Advanced International Journal for Research

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Decentralized Land Governance and Ethnic Conflict Resolution in Juba County, South Sudan

Author(s) Dr. Martin Wulla Kwori
Country Sudan
Abstract Decentralization gained prominence after the Cold War because some people assumed it was a good tool for managing diversity, helping local authorities in particular to manage the competing interests of various social groups without violent conflicts, as they allegedly know their people better than central government officials who are remote from the grassroots. This study investigated whether the local governments and their authorities who are seeking more autonomy from central governments are fair in land allocations to all citizens under their jurisdiction, and whether their fairness in land allocations (i.e. distributive justice), has helped to resolve inter-communal land disputes. The study conducted from July to October 2020 in Juba County, the seat of the Government of South Sudan and the Government of Central Equatoria State where intercommunal land disputes are rampant, employed the case study design and the mixed methods approach (qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis). Quantitative data was collected from 349 respondents in Rejaf and Luri payams (sub-counties) using a survey questionnaire. Respondents were selected from 349 households using the systematic sampling technique, while the qualitative data was collected from 41 purposively selected key informants from the said payams and the Juba City Council area, using a semi-structured interview guide. The study revealed that decentralized land governance structures have neither enforced distributive justice in allocations of land in Juba County, nor has decentralized distributive justice in allocations of land helped to resolve ethnic conflicts over access to land in the county. Citizens of South Sudan currently regard decentralized land allocations as unfair. The allocations of land, reportedly, favor the natives of the county, the rich, senior government officials, and people from the Equatorial region at the expense of migrants. As such, people have lost confidence in decentralization’s ability to help communities resolve conflicts. Although the persistence of inter-communal conflicts has nothing to do with decentralization itself, it is a result of human weakness arising from a lack of political will to make the decentralized governance structures work efficiently to the benefit of all citizens, and two main human weaknesses are to blame: limited implementation of South Sudan’s legal framework for decentralization and land governance (mainly the Local Government Act of 2009 and provisions of the amended Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011 on decentralization and land governance), and a lack of appending distributive justice criteria to the Land Act of 2009. Addressing the land issue in Juba and other parts of South Sudan requires the leaders of South Sudan to resolve conflicts associated with injustices in allocations of public opportunities at the national level, a clear, well-enforced national land policy with clear distributive justice criteria; and substantial devolution of political, administrative, and judicial powers to local governments through a suitable form of federal government.
Keywords : decentralization, distributive justice, land governance, ethnic conflicts, South Sudan
Field Sociology > Politics
Published In Volume 7, Issue 3, May-June 2026
Published On 2026-06-26
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E-ISSN 3048-7641
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