 Good afternoon. I'm delighted to welcome everyone to this panel Talk Peace Vote Peace. My name is Susan Stagant and I lead USIP's programs in East Africa and the Greater Horn of Africa. USIP was established by the US Congress in 1984 as a non-partisan public institution dedicated to preventing, mitigating, and helping to resolve violent conflict around the world. Today we will be talking about South Sudan. In December 2024, South Sudan is scheduled to hold its first elections since the country's independence in 2011. The elections also mark a milestone towards ending the current transition period outlined in the 2017 peace agreement and the extension that was agreed last year. Preparation for the elections are delayed. In the last few weeks, various reports from the revitalized joint monitoring and evaluation commission from the UN mission in South Sudan, from the UN commission on human rights in South Sudan, have cautioned that the gaps to take the necessary steps are significant and that time is starting to run short to achieve the necessary steps. A new constitution, political party registration, procurement of ballot papers, training and deployment of election officials, unification of security forces, and political consensus on sensitive and critical questions about how South Sudan will be governed and the opening of civic, political, and democratic space. It is these steps and others that will determine whether South Sudanese have the confidence that the elections can deliver on the promise of the peace agreement, the promise of a successful transition, and the hopes from the 2011 referendum in independence. Opinion polls show that the elections matter to South Sudanese and that they have high expectations for their first national elections. Thirteen years since independence, people want the chance to choose their leaders. More sobering, opinion polls show that citizens also anticipate that the elections could be violent. Many of the discussions at the moment are focused around whether the vote can happen on time and how they will be funded and supported. And if the elections can't open on time, what is the alternative and how can that be agreed? But today, our conversation will focus on the work that South Sudanese civic leaders are undertaking now to bring together communities across the country to talk about peace and to take steps to prevent the risks of violence around the end of the transition period and the elections. We are privileged to be joined by four individuals and partners who have a deep understanding of the discussions and the preparations in Juba and who spend time talking to and with South Sudanese in towns, in counties and communities about their hopes, their concerns, and their aspirations. I'm now pleased to introduce Ola Mahajir, Senior Program Officer with the Africa Center at USIP, to moderate, lead this discussion and introduce our speakers. Ola, over to you. Thank you, Susan. And thank you to all those who are joining us in person and online. It's a privilege to be sitting here with you today. And it's a long time coming. I'm going to dive straight into the questions. And before we go into the questions, I would love for you to introduce yourselves as we go through, just in the first time. So Susan summarized a lot of really important things that remain to be done, but you're doing some of them. And that is in your conversations and your trainings and your dialogues with South Sudanese every day across the country. So I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit about what it's like to convene dialogues in communities that are divided, excluded, or in conflict. And Bol, I'd like to turn to you first, followed by Paula, and then we'll move to the next question. Please go ahead and introduce yourself. Thank you. My name is Bol Boulabek. I'm the program manager of Dead Crow. And I'm here to represent Dead Crow. The question is very clear. Dead Crow and AMA currently, they are actually implementing Ta'al-Nitkalam project in partnership with AMA, Assistance Mission for Africa. And what we are implementing, if I translate it, is Come Let Us Talk. It is a peace initiative. It is a peace building activity. And the Peace Buddha approach that we are using, it is a holistic approach that is adaptable to any community in South Sudan who are living in conflict and who are actually in divisions or who are being excluded. And we are actually emphasizing the importance of community-led and localized solutions. Our approach has five steps, community engagement fundamentals. And the first is stakeholder engagement, which includes government and different stakeholders that are actually in those locations or who are party to conflict. The reason is for us to make sure that everyone is included and confidence and trust is built so communication can go smoothly. Also, we do community mapping, which is the second step. And it is for us to make sure that we do mapping in conflict zones. And that is to help us document the root causes of conflict in those areas. And then the third step is training, which help us bridge the divide. And we breathe the divide through sense-making and as well dialogue circles. In addition to that, number five, the fourth step, I mean, is action planning. The community themselves sees it as a community led approach. The community themselves will actually set their priorities and develop action plans for what they have actually set. And the fifth and the last step is after action plan which actually help us actively seek feedback from these communities so that we remain inclusive in our approach as well as make sure that we do refine our approach since always, you know, things are evolving. And there is community dynamics that are changing all the time. How do we do that is a question that I want all of us to pay attention to. The way we do it, we do it by prioritizing indigenous knowledge in conflict resolution. I