South Sudan: the cost of war

This press conference presents new research on the financial cost of conflict in South Sudan based on five conflict scenarios.

The Institute for Security Studies and Crisis Action, with distinguished African and global think tanks and South Sudanese civil society groups, are hosting a press conference on a new research report on the cost of conflict in South Sudan.

The crisis in South Sudan that erupted on 15 December 2013 caught many unawares. The humanitarian cost of the subsequent conflict has been well documented. Thousands have been killed, millions displaced and a third of the country is on the brink of famine. Despite the best efforts of regional and global powers to restore peace, the conflict persists and a resumption of large-scale fighting is imminent.

But what of the financial cost? What of the humanitarian and peacekeeping costs, the collapse of oil revenues and trade and remittances? In cash terms, how much will it cost South Sudan, its neighbours and the wider international community, if this conflict is allowed to fester and spread? And can they bear that cost?

This event will bring together an expert panel of South Sudanese, regional and global think tanks and South Sudanese civil society representatives to present a new research report authored by Frontier Economics with the Center for Conflict Resolution and the Centre for Peace and Development Studies at Juba University. The report puts a dollar figure on five conflict scenarios and discusses the worst-case scenario – the many tens of billions of dollars that inaction will cost one of the world’s poorest countries.

The report, with a foreword by Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, argues that articulating the future economic cost provides an incentive for all actors to invest in peace through urgent action.

Moderator: Amb Olusegun Akinsanya, Regional Representative and Senior Adviser, ISS Addis Ababa

Development partners
The ISS is grateful for support from the members of the ISS Partnership Forum: the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the USA.
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