Climate unpredictability is becoming one of the greatest threats to South Sudan's farmers. As delayed and erratic rainfall disrupts traditional planting seasons, communities face growing risks to food security and livelihoods. Building resilience through climate-smart agriculture, improved weather information, and innovative irrigation solutions is now more urgent than ever.

Economic growth alone does not guarantee peace. Drawing on more than fourteen years of experience, this reflection explores why livelihoods and peacebuilding must be intentionally integrated. When communities build trust, shared prosperity and collective ownership alongside economic opportunity, they create the foundations for resilience, social cohesion and lasting peace.

What begins as a conversation can become something much more. Across South Sudan, women participating in Bridges of Peace are transforming solidarity into action, forming savings groups, securing farmland, and building livelihoods together. Their journey demonstrates how collective action can strengthen leadership, resilience, and sustainable peace.

Recorded in the field — with all the onlookers, interruptions and humour that come with it — this episode captures an unfiltered conversation about the realities of peacebuilding in South Sudan. We discuss two journeys: how plans can work or unravel, new directions emerge, and how relationships of trust and commitment can guide a process when it seems like it might collapse.

In the days before the roads opening, Chief Gulech of Gumuruk suffered devastating personal loss: five family members killed and twelve children abducted in retaliatory violence. Yet he refused to let grief derail the initiative. Even as he worked to recover raided cattle, he reaffirmed his commitment to peace, declaring that leaders are “for everyone,” not just their own community.

See the road openings through the eyes of the POF and Peace Canal team members from the four groups.

This initiative was an ambitious plan to open up connections between communities along two key routes that span the expanses of remote Jonglei and GPAA.

Read the daily blog updates, photo journal and the background.

In December 2025, Murle chiefs gathered in Pibor to confront insecurity, restore customary law, and renew collective leadership. As formal sessions ended, discussions continued into the night—signalling a shift from crisis response toward sustained, locally owned peacebuilding grounded in accountability, inclusion, and shared responsibility.

Over nine months, participants in the Facilitative Leadership Inside-Out Program's Action Learning Groups turned real workplace challenges into opportunities for growth. Through structured peer learning, they strengthened collaboration, communication and reflective leadership—building skills that will continue to shape their organisations long after the programme ends.

Women across Jonglei and GPAA are leading courageous, community-driven efforts to trace, recover, and reunite abducted children. Through the ICGS platform, they are proving themselves not just participants but key architects of peace - mobilising communities, bridging divides, and transforming child recovery into a powerful force for healing and reconciliation.

In the final episode for the year, we reflect on 2025: swamps, films, trading cows, 'FLIP', and much more. We also discuss the challenges of funding cuts and political change, a less than inspiring strategic response to the new landscape, and the hope found in collaboration with local leaders, youth, and women as we steer towards the new year.

Machar’s transformation from feared fighter to respected peace leader shows what becomes possible when communities drive their own change. Once known for violence, he now guides others in reconciliation. His journey reflects a wider truth in South Sudan: when people are trusted to lead, peace is not only possible - it can endure.

Zaari Ibon, a Murle armed youth leader, took to the floor beneath the great tamarind tree in the heat of the late afternoon sun. Encircled by representatives of the communities he had been fighting since boyhood, he said:

“Today I want to tell you that I am no longer a cattle raider… I will not continue to raid people’s cattle or to abduct children.”

Three women from Motot walked for days—through mud, setbacks, and cancelled flights—just to reach a women’s peace conference in Juba. They weren’t travelling for themselves; they were carrying the hopes of their communities. Their determination embodied the message of the gathering: peace is not theory, it is action. Their arrival, late but powerful, reminded everyone that commitment, leadership, and courage often come from those who walk the hardest roads to be part of the solution.

Sixty women leaders from Nuer, Dinka, and Murle communities met in Juba for a landmark peace conference. Through storytelling, movement, and dialogue, they confronted cycles of violence, recognised shared challenges, and committed to practical next steps. The gathering embodied women’s determination to reshape peace across Jonglei and GPAA.

Conferences often promise dialogue but deliver hierarchy, ego, and endless flipcharts. Yet, when reimagined as spaces for genuine conversation, they can nurture ecosystems rather than egos. It is possible. Our recent women’s conference was a small step into circles, embodied reflection, dancing, and shared responsibility; sparking connection and ownership.

Four years after the Pieri Agreement, the Seventh ICGS session in Juba reaffirmed community commitment to peace amidst setbacks. While abductee returns stalled, progress on road access and a shared boarding school offered hope. A public film screening and renewed dialogue reinforced the importance of sustained, practical intercommunal cooperation.

'Localisation' has reached celebrity status in the world of jargon. In this two part episode, we look at some of the realities of how this is playing out on the ground, exploring questions of ownership, competency, local capacity and value for money.

In a region long scarred by violence and displacement, the women of Bichibich (in the Nanaam region of Greater Pibor) have named their new community centre Kuyubuza – “I am resting”. More than just a word, it captures their yearning for peace, safety, and a future they can finally begin to rebuild. This is their story.

25-27 March 2025, POF launched the Facilitative Leadership Inside-Out Program (FLIP) in Juba. The program is a pilot initiative that draws together individuals active in their sectors to explore, experience, and emerge into an understanding of ‘facilitative leadership’. The program is a one-year experience that will comprise in-person and online training, as well as peer action learning groups. After the in-person meeting, on 6 June 2025 the group came back together online to reconnect.