want you to underline indigenous knowledge in conflict resolution, which is very important. We tap on the indigenous knowledge bank in our societies, in our communities. And we do that actually by recognizing the traditional and indigenous values of each community. So what we have is a framework that is, that can be used, you know, everywhere. It can be used among the different 64 or 65 tribes in South Sudan where we use the indigenous knowledge, the indigenous terms that are actually very valuable to the community. You know, these communities have been living in conflict and have been living in peace. So how were they actually achieving peace? How were they actually building peace in the history back in the day? So we go back to the roots and the community, you know, become more enthusiastic and become more involved because they feel this is, you know, this is what, this actually resonated with them. And in addition to that, it makes it easy for them to own it. So to give you just a taste, in our trainings we were using, which we were using in RBA, we had two terms that we were using. For example, one term is attack in Dinka language. In the beginning, their understanding was limited, but in the dialogue circles, their understanding expanded. And they understood attack not only as respect, but in the broader term as respect to human rights, respect to rule of law, respect and dignity, including diplomacy. When you have that principle and value, you will be able actually to relate to all of these values. And the second one is chain, which means cultivating harmony in diversity. And that is not easy for, when you are in conflict, to do it without going back to your roots. So we go back to our roots using chain in order for us to cultivate harmony in diversity between communities and in communities. Dead Crow, I would like also to highlight that Dead Crow does a lot of other work, and one of the work that we have done recently was the impact of the Ukraine war on food security in South Sudan, which was a study that we have done, as well as the South Sudanese perception on election study, which we have also done. So I will raise my hand and say back to you. Thank you, Vol. That was truly enlightening, especially giving the details around the Dinka principles of peace and harmony and how the work that you're doing is very much connected to people's existing principles. So I want to thank you for that and just reiterate, Vol Bulebek, who is program manager for Dead Crow, which is a South Sudanese NGO based in South Sudan. I'm going to turn to Paula with the same question. I will now introduce everyone, because I'm eager to get to the subject, skipping the introductions, but I really think it's important to actually take a step back and do that. So Paula, too, joins us from IMPs, who she works with Lupai on a project with USIP, as well, doing similar work. Paula, tell us, what is your approach to convening dialogues in communities that are divided, excluded, or in conflict? Like you've heard from Ola, my name is Paula Ito, and I work with IMPs as their country manager. And IMPs is an ungovernmental organization. We're based in Yuba, South Sudan, and we largely work on peace building. So our focus mostly is whatever we do and whatever activity we conduct has to be linked to peace. And so we have different areas of focus. So we have conflict management and resolution. We have hate speech mitigation. We work on misinformation and fake news. And we also conduct dialogues and mediation in our work. And how we do this is that first we have a specific target group that we work with. We work with the youth because youth form the largest population in South Sudan, as we may all know. And we want to ensure that we are using their skills and that we are making the most out of them. And that if we do not guide these youth and understand their issues and concerns, they might end up being liabilities. And so how can we work with the young people in South Sudan to ensure that we're all responsible for our country and that we are responsible for the outcome and any issues that come out of South Sudan? And so for the youth, we have also, after the youth, we have the media and the arts group. And this is the group that comprises of the creatives. For the media, we focus on the journalists, presenters, reporters. So anyone working in the media industry, we engage them through our programs. And these programs can be through training, can be through advocacy. It can also be through creating awareness and education. And with this group, we create spaces where we have conversations on issues that are affecting South Sudan and come up with solutions collectively to ensure that we're working in unison and that it's our collective responsibility as young people, as South Sudanese, to protect our country and to ensure that safety of South Sudanese is a priority to all of us. Apart from that group, we also work with women, especially that we have a lot of issues that affect women in South Sudan and that it's our collective responsibility to involve women in these spaces and get to hear about their concerns and work towards addressing issues that affect them. When it comes to the approaches we use, we have training programs like I mentioned earlier. We have dialogues, and these dialogues, we conduct peace camps. So we have peace camps that we conduct within Juba, the capital city, but we also go out of Juba to conduct peace camps. And what the peace camp does is that for every peace camp we conduct, we have a theme for it. Based on what is affecting us and based on what is relevant at that particular moment, we have discussions around the issues and we come up with solutions collectively and that these solutions come from us who are being affected by this. And with the peace camp, it also brings a lot of different ethnicities, especially that ethnic violence is something that is prevalent in our