“As South Sudan prepares to move from its transitional constitution to a permanent framework of governance, the new nation should focus on strengthening the federal system. Already, there are concerns that the centralization of power in Juba is marginalizing some groups and is creating corruption and wasteful allocation of scarce public resources. Currently, the country’s states and their constituent local governments are not really constitutionally functional entities. The people of South Sudan must resist temptations to concentrate power in the national government at the expense of state and local levels of government. This collection of policy briefs seeks to highlight some of the important issues that have affected South Sudan during the country’s first year of independence and identify policy areas that both South Sudan and the international community must emphasize in order to enhance the nation’s ability to achieve peace, economic growth and human development.”
