RESOURCES/FEATURED STORIES

Support to Improve Connectivity in South Sudan

20 June 2016
Support to Improve Connectivity in South Sudan
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011 as the outcome of a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest-running civil war. The country faces many challenges similar to those faced by countries coming out of conflict situation. But South Sudan faces additional challenges such as being one of the few landlocked countries without access to international undersea fiber optic cable connectivity. Instead the country relies on expensive satellite technology constraining demand and reducing the scope for broadband driven transformation.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011 as the outcome of a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest-running civil war. The country faces many challenges similar to those faced by countries coming out of conflict situation. But South Sudan faces additional challenges such as being one of the few landlocked countries without access to international undersea fiber optic cable connectivity. Instead the country relies on expensive satellite technology constraining demand and reducing the scope for broadband driven transformation.

Despite all these challenges, the Government of South Sudan has established the basic framework for governing the sector. There is a Ministry of Telecommunication and Postal Services(MoTPS) with responsibility for the sector with a small core staff of experts. The Ministry is also in the process of setting up a regulatory function to establish it as an independent regulatory authority. The staff of this part of the ministry is few and the institution has a significant need for additional technical capacity to carry out its future mandate.

PPIAF Support

Considering this immediate need for support, the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) provided technical assistance to strengthen the telecommunications regulation and to develop a medium term strategy for the sector. In addition PPIAF support helped carry out a preliminary assessment of legal and regulatory issues involved in developing a fiber-optic backbone network to connect South Sudan to neighboring countries. PPIAF support specifically focused on setting up transitional governance arrangements for the sector, including:

  • Development and implementation of the legal and regulatory framework needed to govern the sector.
  • Support the establishment of an independent regulator
  • Development of a sound medium-term strategy that will allow stable growth and the delivery of affordable ICT services across the country. This includes demand-side measures such as eApplications and Mobile Money
  • Undertaking a feasibility study to implement an open-access, long-haul, fiber-optic backbone network.  This network would connect South Sudan to the neighboring countries and the international communications infrastructure, including a multi-stakeholder workshop.
  • Capacity-building within the Ministry and Regulator, both through national and international level training to support is provided.

Outcomes

The support PPIAF provided has led to some of the outcomes to be realized. The Government of South Sudan passed a Communications Act in July 2012 following inputs to the government’s planning process on drafting bylaws for the Telecommunications Bill. Once the regulatory agency is established license agreements with operators will be finalized.

A feasibility study for the implementation of an open-access long-haul fiber-optic backbone network connecting South Sudan to the neighboring countries and the international communications has contributed to the preparation of two lending programs by the World Bank.

However despite all the progress that has been made the medium-term outlook is almost entirely dependent on the political situation in the country. Under an optimistic scenario, the planned infrastructure investment will go ahead and the government will work together with the private sector to build infrastructure and establish a stable regulatory regime. With a positive scenario foreseeable PPIAF will continue to support regulatory reform and capacity-building to support the institutions.