country. And so how do we ensure that we are breaking that barrier and that we are working together and that we are bringing ourselves as South Sudanese and not somebody from a specific community? And so with our peace camps, we are always intentional when we are conducting them. We ensure that we have people from different backgrounds. And we discuss topics such as, for example, stereotypes. What are the stereotypes that you've had about a specific community? And we have the person from there telling us and challenging these stereotypes. And we get to hear from the people themselves on what their community practices are like. What is their community? What do they do there? And we challenge these stereotypes when we come together and discuss. And if we create these spaces, we help people come up and share their experiences. And we also learn from each other and we start to challenge the cycle of violence. We start to challenge stereotypes that exist within our communities. We start to challenge those biases. So these are some of the activities that we conduct back in South Sudan. In addition to this, also we have debate programs and will also come up with topics that are relevant in our setting and that we discuss about them and think of way forward. What are the action plans? How different do we want to approach issues that are affecting us, especially in un-violence? When it comes to the program that we are working with that on different issues affecting South Sudan, we have boot camps that are happening. Two weeks ago, we conducted a boot camp in Turit and we specifically focused on media and arts group. For this particular program, Project IMEAN, we have three areas that we are focusing on. That is Jungle State, Jungle Capital. We are focusing on Wau, Western Barigazal State, and we are also looking at Turit State, Turit County. And with these different areas that we are focusing on, we are going to conduct the media and arts boot camps in all these areas. We are going to have women boot camps in all the three locations. And we are also going to have the youth boot camps. And for these boot camps, we are having conversations around, for example, misinformation and fake news. For the Turit boot camp that we just completed two weeks ago, we had artists, these are musicians. We had comedians in our groups. And we also had journalists and reporters from different radio stations within the state. And we had a five-day engagement with them where we had conversations around issues affecting us, for example, South Sudanese. The people in the media industry, we discuss some of the issues that we can address as people working in that space. And why is this space important to us? It is important to us because media can be used as a tool for dissemination of information. And when people understand the impact the media has, and especially in these media spaces, then they are able to use media to the best of their advantage whereby we are educating people and ensuring when there is misinformation, how are we using fact-checking tools? We had a whole session on fact-checking where participants were taken through the different ways they can verify information online. How do you share information that is factual? How are you able to point out that this information is not going to inflict harm on somebody, for example? How are we going to do that? And how relevant is this in our context as we speak? Like my colleague had talked about elections coming up, it's important that people understand that misinformation might happen during this particular period. And it's our responsibility to ensure that whatever information we're sharing online is a factual information and that we've verified before sharing it out there. And so we worked with this, the media and arts group, and we trained them on various ways they can verify information online and that when they come across any information they're unsure of, they should know better what to do in that instance. So these are some of the activities that we are conducting in South Sudan so that to ensure that in case we get to situations where there are conflicts, how do we approach conflict? And when you look at IMPs and our goal, our objectives, we look more into the preventive aspect of it. So what can we do before violence erupts, for example? What are some of the indicators? What are some of the things that we can look and watch out for? And how can we approach them? Or how can we counter this before it erupts and become something big? And so we look at preventive measures and then come in conversations around issues affecting us also are things that we focus on in South Sudan. Thank you Paula. So Paula and Bol really eloquently outlined exactly the places that you're working in. Within Juba, outside, wow, Torret, Abye, and other places. And by the time all four of your projects or the partnerships that we have are completed, you will have spoken to and engaged with about 1200 South Sudanese. That's nothing small. And so I'm wondering if now with the dozens, maybe hundreds you've already spoken to, can you tell us a little bit about what you're hearing from your fellow citizens about their hopes, their fears, their expectations? And if there's, if it's possible, can you tell us about how some of the dialogues, trainings, and workshops that you've been organizing are addressing some of these different fears, expectations, and hopes? And for this question, I'd like to turn to Nyashankwath and Lupai. Nyashankwath joins us from Assistance Mission for Africa, where Amma and Dettkrow are partnering to do these projects. And Lupai joins us from IM Peace. Nyashankwath, over to you. Thank you, Ola. Talking of expectations, fears, and what people think, I'll start with a very short story looking at how I have a limited time. Five years ago in this room, we had a visit from one of the congressmen. And by then, I was one of the South Sudanese leaders