Elite interests complicate local peacebuilding efforts in South Sudan, with some opinion leaders arguing that the current approach treats the symptoms of violence rather than the institutional issues that creates conflicts.

While communities may agree to halt a conflict, far off elites often have other ideas.

“Whatever political rivalries there are at the top, those conflicts will manifest in how people relate… at a local level.”

“It is very difficult to make peace, because politicians at the higher level want to have control [over communities],” said Jackcilia Salathiel Ebere, national women coordinator at the South Sudan Council of Churches. “They are the engineers of bad things.”

Jok said grassroots efforts will only succeed if national elites reconcile first. “My real issue with local-level peacebuilding… is that obviously they cannot be sustained if they are not visibly championed by political and military leaders at the centre,” he said.

Still, others suggested change at the grassroots can force change at the national level. While politicians and generals instrumentalise communities to fight for them (and might not want peace efforts to succeed), several peacebuilders said they can also sensitise communities to understand it’s not in their interests to follow what elites are telling them.

Pia Philip, the undersecretary of South Sudan’s ministry of peacebuilding, argued that reducing the influence of elites on local youth requires “building their resilience” and creating “sustainable livelihoods”.

Others argued that boosting local economies might prevent youth from engaging in common violent activities like raiding cattle from neighbouring communities.

“Does any partner in their hearts have a holistic approach for resolving the conflict in South Sudan? Or are their plans just a cosmetic approach to say we are doing something?”

But Philip argued that donors aren’t interested in providing the kind of development support that is necessary. He said they prefer to spend money on short-term dialogues and that even then only a limited number of people are allowed to participate.

“Does any partner in their hearts have a holistic approach for resolving the conflict in South Sudan?” Philip asked, rhetorically. “Or are their plans just a cosmetic approach to say we are doing something?”

Another peacebuilding official, who was interviewed off the record so they could speak more freely, added: “It is an open question about which donors [have] a medium-term plan that even pays lip service to development. It is not even discussed.”

If local peacebuilding efforts are to work, then women must play a central role, according to Ebere of the South Sudan Council of Churches, which is an ecumenical umbrella group.

“Men go to the [dialogue] table and they are lying,” Ebere said. “And because of the lies, they keep making solutions that are unrealistic. A woman will talk from her heart about what she is going through, [about] what is happening in the community.”

Maurice Okwera, a mediation coordinator at the same church group, said women have “clear information” because they are “the primary victims in most of the crises”. But he cautioned that in some scenarios women can also be “promoters of hate speech”.

Peacebuilding interventions should also engage with the institutions and rituals that communities traditionally use to manage and resolve conflicts, said Gabriel Gai Riam, an author and local NGO director.

“A woman will talk from her heart about what she is going through, about what is happening in the community.”

Riam, who was involved in grassroots peacebuilding initiatives in the 1990s, argued that traditional conflict resolution mechanisms are often ignored by peacebuilding interventions.

“Every culture has its own way of managing its affairs,” Riam says. “But we [are] taking tools and theories to people that don’t understand what they are.”

Others argued that traditional tools are operating poorly too. For example, blood compensation – where perpetrators of lethal violence give cattle to victims’ families – has become unworkable as civil wars have killed hundreds of thousands.

“Compensation reduces the pain in the heart of those who lost a dear one,” said Agany Akol, a community leader from northern Warrap state. “[But] because of the great number that have been lost it is difficult to carry on with [it].”

Still, Duany argued that there are traditions like truth-telling that remain valuable. “[They] are still there, and they can still be used to solve even the conflicts that are happening today,” she said.

Dong, who is the chair of a transitional justice working group, argued that in areas like compensation it is necessary “to think outside of the box”. He said reparations and the memorialisation of victims in public spaces could provide alternative forms of redress.

Several interviewees said a better way of peacebuilding can be found in past efforts. They cited the 1999 Wunlit conference, which sought to reconcile South Sudan’s two largest ethnic groups – the Dinka and Nuer.

The church-led effort followed a division within the southern Sudanese rebel movement that was fighting against the Sudanese government. The split opposed two key rebel leaders – Riek Machar (a Nuer) and John Garang (a Dinka).

Two years of mobilising and awareness-raising in which Duany and Dong were both involved, ended with a conference in Wunlit village. Thousands attended and resolutions were adopted – from returning abducted women and children to their communities, to the cessation of cattle raids.

alThough the process had issues (compensation was not exchanged) and benefited from a particular context (the south had a common enemy in Sudan’s government), it helped end the Nuer-Dinka violence and reconcile the rebels who later won independence.

Wunlit is still spoken of today as an example of patient bottom-up peacebuilding. According to Duany, the use of Dinka and Nuer rituals was key as was the role of women. Major efforts were also made to get the buy-in of rebel leaders.

“There is a need for a new Wunlit,” said Ramadhan Delenge Marajan, a community leader from Warrap who attended the conference. Conflict has flared in his state in recent years, even as dialogues and forums have been held.

• The New Humanitarian report