As South Sudan continues to emerge from recent years of political and ethnic violence, it remains beleaguered by weak institutions, a damaged economy, re-emerging communal violence, and civil society and media actors who are insufficiently trained to support the transition to long-term peace and stability. A range of interventions are needed to build on USAID’s successes in recent years and ensure key actors and communities receive critical resources and support to assist in the transition to peace.

Shejeh Salam (previously known as PCEP) uses small grant and rapid response activities to provide critical and urgent resources and support to a range of South Sudanese local actors impacted by the country’s decades of conflict. This support helps local actors to advocate for peaceful solutions and advance communal dialogue within and among fractured communities. Shejeh Salam does this through trauma-informed activities that advance peacebuilding, strengthen civil society capacity, and support independent media while intentionally integrating gender, youth, and other socially marginalized communities into activities. Shejeh Salam’s activities are initially focused in South Sudan’s States of Western Bahr el Ghazal, Unity, Upper Nile, Jonglei, Eastern Equatoria, and Central Equatoria.

Shejeh Salam’s interventions address USAID’s priorities in South Sudan through layered and strategically complementary activities in order to:

• Build cross-communal interdependence and intra-community cohesion to promote peace processes and peaceful co-existence.
• Support civil society actors to advocate for peace and reconciliation, and to participate more fully in civic processes.
• Provide trauma awareness services to key partners in program communities.
• Build capacity of print, radio, and other media to provide accurate, fair, and thorough information to help mitigate the destructive impact of rumor and misinformation.

Shejeh Salam’s activities uses a range of interventions to best meet the immediate needs, partner capacity, implementation timeline, and community expectations. Support mechanisms include direct delivery of goods and services, technical assistance, in-kind grants, and cash grants. Shejeh Salam also uses a rapid response mechanism to immediately respond to urgent developments between communities that necessitate immediate interjection to negotiate a peaceful solution.

• Awarded 245 grants to local partners as of September 2024
• Nearly 90,000 individuals from feuding communities engaged in peace initiatives such as trainings, dialogues and intercommunal forums – and these initiatives have led to the end of cycles of revenge killing, restored freedom of movement between communities, and increased economic opportunity due to the decrease in violence. In Akobo County of Jonglei State, one grant activity succeeded in ending an eight-year cycle of revenge killing which had led to 42 deaths over that time.
• Over 8,000 individuals engaged in trauma awareness sessions, with six grantees now trained and capable of implementing trauma awareness activities in their communities.
• Developed a Gender Equity, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) tool tailored for South Sudan, with over 700 individuals trained in the materials and equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to advocate for gender transformation in their communities. Over 43,000 individuals have participated in public events aimed at creating awareness about gender and social inclusion.
• Over 28 civil society organizations partnered with to educate citizens, youth and women on human rights, civic processes, transitional justice, and other topics.
• 7,500 wind-up, solar-powered radios distributed across the country, increasing access to information.
• Three FM radio stations launched with support from Shejeh Salam, each in rural communities with no other available local media source. Provision of equipment and technical support to two other radio stations.
• 12 construction projects completed and furnished in rural communities, including traditional authority courts, community resource centers, an FM radio station and market infrastructure.

Photo credit: William Nyuon