Publication

This working paper looks at the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and its predecessor, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) to assess whether civil-military coordination helped protect civilians in South Sudan. It finds that under-resourcing, insufficient troop numbers, weak transport and logistics capacity as well as competing demands and priorities all presented operational challenges for both missions. The authors conclude that coordination structures and mechanisms do not suffice for effective civil-military coordination, but that strong leadership among civilian and military components of a mission as well as within the humanitarian community is crucial.