations to access services, we need to make that movement safer for them. And so these investments in roads and infrastructures are key alongside investments in disaster-resilient agricultural practices so that people can also address the huge problem of food insecurity that is so prevalent in their country. 

Chris Syracuse We're about at the end of the interview here. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we move on to the next chapters in the podcast? Anything else you'd like to leave people with? 

Nassim Majidi Yes, I think one of the common questions we asked ourselves and we discuss with respondents is when does displacement end and when is one considered as as a regular citizen in his or her own country? And one of the key obstacles here, one of the key issues that people told us about is that the day i will have a land that the day will have a house under my name is when I will feel reintegrated in my community, in my country. So housing, land and property is a key issue here. And this is, again, a key political issue, but a very real protection issue for people. And here in our report, we really highlight how the formal legal framework on housing, land and property is just not functional at the moment and is really absent in rural areas. So we need to see a focus on how policies and programs can respond to the competition over land, competition even over shelter materials to build housing. So there's generally a very weak access to the rights to housing, land and property, and lack of access to justice. Men we interviewed in in focus group discussions were telling us that they're still living in a in a camp because they don't have a home to go back to, because for some of them, other people took away their homes, took over their lands when they were displaced. So they actually have no physical space to go back to. So there are really three key issues here. One is that more research is needed on this question, to outline interventions that can work, but also to develop, the government needs, to develop and operationalise a formal legal framework to safeguard people's rights to their housing. And again, the last is bringing in community based conflict and dispute resolution mechanisms, because again, access to land and housing can be a source of conflict and a key challenge to reintegration. 

Chris Syracuse All right. Hi, Joseph. Thank you for joining us. And thank you for your time. 

Speaker 5 How are you? I'm fine, thanks. 

Chris Syracuse So we I talked to Nassim earlier, but because you are from South Sudan and you're one of the lead research researchers on the South Sudanese side, we wanted to get your perspective on things. So you were born and raised in South Sudan, is that correct? 

Joseph Malish Yeah, that's correct. I was born and raised in Sudan. 

Chris Syracuse Is there anything that you feel is important for people to know? Just some some general context about when we talk about return and reintegration in South Sudan, Is there any important context you think people should know before I start asking you questions? 

Joseph Malish Yeah, I think when you look at the situation of Sudan, we've got so many people who are actually displaced. And so it is if you look at the  data Almost one point something million people who are outside the country. And some of these are in Uganda, some of them are in Kenya, Ethiopia, and those and I think some of the neighbouring countries. So it's it's really I think it is really very important that we talk about some of these things and look at how these people can actually be, I think, say, reintegrated into the country. 

Chris Syracuse What role do communities, networks and services in the return environment play in both the decision making processes surrounding return and subsequent reintegration outcomes? 

Joseph Malish We have to set the scene and understanding and also understand the challenge that these communities are facing. First and foremost, it's important that we look at the issues of like food insecurity. I think it's an issue of widespread concern in the country of South Sudan. And I think it is the primary barrier in the return and reintergration, the communities of the origin of the people. I think it remains a major challenge facing communities and humanitarian agencies estimated that around half the population is severely food insecure with some groups like in Jonglei, I think suffering from extreme levels of hunger. So I think ongoing conflict, and also floods and the arrival of large swarms of desert locust are all contributing to all this. And then secondly, many of these interviewed, I think many of the people that we interviewed were unable able to claim back their land and property upon return. I think others returned to to some destroyed or burned down homes. And it looks like I think around 44% IDPs and, returnees interviewed were in an emergency shelter with an addition of 15% hosted by family and friends. They haven't found a stable place to return, a home they can call their own. They have on the shelters they have in exile. And also upon their return, they find life very hard. Lastly, this is, I think, closely linked to the to the importance of the networks supporting people and the communities. Local economies cannot provide for the displaced and returnees with enough jobs. Only 45% of the households we surveyed had current source of income from employment, self-employment like in Wau, so for instance, only 27% reported having a source of income. So we actually analysed and we realised that the, what could be the factor that best predicts access to livelihoods who found that education is not a key to work or to income generation. Although South Sudanese put a lot of emphasis on education as a pathway for social mobility, and the data doesn't reveal that outcome. Instead, our survey data shows that abroad was a stronger. I think having a network and specifically a family member brought to us a stronger predicator of of livelihoods. That means having a family member abroad was correlated with higher numbers of working members in households. So migration individual within the national networks are a lifeline for people. 

Chris Syracuse So I want to I want to turn now to women and I had talked to Nassim earlier about how women were affected by all the conditions that you're describing. 