who are under the fellowship for USIP. Me and my colleague Namiseo Joy, fourth generation change fellows, and President Nancy, the former president for USIP, called us and she introduced us. But there was a process before that. And I remember it was one of the first times where we were in the front of such huge audience and we didn't know what to expect. And bringing this down to today, I think it's important to acknowledge the role USIP have done in building the capacity, tapping into opportunities and supporting young South Sudanese. As we're sitting here, three of us fall with young, we are generation change fellows who joined USIP in 2017. And we were around 34, I think around 34, 35 young fellows. And by now, we have young South Sudanese who are supporting their communities, who are impacting in their own different capacities, using innovation, social media, dialogues, peace. And I think in such moments, it's important to acknowledge how far we have come. And today as a generation change fellow, instead of asking what is expected of me, I'm actually framing questions and I'm saying, I want to talk about this, I want to highlight this and that. And I think this is something important to acknowledge and highlight. Back to the question. I think I wear different hats. And what stands out is that I'm a generation change fellow and I will always be a generation change fellow. I was the executive director for assistance mission for Africa a few weeks ago until I transitioned and joined UNFPA. But taking it back to the work that we have been doing and we're still doing together with that crew, I think they have been perception on elections, whereby some data have been collected for the past few years. And people will be shocked that the data that is coming out, especially from war affected zones, such as upper Nile, South Sudanese actually want election. And this might be shocking. And as we were doing the Talit Kalim project and we were creating that safety space and room for people to talk about what are the issues that are happening because this is a community-led approach process. We didn't come with an agenda to enforce and ask communities what is it that we want them to talk about. So as a community-led process, one of the things that came out from communities that the issues that are affecting them and the issues that they have fears in relation to conflict or peace are issues of catariding, issues of revenge killing, and somehow elections came up. And one of the fears that people have on elections is the fact that there is no enough civic education. Many people at the grassroots, they do not know where to begin from and what to expect because some of them lack the knowledge on a mere process of elections. And these are some of the things that were coming up, including the need of raising awareness, the need of civic education, the need of people knowing where they stand and where they come from. And for me, I think it's important and it's powerful because the people are talking and they're saying, this is what we want and you know, this is what we're expecting. So they're returning it back to us. And that makes me also talk generally about the engagement around elections. It's a little bit foggy because there are so many fears talking about elections and there are so many expectations. And we have some policymakers somewhere that are anticipating conflict when it comes to elections. But we have seen the situation in Sudan, you know, having two different armies and having a long transitional period led into conflict that could not be avoided. South Sudan have been one of the country that has been living in a long transitional period after the conflict, you know, from the peace agreement to revitalize peace agreement to a roadmap. And I think the election is an opportunity to give, you know, South Sudanese an opportunity to go and have, you know, a system that is elected and then to move from that transitional period where we can have the South Sudan we all want and the South Sudan we are all dreaming to build. And I think one call I can have for policymakers that as we're busy, maybe anticipating conflict, anticipating the worst, maybe it's about time to just ask South Sudanese, what is it that you really want? How can we help? How can we support? And based on that maybe we can be able to raise awareness, we can be able to elect, we can be able to have a whole system that we can work together without anticipating the bad, instead of waiting to put our money on emergency response in, you know, dealing with conflict rather than, you know, doing prevention. So basically these are some of the few views that I have and back to you. Beautifully put. Thank you, Nyasha and Kwot. Lupai, what are you hearing? Tell us and tell us how you might be addressing them. Thank you, Ola. I mean, from one end of the country, it's a different voice from the other, it's the other. And when we engage with people, it's on different levels. We have those who are already in spaces of influence, and then there are those who are just trying to survive. And so when you ask these two different groups of people, they have different responses. When we're into a read, we engage the state government. And all the people in the state government base, they are responses based on what their political group wants, people who belong to the government. Of course, we know they're pushing forward with the elections, and we have people in the position who feel that certain benchmarks are not being met, and these elections should not continue. So this is the voices you hear from the state governments. What about voices from the local communities? And so when we're doing the Peace Camp, one of the things we do is we just go out to the communities and interact with them on personal levels. And when we asked some farmers and people who are going about with the animal businesses, two things came up. One is who