Executive Summary
Following independence in 2011, South Sudan has experienced turbulence that includes endemic violence in many parts of the country. Unfortunately, independence did not bring a sustainable peace for the children of South Sudan, and in December 2013, a new conflict emerged that has ravaged the country for the past 14 months and left 1.5 million displaced. This violent armed conflict between government and opposition forces has transformed into an identity-based conflict underpinned by complex historical grievances and weak governance systems. Widespread killings have been carried out where victims have been targeted based on ethnicity and tribal affiliation.
Based on these occurrences, education in South Sudan remains critical for creating economic and livelihood opportunities, and working against inequity, marginalization and exclusion. UNICEF’s ongoing Peacebuilding, Education and Advocacy (PBEA) programme is one method being used to create entry points for the implementation of an integrated approach that supports quality education through improved learning outcomes for sustainable peace and development. The PBEA uses a cross-sectoral approach to demonstrate how education and peacebuilding can contribute to resilience, social cohesion and human security.
Some of the key results achieved during 2014 in South Sudan include:
Outcome 1: Education policy and programmes now embrace peacebuilding and conflictsensitivity components. This progress is being translated into changes in teacher training pedagogies and the development of tools and guidelines for partner organizations and entities.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the South Sudan Protection Cluster developed a Conflict Sensitivity Tip Sheet to guide projects funded by the Common Humanitarian Fund. The PBEA also supports the comprehensive mainstreaming of conflict-sensitive programming at national and state levels.
Outcome 2: The Life Skills and Peacebuilding Education (LS+PE) training of 309 (27 per cent females) duty-bearers from government, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and 829 teachers has enabled a culture of peace to be promoted at the institution level. Close to 64 per cent of training participants reported increased knowledge in the relationship between education service delivery and incidence of violent conflict.
Outcome 3: More than 32,500 individuals learned about international education initiatives including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Millennium Development Goals, and Education for All – and engaged in meaningful dialogues on human rights and quality education through LS+PE sessions, sports events, career fairs, community peace conferences and youth dialogues.
Outcome 4: The PBEA programme helped increase access to education and quality conflictsensitive education (CSE). Seventy schools (48 of which are pilot sites) launched LS+PE with inclusive education and child-friendly school (CFS) principles, while innovative vocational education programmes provided 517 youth with opportunities to learn livelihood skills such as carpentry, tailoring, driving, building and construction (with the prospect of expanding to include fishing and ox-plough farming in 2015).
Outcome 5: To inform current and future education programming for peacebuilding in South Sudan, the UNICEF South Sudan Country Office pursued multiple means of documenting results including: comparative research; case studies; promotional videos, and Knowledge, Attitude and Perception (KAP) surveys that measure social cohesion and resilience.