LocationsKOICA Peacebuilding & PVE Programme – Eastern Equatoria and Warrap State in, South Sudan
From Community Peace Infrastructure to Trusted Mediators
May 14, 2026
A female peace committee member in Gogrial East County disseminating messages of peace.
UNDP/2026
The Peacebuilding and Prevention of Violent Extremism in East Africa, funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) supports peace infrastructures in South Sudan. Under this project, peace committees evolved into a frontline mechanism for both conflict prevention and rapid response across the country.
From ad hoc responses to a functioning peace infrastructure
Ten Peace Committees with strong gender balance (155 men, 185 women) were established and operationalized across Tong North, Tong East, Tong South, Gogrial East, Magwi, Torit, Kapoeta South, Kapoeta East, and Ikotos counties. These committees shifted from being newly formed structures to active, recognized peace mechanisms. They were resourced with airtime, transport allowances, and a six-month seed fund of 1,500 USD each, enabling them to meet regularly, move within their mandated areas, and respond quickly to reduce local tensions.
Before funds were disbursed, each committee developed an action plan that set out concrete activities such as monthly meetings, community dialogues, and dissemination of peace messages. This planning requirement improved ownership and accountability and ensured that committee work was driven by locally identified priorities rather than external agendas. Basic logistical materials – chairs, stationery, and branded visibility items – strengthened both their functionality and their public legitimacy in the eyes of communities and local authorities.
Increasing conflict prevention and response.
Once trained and resourced, the ten Peace Committees conducted five community dialogues in each project location, directly engaging residents on priority conflict issues. They were able to respond to 48% of early warning cases related to cattle, land, and border disputes – conflicts that, if left unmanaged, often use to escalate into violence and displacement.
Their work did not occur in isolation but as part of a wider early warning and early response (EWER) architecture. The programme supported phones, logistics, and training for the “Alert Me” application and helped operationalize a network of 24 EWER mechanisms in South Sudan, including eight County Peace and Reconciliation Mechanisms (CPRMs), one Situation Room, one Alert Me App, ten Peace Committees, one national Steering Committee for Early Warning Response, and three State Technical Teams. This layered system allowed information to move from community level to county, state, and national levels, and for responses to be coordinated rather than isolated.
As a result, response rates to early warning signals improved significantly. Of 79 early warning alerts reported through the Alert Me App to the Situation Room in Juba from November 2024-November 2025, 38 received a timely response. At community level, Peace Committees responded to 50 out of 129 reported cases. Together, this translated into an 89% increase in timely responses to conflict cases in 2025, compared to only 38% the previous year – a major leap in the system’s ability to prevent escalation rather than merely react to crises.
Peace Committiee Meeting.
UNDP/2026
Local examples of resolved conflicts and behavior change
The Magwi Peace Committee provides a concrete example of sustained follow through on dialogue outcomes. Committee members convened ten meetings – both internally and with the Ameo and Agoro communities – to advance implementation of resolutions agreed during an August 2025 dialogue. This shows a shift from one off dialogue events to continuous accompaniment and monitoring of agreements, which is essential for lasting peace.
In Kapoeta East County, 80 Peace Committee members operating across Nadapal, Narus, Lopua, and Kaldo bomas strengthened both early warning and local dialogue. Working closely with CPRM members and the local authorities, they helped resolve more than 50 conflict cases in a timely manner. These included disputes over cattle, land, and borders that could have triggered wider inter communal violence. The fact that these cases were channeled through formal structures – Peace Committees, CPRMs, and the local authorities – illustrates improved trust in local institutions and a growing shift towards mediation and dialogue over violence.
In Ikotos County, female mediators are working closely with local peace committees to resolve disputes by proactively engaging women, youth, and community elders in dialogues over land, cattle, and inter clan tensions. Drawing on their social networks and trusted roles as mothers and caregivers, these women help cool down conflicts before they escalate, facilitate compensation discussions, and ensure that women and girls’ security concerns are heard in committee decisions. By partnering with formal and informal peace structures, they are strengthening community owned conflict resolution mechanisms and promoting more inclusive, durable peace in Ikotos.
Members of the Peace Committee addressing a GBV case in Torit County.
UNDP/2026
What makes this model impactful
The success of Peace Committees in South Sudan lies in a carefully designed model that combines local ownership with practical support and systemic integration. Several interconnected features explain why these committees deliver visible and sustained results on the ground.
First, the committees are intentionally inclusive, and gender balanced, ensuring that both women’s and men’s perspectives shape decisions and peacebuilding priorities. This composition allows women not only to participate but also to act as formal mediators and influential voices within their communities, reinforcing the legitimacy and relevance of the committees’ interventions. By embedding gender equality into the very structure of decision making, the model enhances the fairness and social acceptance of mediated outcomes.
Second, the model rests on dedicated operational funding and provision of basic tools such as seed grants, mobile airtime, transport support, phones, simple furniture, and visibility materials. This practical support enables committees to convene regularly, travel to conflict hot spots, communicate with members and stakeholders, and maintain an active presence. Rather than remaining symbolic structures on paper, they become functioning institutions that communities can rely on when tensions arise.
Third, each committee operates with a clear mandate and a concrete action plan, which guide regular meetings, community dialogues, and structured peace messaging campaigns. These routines embed the committees as predictable, routine actors within the local conflict management landscape, making them the first point of call for early warning reports and emerging disputes. Over time, this consistency builds trust and encourages community members to bring conflicts to the committee before they escalate.
Fourth, the committees are not isolated local bodies; they are integrated into a broader Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) system. Through tools such as the Alert Me App, local Situation Rooms, and Community Peace and Reconciliation Mechanisms (CPRMs), alerts from the grassroots can be escalated to sub county, state, and national coordination structures, and even to regional actors such as IGAD. This connectivity ensures that local mediation efforts are amplified and supported by higher level responses, turning early warning signals into timely, coordinated action across multiple levels of governance.
Overall, the intervention transformed Peace Committees into active, connected pillars of local peace infrastructure—preventing escalation, resolving concrete disputes, and significantly increasing the timeliness and effectiveness of responses to early warning signals across multiple counties.
Magwi Peace Committee following up on the implementation of key dialogue action point between Ameo and Agoro communities. .
UNDP/2026
Why these peace committee’s matter
This story shows how peace committees, when properly composed, resourced, and connected, can evolve from project driven formality into a genuine, functioning peace infrastructure. Their impact is best understood as a set of interrelated shifts in how conflict is managed at the community level. Where responses were once ad hoc and reactive, the committees now operate through planned, routine engagement, anchored in clear action plans and regular meetings that make peacebuilding a predictable part of community life. Instead of standing as isolated local initiatives, they are embedded within a connected early warning network that links villages to county, state, national, and even regional responders, ensuring that a local alert is not left unanswered. As a result, communities are gradually shifting from anticipating violence to expecting a response, knowing that when they raise an alert there is a structured mechanism ready to act. At the same time, disputes that once fueled cycles of retaliation are increasingly being channeled through dialogue and institutional channels, allowing grievances to be mediated rather than militarized.
At its heart, the experience of these ten Peace Committees demonstrates that local peacebuilding works best when communities are genuinely trusted with responsibility, equipped with the tools and resources to act, and linked to wider governance and security systems. In Ikotos and other counties, this combination has enabled committees to prevent violence before it erupts, reduce the intensity of existing conflicts, and build the everyday habits of dialogue that sustain longer term peace. By transforming local committees into active, connected pillars of peace infrastructure, the model reaffirms that peace is not only negotiated at national tables but also lived, monitored, and defended in the daily interactions of women, men, youth, and elders in their own communities.
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