Johannesburg — South Sudan, as the world's youngest country, faces many challenges and uncertainty in achieving peace. Shortly after gaining independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, a civil war broke out in December 2013, and again in July 2016. Citizens are still feeling the effects of these events while South Sudanese women, activists, and women-led organizations are pushing for peace and equality in their societies.
"It is important to continue to work in the course of peace in South Sudan. In our experience, women's rights organizations are an essential and vibrant part of every society. The lack of support and the backlash against them has serious repercussion for the health of what we call the civic space. Despite the barriers that we all know about, it is clear that we are making progress, but the next 12 months is going to be critical for South Sudan's peace process," said Robert Rae, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations.
Rae was talking during a panel discussion showcasing South Sudanese women's experiences and lessons learned in using technology and innovation in peace, humanitarian, and development settings. It was convened by the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) in partnership with the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, EVE Organization for Women Development, Leaders for Peace, South Sudan Women's Coalition, South Sudan's Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, and UN Women.
Every March the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meets to address the widespread inequalities, violence, and discrimination women continue to face worldwide. This year's 67th session of the CSW was under the theme Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. It also reviewed the agreed conclusions of the 62nd session - Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and empowerment of rural women and girls.
What is Sudan's Ministry of Gender, Child, and Welfare Doing?
In South Sudan, 73% of girls aged 6 to 11 are not in school, and thousands of girls are kept from school due to poverty, early marriage, unsafe routes to class, and having too much work at home, according to the United Nations' children's organization, Unicef.
Illiteracy is high, many lack financial training and resources for computers, and technology is limited further hindering citizens' participation in governance.
Minister of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare since 2020, Aya Benjamin Warrille, said there is progress as a number of initiatives to advance women's rights and participation in the country's decision-making have been made including the development of the women's charter.
"We have done consultations; we are at the stage where we want to validate the charter at the national level and later on to disseminate it to the grassroots for women and girls to bring their voices at the grassroots level. South Sudan is at a critical stage where we are preparing the constitution-making process, we are all aware that the constitution is a prerequisite for elections. The ministry of gender, child, and social welfare is preparing women and girls for effective participation in the process of constitution-making for the upcoming elections," Warrille said.
With the country's high numbers of GBV cases, forced marriage, and rape, the ministry has developed an Anti-Gender-Based Violence Bill and Women's Empowerment Bill which will be handed to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to be tabled at the council of ministers.
She said her department also advocates for women in community policing and has established several special protection units and a one-stop center to cater to issues of GBV.
Her ministry is also developing the youth charter to ensure the inclusion of youth in the constitution process.
Her department in partnership with UN Women has several training opportunities including transformational leadership training for women who aspire to be future leaders and take up politics.
"We have developed our second National Action Plan (NAP) for 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security to ensure that women and girls participate in peacebuilding processes," she said.
Achieving Gender Equality Through Innovation and Technological Change
"We need to call on the government of South Sudan to reduce the taxes on ICT and technological materials to make them accessible and to reduce the internet prices or tariffs in general. But for the international community and our partners across the world, it is important that we prioritize computer literacy, education of women, helping women organizations to have the institutional capacity that can give space and have access to the internet," said Rita Lopidia, Co-Founder of Eve Organisation for Women Development.
Eve Organization is a South Sudanese Women's Organization founded with the aim of contributing towards social change through promoting gender equity and equality, social justice, peace, and security of women. The organization offers free computer training courses to women, but Lupidia thinks this is just a drop in the ocean as the demand is very high and only a specific number can be offered this course.
"While digitalization moving the world forward, we are still struggling in South Sudan Women face several layers of difficulties including a lack of literacy. Women need to increase their capacity in access, transfer, and application of ICT. There are very few centers that help women that are not working. Digital technology plays a significant role in increasing women's participation in society by creating online space for peacebuilding. As South Sudan continues to implement the reforms provided by the revitalized peace agreement on the resolution of conflict in South Sudan, the growing digital divide, and online violence, especially on women leaders should be prioritized," Elisabeth Betty Achan Ogwaro, South Sudan's sitting member of parliament and a member of GNWP's board of directors.
The government of South Sudan 2021 passed a provisional order to criminalize cybercrimes, and abuse and harassment of women online. Lopidia and Achan Ogwaro agree that this is a good step forward but admit that the country needs to see laws in place that will criminalize online crimes and abuses.
Digital Technology As a Double-Edged Sword
Digital technology provides a vast potential to promote equality and advance human rights and peacebuilding initiatives across the world however it can present challenges when not used properly.
Mavic Cabrera Balleza, Founder, and Chief Executive Officer of GNWP described digital technology as a double-edged sword and said that there are many opportunities if those conditions of stable access, good bandwidth, and skills are available and affordable.
"The International Telecommunications Union has cited that the average internet population among conflict-affected countries is only 19%. Assuming that South Sudanese women have access and the necessary skills to navigate it safely, there are many benefits," said Cabrera Balleza.
She shares five ways technology can help South Sudanese women navigate peace.
"First, sharing and exchanging information including on their monitoring of the implementation of the agreement of the resolution of conflict in South Sudan.
Second: organizing, building and strengthening networks, civil society network and strengthening solidarity among them, internally and externally.
Third: its use of technology as an early warning system for example, threats of impending intercommunal violence.
Fourth: entering advocacy spaces including those organized in the UN security council, peacebuilding commission, or even the general assembly and other policy discussion and decision-making spaces not only in the UN but African Union and other multilateral institutions.
Fifth: It is also a platform for fundraising with varying degrees of success," she said.
Balleza said some challenges that digital technology can present if not used properly include the spreading of violent and hateful messages, including especially sexist and misogynistic images that only aggravate the sexual and gender-based violence, disinformation and misinformation, discrediting women activists and peacebuilders, and opportunistic groups using the platform to traffic women and girls, surveillance of human rights defenders by groups and recruitment by rebel groups
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"There are opportunities to support government efforts to develop South Sudan's ICT infrastructure, to improve rural coverage, to ensure affordable access to ICT equipment and services, to strengthen ICT skills of women and girls, small business owners and activists, advocates, community and political leaders," said Paivi Kannisto, Chief of the Peace, Security, Humanitarian, and Disaster Risk Reduction Section, UN Women.
Kannisto said women's and girls' access to ICT was a major topic at the international conference on women's transformational leaders held in Juba on February 13, 2023. The goal of the three-day conference that saw over 400 women from 15 African countries attending was to advance progress, address issues affecting women and girls in South Sudan and across Africa, and find sustainable solutions.
Kannisto highlighted a few recommendations from the conference as well as UN Women's social service resources that the international community and other partners could support.
- Conduct an assessment of women's access to the internet and ICT and invest in accessible and affordable internet and mobile communication services across South Sudan, especially rural areas including through public, and private partnerships.
- Rope in the government to reduce taxes on ICT equipment, this could be the best strategy to ensure affordable prices for computers and other ICT material
- Design strategies to respond effectively to online violence against women and girls and the backlash that women, and civil society activists experience including policy formulation providing legal aid, and other assistance.
- Formulate a cyber policy that addresses online harassment and abuse and intimidation against women, civil society organizations and individual activists, and human rights defenders.
- Develop and roll out literacy programs for women and girls across the country.
- Work to change social norms and values that limit women and girls' access to skills, education, and information to increase the ICT literacy rate of women and girls.
AllAfrica's reporting on peacebuilding is supported by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.
