Nowhere to Go: Displaced and returnee women seeking housing, land and property rights in South Sudan

Author(s)
Stone, A.
Publication language
English
Pages
78pp
Date published
01 Jan 2014
Type
Research, reports and studies
Keywords
Gender, Forced displacement and migration, Shelter and housing
Countries
South Sudan
Organisations
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
It is hard to overestimate the importance of land in South Sudan. The
struggle for access to and control of land has shaped the nation’s
history. The desire to control land and natural resources drove the five
decade-long war for independence which resulted in the proclamation
of the Republic of South Sudan in 2011. Land remains an abiding preoccupation.
It acts as an identifier of community, belonging and place as
well as a source of income, subsistence and survival.
 
This report looks at constraints affecting displaced and returnee women
seeking to realise their housing, land and property (HLP) rights. It is
based on field research in three states in South Sudan where NRC
has operational presence, Central Equatoria, Northern Bahr el Ghazal
and Warrap states. Many of the women and men interviewed had been
displaced multiple times – within South Sudan, to Sudan or to other
neighbouring countries.