Joseph Malish I think we found out that men and women do not have the same level of access to extended family and the community networks with women being disadvantaged. Men's networks are wider and more spread out women. So women's networks are more limited and local. Overall decision making is unevenly allocated, with more decision making power in the hands of men, whether the fathers or the husbands. In a discussion we had in the field. Men's roles are also more outward looking and visible in the public sphere. Looking at the story, you've just said, that I think we interviewed a lady in the centre of the town, which was an example of a woman, I think like so not mentioned a name, but we interviewed her, I think, in an informal camp in the centre of Juba where she lives with her nine children. Over the last decade she, as she has left two abuse abusive husbands and had to flee. Each time she had to flee her home each time. And then the first I think the first man was married to her. I think that was in her village when her family needed the money. The second man was, I think, was the man who ...  from that village. But his community never accepted her, so she was forced to leave and find a new place to be had to leave. All she could afford was living in an informal settlement with links in her tended home. So the place has no latrines. It has no toilets, and there's no external NGO support. Still, she has managed on her own to put two of her nine children in school, but she has not been able to afford the dedication, I think, for the other seven. So she alone cannot provide for all of them. And so her children work sometimes in the streets. They spend their days in the streets searching for food to eat or I think some objects to sell. Digging through the rubbish. She asked us in the interview why refugees living abroad get assistance. And why those living within a country like are living in IDP is actually worse off than those who are living outside. And she lives. She lives in fear. The fear of being forcefully evicted from where they, I think from where they are living, because it is not I think it is not an area which is, I think, designated designated for them to live. She tells me that everyone in her life has made her feel unsafe. She has never had a feeling of safety in her life. The only positive element she did share was her ability to get identification, document her passport in January, and she is hoping that piece of paper, that legal step forward, can help her get access to justice, to some assistance and a more stable job. Yeah. 

Chris Syracuse And that stability and what you call durable solutions are so, so important for people to provide them a foundation so they can they can find solutions and and have a way forward and have some hope. So I want to turn to that now. And this is my last question for you. So feel free to take as much time with this as you need. I want to talk specifically about policy and how legal and policy frameworks this framework shape the search for durable solutions for the South Sudanese people. 

Joseph Malish Okay. Thank you so much, Chris, for that question. And look at when the I think when these people actually succeed, these strategies contribute to the material safety of the whole split household. We saw some of these successful examples in Kajo Keji , for example, a refugee left his family in Uganda, explained to us that he supports them sending roughly 15 U.S. dollars every month to help them with with food and education, splitting often entails a great deal of pain, and it causes ruptures as well.  Within households there are many whom say there may be disagreements within a family. This may have a negative psychological impact, I think, on the family. Feelings of loneliness and lack of support systems, these also impact children as well. The loss of meaningful family contacts is a consequence of a split over split on strategies and was coming through our sample, in some cases, people had spent years without seeing or talking to close family members. One I think one refugee in Uganda, Kampala, spent 20 years without knowing the whereabouts of his family and whether they will stay so whether they are still alive after they lost track of each other while running for their lives during an attack on their village one one line from an IDP who who we interviewed in Malakal which stayed with me, was they say. "The war has divided us". 

Chris Syracuse My conversations with Nassim and Joseph shed some light on the complexity of the issues in South Sudan. And while academic research and government policy are important for the people of South Sudan, the basic elements of everyday life are all that matter. And for hundreds of thousands of them, security, stability and a sense of home have been brief or completely nonexistent in their lives. And while the developed world has provided help, they rely heavily on the communities within the network of camps to survive. And. Chapter Three: The Way Forward. Here again is Kennedy Mabonga on solutions. 

Kennedy Mabonga Solutions depend on the peace process. Safety and availability of essential services are a precondition for any durable solution. There is an emerging policy commitment represented by a new South Sudan Durable Solutions Strategy with a dedicated commission. But the challenge is implementation. IGAD also has an interest in durable solutions for the displaced South Sudanese. But agencies need to monitor that returns are not forced. There is a risk of false returns. It is important to also consider other solutions beyond returns such as local integration and resettlement. 

Chris Syracuse And to dig a little deeper into solutions beyond returnees. Let's cite the report from Samuel Hall. Reading from the report. First uphold the principle of voluntary, safe and dignified return set out in international instruments and the South Sudan Durable Solutions Strategy and Action Plan. We need to integrate provisions for cross-border mobility and regional plans for durable solutions to allow for safe, circular mobility. Investment in area based, community based and locally driven peace and development initiatives will also be a must. There is a need to formulate and promote housing, land and property policies and programmes, as well as those that support women and youth, and finally continue to develop plans for the implementation of the revitalised agreement on the resolution of conflict in the Republic of South Sudan and commit to a nexus approach linking humanitarian development and peace building needs. And to conclude, here's a quote from an expert we interviewed talking about the most important services required for returnees. It reads, I think the question is, can you build a sustainable life? And that requires all of those things. I don't think there is any sort of single answer. I would be unconvinced by a ranked survey. Are you safe? Can you eat? Are you going to be displaced again? Those would be the basic questions and everything else would follow from there. 

Speaker 3 As you know, any person who is a human being, things for his or her future life or what their life will look like in the future, because you cannot live in idleness in the camp. Most of us are engaging ourselves in education while living in Juba Refugee Camp. If you come, some of us wish to return to South Sudan when the peace process is implemented. When my education is completed, I hope that any NGO in Ethiopia can employ me and the salary scale will be equal to the citizens of Ethiopia. Or I wish to get a job when I return to South Sudan at any time. 

Chris Syracuse This podcast was prepared by Samuel Hall. Research was led by Dr. Nassim Majidi, Giulio Morello and Stefanie Barratt with Field Work, managed by. Jared Owuor, Wendy Indira, Joseph  Malish and the team at Windle Trust International. This podcast was prepared with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents of the sole responsibility of the researchers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the EU trust Fund for Africa. Horn of Africa window Research and Evidence Facility. For more information on the Research and Evidence facility, visit the website blogs.soas.ac.uk/ref-hornresearch and follow @REFHorn on Twitter.