The Challenges and Opportunities facing United Nations Mission and Peace Building Strategies in South Sudan

This article explores the challenges and opportunities that United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) faces during its operations in South Sudan. It identifies critical challenges and defines various opportunities that the mission could utilize to enhance peace-building strategies' effectiveness and positive outcomes. The study borrows from liberal institutionalism and conflict transformation theory. The theories explain the collaborative approach to addressing the root causes of conflict in South Sudan. The study uses both qualitative and quantitative research methodology utilizing descriptive statistics. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 28) was used for quantitative data and thematic excerpt evaluation for qualitative data.  It targeted military peacekeepers, including troops, staff officers, Military Observers (MILOBs), and Police, including both UN Police and GOSS local Police, with a target population of 3280. The sample population of 354 participants was determined by using Yamane's (1967) formula. Equally cluster sampling, convenience sampling and purposive sampling were utilized.  Primary data was collected from questionnaires, Focus Group Discussions (FDGs) and interview schedules while secondary data was collected through a review of various publications. The article concludes that the mission could resolve most of the critical challenges by conducting a contextual analysis of the conflict dynamic, investing in finding sufficient resources and funding for operations and evaluating the current efficacy of peace-building efforts. Equally further studies focusing on analyzing relations between mission, regional, and international agencies, establishing the differences, and identifying further multidimensional opportunities should be conducted to enhance the effectiveness and stability of peace-building programs in South Sudan.