The Challenges of the Youth in the Post-Conflict Reconstruction: A Case of Juba County of Central State, South Sudan

Abstract:

It is imperative to note that the South Sudan war of independence negatively affected almost all aspects of life. There is no stone that remained unturned. The women, children, young girls and boys, the elderly etcetera all suffered and some of them perished in cold blood. In April 2012, a study was conducted and the specific objectives of the study was to assess the post conflict reconstruction agenda for the youth; to find out the challenges of the youths in relation to the reconstruction; and to assess the policies being implemented to undo the challenges facing the youth. Methodologically, samples of 200 respondents were relied upon to gather the required data. The study population was basically the youth. The research designs were essentially analytical and descriptive in nature and the data collection method was semi-structured interviews, observation and secondary data such as documentary surveys. The study were hopes to show that in the post-Conflict reconstruction era, the youth face a number of challenges ranging from accommodation, food shortage, education related challenges, unemployment, insecurity, corruption, and health related challenges, poor infrastructure and so on. The study also found out that some youth (especially the returnees) solely depend on hand outs from humanitarian organizations, others depend on former survival mechanisms such as the bush war survival strategies like eating fruits and so on, whereas others are underemployed as they do degrading jobs such as phone charging, sales agents to Kenyan companies, boda boda, laying bricks, and so on.