are running. That is the question, like, who is running? Because at the moment, we know it's, I think the endorsement is from one party at the moment. We haven't seen any other parties go ahead with preparations of, like, fronting. So who are running? And then the other, like, well, whether they're elections or not, is it going to be a stable torrid? Because for us, we want to cultivate. For us, we want the rain. So these elections, whether they're going to bring for us peace or not, all we want is any process that creates stability for our state. Because at the end of the day, whether people get voted in or not, we just want to have a stable and peaceful torrid for us to cultivate. So these are different levels of voices that we hear. But they are more to that. People are talking about the constitution-making process as well as a very, very key step in electoral processes. So if we are to go for elections specifically, what are we going to use in these elections? Are we going to use the transitional constitution or are we going to go for elections with this transitional constitution and then later do a permanent constitutional-making process? So from such voices, people do not really know whether these elections will happen with the clear strategies or we just have to do these elections regardless of whether some of these benchmarks are met or not. At the end of the day, when you hear all these voices, especially from people who are not having interests, their focus is stability for the country. So whether it is an extension or it is an election, what brings stability to South Sudan? I think that's the majority of the voices out there. So some people are undecided with what they need. But I also have my personal view as well. And I think I'm also one of the voices of South Sudan. So I think I'm in the right place to do that. We all know that for the longest time, there's a huge generation that has never experienced what an electoral process really looks like. In 2010, when we voted for independence, majority of the people may not have fully come to South Sudan. Others were students in different neighboring countries. And so elections in South Sudan has never been experienced. This, I really think, is a huge experience for us to be able to send the people we need to be sent to policymaking decisions, I mean spaces. And I think that's also one voice that we got. I think I'd forgotten about that is like, whether this election will happen with all the strategies or not. An election for us in our community will help us send the right person. We may not change the strategies in a high level national platform. But I think in our community, we now know who is for us and who is for a personal interest. So this is going to be an opportunity for us to send somebody up there. And I would say the same. I would say that, yes, the electoral process is really need to continue. However, just like we know, for some processes to happen, they have to be specific things that need to be done. And so how fast do we move? We have about 15 months. So within these 15 months, how many things are we doing right now? If we are to work with the transitional constitution, which will still be okay, so long as it can create a system for us to send leaders that will speak for us, that we believe will speak for us, especially from a community level and not from a national level as well. So these are different voices that we do here. And we are in the process of creating more spaces for these voices to be heard. The dialogue that we had in Torrid involved both these voices and the state government, so that it's not just us hearing from the state government what they want, but so the state government hearing what the community really wants. And these platforms have not been there. Most of the times it's civil society and NGOs doing work with communities and government also having their own work. So there's been that gap. So how do we ensure that these conversations are in sync? The government knows what is happening and what the community really needs. But also the community has to know what the government is going through. So these processes, we create these platforms for them to have these conversations. Thank you, Lupai. You outlined a number of opportunities and challenges. All of you did. And Lupai, you rightfully pointed that you have a voice too. And I'm glad that you shared it because this next question for you, Nyashankwath and Bull, is to highlight your voice on something that I think is quite critical. And so I would love to know what is your advice for policymakers and decision makers on elections and the end of the transition? You can include U.S. policymakers, international or whichever your specific thinking targets. What advice do you have for them about elections? How can you inform their decisions? Who would like to take the question first? Okay. Everybody's looking at me. Well, I think my voice tells me that before policymakers sit in those closed doors, high-level policy meetings whereby some of us might not have access, I would like to just add my voice and maybe somehow they can be able to incorporate that in their meetings that there is more to South Sudan than conflict. We have beautiful stories. We have the South Sudan Bright Stars basketball that represented South Sudan and united us once in a very long time. We have communities that are working on peace, local peace, and who are tired of conflicts. We have South Sudanese who have lived for a long time abroad and finally they felt like it's time to come back home and contribute into building the nation. I think an election is an opportunity to work collectively to build the South Sudan everybody wants. And I think as policymakers and even the U.S. government, we all want a peaceful South Sudan. A South Sudan where human rights is being respected. A South Sudan where everybody has equal rights. And as we do that, I think as South Sudanese, we can't do this independently. Civil society can't do it independently. UN agencies can't do it by themselves. And also the government can't do it by itself. I think it will take everybody to come together and work and get the election that we want. And one of the things that policymakers need to put in mind is that as they anticipate conflict and as they anticipate the worst, let them also have a room for positive. Let them look at the bigger picture of what will come out of this and support South Sudan in a way that and in short without diplomacy, let them put money in prevention but not in emergency and not also in humanitarian assistance. