Impact of War, Governance and Leadership Style on Socio-Economic Development of South Sudan: A Case of Jonglei State, South Sudan

Abstract

This study aimed at providing a broader understanding of the impact of war, governance and leadership on social economic development of South Sudan with particular reference to Jonglei County. The objectives of the study were to assess the relationship between war and socio-economic development of Jonglei State, examine the relationship between governance and socio-economic development in Jonglei State, leadership and socio-economic development of Jonglei State and to study the factor structure of war, governance and leadership on social economic development in Jonglei State.

The study employed a survey and content analysis and descriptive design while using qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study population was 348, selected using purposive and simple random sampling technique. The sample size determination was made using Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970) formula. The sample size was 213. The data analysis was made using Statistical package for social scientists (SPSS 18).

The major findings of the study were that there was a positive relationship between; war and social-economic development (r = 0.856, P-value < 0.01), Education and Social-economic development (r = 0.826, P-value < 0.01), leadership traits and social-economic development (r = 0.816, P-value < 0.01)  and lastly variables explained (R= 0.644) a combination of war, governance and leadership traits in assessing the level to which they can predict the level of social-economic development in the State like Jonglei in South Sudan, such that a unit change in a possibility of a war governance and leadership traits will contribute to a change in the possibility of social-economic development of any state like Jonglei and South Sudan as a whole.

The study recommends that there should be peace building measures that directly focus on how to combat armed conflict especially the fighters, a proper recommendable approach would be fostering Amnesty programs for fighters to ensure peace building, should try to embrace a democratic governance, the government should try to provide security, justice, economic, and social functions and to channeling the will, energies, and resources of both the indigenous population and the international community and should endeavor to support peace building through encouraging institutional participation in peace building and democratic process of their countries.