South Sudan Skills Story

About the Book

The South Sudan Skills Story is an account about manpower and education development in South Sudan, a narrative that includes efforts exerted in attainment of the much-needed workforce for fuelling the country’s economy, now fatally impacted by the ongoing internal strife. Prior to escalation of the armed conflict that broke out in December 2013, hardly four years after the country gained its sovereignty on July 9, 2011, the new nation was on course in setting up its new education system and basis of sustainable human development, now shattered by the vicious war. The conflict has eroded the country’s human potential through loss of life, skills wastage, and extreme brutalities perpetrated against citizens by the war drivers. The education quandary is compounded by displacement of over 3 million people from their homes and localities, a dire situation that has caused severe food insecurity affecting over 7.5 million people. With over 2 million children forced out of school, particularly in the most conflict-affected regions of South Sudan including over 1.4 million forced out of the country as refugees to neighbouring countries, it means that one in every three children in the country is out of school. The scale and magnitude of the unending human dispersal has severely curtailed South Sudan’s ability to provide education to all its citizens. The once-adopted slogan of bringing education to all in the country is now a far cry as the new nation heads to total collapse, if the conflict is not halted. The South Sudan Skills Story urges the leaders of South Sudan, who are proponents of the conflict, to rise above self-serving political cleavages to stop the war for peace so that all the citizens are availed the opportunity to realize their fullest potential for development of the country. The narrative concludes that the people of this young nation will remain “one of the most undereducated populations” in the world as long as the legacy of war, violence and impunity prevails in the country

About the Author

Lawrence Modi Tombe was born in Juba, South Sudan. He attended early education in South Sudan in the 1950s and early 1960s; and thereafter continued his senior secondary school education at St Mary’s College, Kisubi, Uganda from 1963 to 1967 during his years in exile over the first war period in Sudan (1955-1972). He joined Makerere University in 1968 and graduated with B.Ed. (Honours) degree in March 1972. Lawrence Tombe has the unusual distinction of having been a cabinet minister, a parliamentarian and a top civil servant, so experiencing public sector governance from the three perspectives. The country he served after the first north-south war (1955-1972) was arguably one of Africa’s most challenging – The Sudan. Mr. Tombe left his ambassadorial position in 1993 after serving in Romania as Sudanese Ambassador for four years; and successfully sought asylum in the UK having exposed to the world human rights violations of the Omer Beshir military regime, a move which the ruling junta then considered a ‘treasonable act’ – hence the reason why he could not go back to the Sudan which resulted in his stay in the UK until today. Under visionary guidance of Late Hilary Logali, Mr Tombe along others founded ‘Skills for South Sudan’ (SKILLS) in 1994, a humanitarian organisation established to develop capacities of South Sudanese in readiness for peace. Mr Tombe participated for ten years in spurring growth of the programme serving in different management capacities including the skills baseline survey he conducted for the organisation within Southern Sudan from 1999 to 2000, and a comparative carried out in Uganda and Namibia over that period. Mr Tombe served in various London firms and organisations (Andrew Summers Associates Consultancy, London Rebuilding Society and Royal Institute of Public Administration International Ltd - RIPA), as a management consultant between 1996 and 2004. Back to South Sudan (2006-2015) after peace was attained in the country, Lawrence Tombe participated at the private sector level in the rebuilding process of the new country; and much later was engaged by government of South Sudan as a governance consultant for one and half years (2014 to mid 2015).