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. To U.S. policymakers, I would like to ask them and to draw their attention to one fact that they have invested a lot in South Sudan. Therefore, they don't need to actually move away or shy away from engaging the government of South Sudan. It is very important that for any understanding to happen, for any positive things to happen, for any developments to take place, you need to also engage so that your influence on the government would also be taken positively by the government. What I have seen is that the U.S. government, they don't have a policy, a clear policy, a strategy, let me say, toward South Sudan. Maybe I don't know whether I'm wrong or not, but what is there is just only a reactionary policy. You know, you do this, you don't do that, you do this, you don't do that. South Sudan, they have to look at South Sudan as a partner, which is very important for them to actually achieve the objectives and achieve, you know, get their interests. There is a need for the U.S. government actually to identify their interests. What is their interest in South Sudan? South Sudan need also to identify their interests. What is their interest in their relationship with the United States? And both of them come together and actually align their interests, work together for a better future for the people of South Sudan. But when there is a policy of disengagement, who would you blame when things go wrong? It's yourself. So I would actually, you know, encourage the policymakers in the U.S. to look at South Sudan from a different angle. My grandfather always says that my son in darkness, there is diamond, there is gold, they are all the precious things. So despite all the different dark things that we see, there are good things in South Sudan, which the U.S. is not seeing by disengagement. So they need to get into the dark in order for them to see the value of engagement with the people of South Sudan, with the government of South Sudan. And also as flawless as it might be, as the election might be, there might be a lot of flaws there. But this will set the foundation for accountability. Right now, as civil society, you know, stakeholders or civil society members, our engagement with the government is limited because they came through a piece, and this government was established through a peace agreement, which means that they are parties with different interests who can sit among themselves to make the decision of how they want to move forward. Our influence is very limited. But when elections happen, what happens? We set the benchmark of accountability. We will be able to, you know, to have our voices heard everywhere. So, you know, that's the way I look at it. And let us hope that the policy, I mean, the relationship between South Sudan and the U.S. government improves and I improve for the benefit of the people of South Sudan. Thank you. Both. Thank you for your thoughtful candor. Lupai, over to you. I was being comfortable here that I needed to add a voice to what Bo was trying to say. So, South Sudan as a population still has a lot to do with literacy. Rage is still very, very low. And so most of the times when it comes to reactions, they either from emotional points of view or generally from a not so informed point of view. So, with regards to these elections, I think international partners and also other policymakers need to start to invest more into letting South Sudanese understand what these processes really mean to them in terms of like getting their rights, in terms of like what they need to do to get what they want, the piece that they all want. So, although we know that, yes, these elections will be a benchmark for us to start to hold them accountable, but without people understanding how to hold them, how to hold it as accountable, it becomes very, very hard. How do you hold somebody accountable who has been praised in communities about the role they have played in the liberation struggle and all this stuff to others that is the ultimate goal. But it's more to that now we have the country, South Sudan, now we need now to move beyond that level that we have. But how? So, how do South Sudanese as a whole have a voice that those who are leading them are able to hear. So, policymakers, international partners need to focus on reinforcing these voices in terms of like knowledge and skills on how best they can, you know, air out their grievances so that it doesn't become more like a pushback. Let's say, hey, we're saying this and you are against us, you know. So, like the US for how many years, over 200 years with democratic processes, and it's always been a learning process, what US citizens have always done is to get to understand how these processes work, but how to hold their leaders accountable as well. And I think this is what we need as South Sudanese. We have our leaders, yes, how do we hold them accountable. So, civic education, a lot of information on that, a lot of support on that needs to be put. And I think that's what USIP is doing right now. However, it's definitely limited to specific areas in a population of about 12 million people who are doing civic education, elections and electoral processes, you know. Some people do not know that they need to be