South Sudan is a young, but wealth nation blessed with many natural resources ranging from oil, gold, gum Arabic, forest, livestock among others. However, the young state faces considerable governance challenges; it regularly ranks at or near the bottom of international corruption indices since 2011. Corruption is systemic across all levels of government and pervades nearly every economic sector, and perpetrators enjoy widespread impunity. 

South Sudan scored just 13 out of 100 in the 2022-2023 edition of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), making South Sudan the joint second-most poorly performing state, ahead of only Somalia. A similar picture emerges from Freedom House’s (2023a: 31) Freedom in the World report, according to which South Sudan, together with Syria, registered the worst aggregate score (1) for political rights and civil liberties of any country. The 2022 Bertelsmann Foundation’s Transformation Index 2022 ranks the country 132 out of 137 countries, with a score of 2.30 out of 10. On the sub-indicator “anti-corruption policy”, the country scores the lowest possible mark, 1 out of 10 (Bertelsmann Foundation 2022). On the 2021 edition of the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), South Sudan scores the worst out of all 54 countries assessed with a score of 18.5 out of 100. Since 2020, we have been working with our partners to make systematic change in the public institutions and the communities. We work to empower leaders to uphold transparency and accountability in the public institutions and the community. Our approach includes advocacy, training, research, awareness raising through mass media, film, school integrity clubs, social media and community dialogues.

Using media and communication approach through our project “WAGIF”, which in simple Arabic means “stop”, we are engaging law makers, government officials at local and national levels, community leaders and the private sector to respond and act against corruption. We respond by creating awareness and building capacity of the beneficiaries to be able to respond to corruption and its effects on peace and national development.

The project promoted active citizenship and empowered all stakeholders on the key objectives of the program on transparency and accountability. The “WAGIF” project was able to create awareness in the communities, states and national levels relating to corruption.

Launched in 2020 with support from Norwegian people’s Aid (NPA), the WAGIF project has promoted transparency and accountability in the public institutions in Bor, Rumbek and Juba with focus on the Public Financial management (PFM). The project has also provided public officials, CSOs, private sector, community leaders with knowledge and capacity to respond to corruption when it happens. Over the last 6 years, we trained 900 government official, community leaders, CSO leaders and reached an estimated 90,000 people with messages of transparency and accountability through traditional and social media.