Peace and Security

The UNDP South Sudan, Peace and Community Cohesion project (PaCC), Phase 1 (2017 to 2020), aimed to improve security by strengthening relations between divided communities through joint projects. It also helped to set up institutional peace institutions at both local and national level.

Main method: Review of documentation and monitoring data, complemented with interviews.

Positives: Beneficiaries reported improvements in a range of areas, including perceived security. However, the data does not permit us to clearly attribute these improvements to the project. Sida’s non-earmarked funding enabled adaptive management and flexibility, allowing funds to be spent across activities as needed, which was perceived as important for achieving positive results.

Potential shortcomings: The security situation in the project areas remain volatile, and gains  are fragile due to recurring crises. The project did not successfully address the weak or absent institutions. Local achievements were not scaled up to the national level, highlighting the difficulties of achieving sustainable impact in a fragile, and conflict-affected context with limited political will. Sida’s reporting is based exclusively on the project data available, which result in limitations of rigidity. These limitations have not been reflected in Sida’s reporting.

Purpose and use

This evaluation examines how Sida integrates conflict sensitivity across its strategies and operations, with the purpose of strengthening learning and improving how Sida’s work affects peace and conflict dynamics.

Conclusion

It finds that conflict sensitivity is increasingly embedded in Sida’s portfolio but applied unevenly across contexts. Stronger results emerge where analysis is continuous, partner capacity is high, and adaptation is proactive. Weak monitoring systems and inconsistent feedback loops limit learning and the ability to track outcomes or anticipate risks.

Recommendation

The evaluation recommends establishing minimum standards for conflict sensitivity across all strategies, ensuring regular context updates, strengthening monitoring, evaluation and learning systems with simple indicators, and proactively addressing recurring risks such as gender backlash, unequal targeting, and challenges linked to country exits.

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Annexes

Annex 1: Annex list
Annex 2: Country case studies