registered to be able to vote. Somebody who is 16 might decide and say, okay, I also want to vote because I have a voice. So, what are those benchmarks? People need to understand these things early. So, I think this is where support needs to be put. And I think that in terms of relationships, we really know who is on the right and who is on the wrong if we are informed. So, the US government specifically as well over the years has we all know it has a strange relationship with South Sudan government, but not South Sudanese people. I think these are different staff because they still continue to engage with South Sudan as well. However, what we think is that the more you bridge that gap, the easier it is for South Sudanese people to continue to engage freely because I think there are a lot of South Sudanese here, a lot of South Sudanese in the United States. So, that means having a strange relationship also puts those in the diaspora community in jeopardy and their voices are not going to be heard as critical voices back home. So, the government needs to bridge that gap and a lot of civic education needs to be done for the South Sudanese people. Thank you. Thank you all. I am going to turn to the audience for questions. We can take one question from online and one question from in the room. I would like to invite the room to ask a question. Hi, guys. Good to see you. I think I know two of you, the panelists, but the other two, thanks for presenting this morning. My name is Atem Malak. I am with the IRI and I certainly agree with some of the comments you made regarding election and the difficulty of navigating that. So, my questions to you guys. Can you all talk about security situation in all of the state if this election was to happen? Because we are all aware of displaced people around East Africa and also for those in the United States. Is there any conversation about how those who are around the world can vote and then those who are in the States where there's insecurities? What kind of measures are being taken if at all this election is going to go forward? Of which most of us are skeptical, but I want to hear from you guys how those kind of things, what measures is the government taking and for the opposition that are concerned legitimately? How are they going to go along with it? Like, what are they going to be forced? Are they going to just not participate? How does the government make this attractive to all of the people that are skeptical of the election? So, if you can address the security and how to make those who are unwilling or those who are better concerned to participate, thank you. I'd like to ask just two of you to answer that question if that's all right. And it was a two-part question. There was a question on security situation and what the government is doing to move ahead with elections. Who would like to take the security question or both but just I think we only have time for two of you to answer so that we can take an online question. Pie. Okay. And who else? Okay. So, the security situation is a huge concern at the time for specifically the opposition groups because live along those who are in IDPs and not in their homes, many opposition groups have not officially launched their campaigns for these elections and electoral processes because the spaces are not, the ground is not level. We've heard of reports, especially in Dunebeck some time back when one of the parties wanted to hold a rally. They did the rally but later we've had certain concerns of the campaigns not going forward. And I think this is a genuine concern. And also, you know, there's been a concern about the unification process. We still have two different armies or even more militia groups in the country. How are you going to go ahead with the elections when all these people are not put together? Genuine concerns. And I really think that once voices around letting these elections happen are being pushed, it does not go independently and they say we need to have elections. These voices have to go currently with asking for level ground for everybody to be able to conduct this. So, what happens right now, like even when we're here, there are a lot of closed-door conversations happening among political groups on, hey, if you want these elections to happen, what are these benchmarks? And the SPLIO specifically said their benchmark is security. They should be allowed to freely move around and hold campaigns, which is a very genuine concern. So now this is where our civil society, we want these spaces to be leveled. So the concern is there but are we going to sit back and say, okay, let security be done. Let unification be done. And then we just watch without putting a voice to it. So that concern is there. And I think when we continue to push this voice, recently I think we've had statements not just from McQuaid but from other leaders as well, even from the SPLIO, once they feel safe enough to move across the country, then they can say, okay, let these elections happen. And for us, as a society, our focus mainly is to ensure that, yes, everybody has the same ground to be able to campaign. So the security situation in other places is people are able to go and go about with their daily activities but not political activities. And so I think now that is the voice that we all need to put together and say, hey, everybody needs to have a ground for this to happen. And I think some people have started putting that ground. We have started putting that ground as well. So I think that would be what I would say. Yeah, I think in addition to what you say, Glopai, of course there are some benchmarks that are supposed to happen before elections. And however much we are positively trying to look at the process positively but there are some critical benchmarks. And when you include security, of course, security is one of the key areas. Also, there are some other components such as the formation of the NCRC, the Constitutional Review Commission, as well as also the Election Commission, and also the Political Parties Council, because once the Political Parties Council is formed and it's in place, all the political parties in South Sudan will register and all of them will qualify to run for elections. So these are the steps that actually will need civil society, different UN agencies as well as different policy makers and stakeholders to engage the government to make sure that we are on the same page and we're working together to achieve that, in which also in our conversations with some other counterparts of the government, we received information that it's being finalized. There are the last stages of announcing the names because already the names have been submitted for all these different commissions and that means that there is more work needs to be done. When it comes to security, as well as there are some difficult places to access. And also different policy makers, let's say, like you can have people from the U.S. Embassy going straight into places that are labeled with high security threats and all of that. And this is where the role of civil society comes in different UN agencies as well as the government and the local government who are in different counties in different states to make sure that they work together in order for people to have access in order also for the security to be stabilized in order for elections to continue. If I may, right now we're keeping the slightest optimism because we feel within 15 months there's so much that we can achieve. And I think the tone and engagement will continue to change as we draw closer. So right now we still feel, yes, we have a space to create that. But this will not be the same voice six months to December 2024 because now it will be a very, it's a short period already, but I think right now there's still something that we can do. So we're keeping optimism on the security process and ensuring that everybody is aware that we need to do this and push the voices. But I think as it gets closer it gets tighter and those voices will continue to change. So we have one final question. And again, I'll ask just two to answer to honor the time. The question is, how will the political economy impact potential outcomes of the upcoming election and the broader political landscape in South Sudan? Repeat. Okay. How will the political economy impact the potential outcomes of the upcoming elections and the broader political landscape in the country? Bo, I see you thinking. Yeah. You know, we are facing political economic challenges, political economic challenges in the country. And it has a direct impact. It will have definitely a direct impact or an adverse impact on elections. Currently, you know, one of the prerequisites of election is civic education, which is not only a civil society work, but it is also a government responsibility. So for them to invest in that is going to be another, is going to be a challenge as we speak. So it's not easy, but it has to be thought of carefully. And look at, I don't know even what to say further, but we have economic challenges and it is impacting how things are. I think that's enough. Yeah. That's enough. So you don't have to say more. Would anyone else like to answer this question before we close? Paula? I think this takes us to the question of trust in the country. And this doesn't necessarily mean the political parties, but basically everyone else, the citizens, all the stakeholders that are part of South Sudan. And if that is not leveled, like the ground is not leveled and we are not on the same page, then that becomes an issue of concern. And I think that's one of the reasons why there are questions around that, like having this question now. Yeah. So if we are able to create an environment, a space for everybody, anyone who wants to politically participate in these processes and that no matter what happens, South Sudan comes first. There's no one who is more South Sudanese than the other and that we all at South Sudanese have a collective responsibility to ensure that peace is what we want. And if you look at, I think most of us focus is on peace and stability. And I just want to appreciate the fact that since 2016 until now, South Sudan has enjoyed some relative peace. The fact that I can sleep comfortably in my country and wake up in the morning and conduct my activities, that is progress that we've seen. So how do we ensure that we maintain that? How do we ensure that the trust that we've built over the years, the relationship that we've restored since 2016 and those that we've created, we've built new relationship? How do we ensure that that is still something that is going to continue? Because I don't think anyone of us wants to go back to where we've been. So I think when it comes to this, it's a huge concern really and that it's really our collective responsibility as South Sudanese to ensure that we're protecting the interest of South Sudan and that we're ensuring the safety of all South Sudanese. Very eloquently put. Thank you Paula. So our time has come to a close. I will be brief and just say that it is a true privilege to have all four of you here with us teaching us and enlightening us. You have come such a long way and left really important work behind you that you will soon go back to but that is no small task and so I want to just say that to me you are role models not just to South Sudanese or to people who are doing peace building but you are a role model to me. So I want to thank you for joining us, for teaching us and I hope we continue to learn from you as the projects unfold. I know many of us will be keen to see what you're doing on social media and so on so please keep us posted. And finally I want to thank USIP and the USIP Africa Center for making this event possible. It would not be possible without you. Thank you all very much. Until next time.