Overview 
The Democratic Governance and Stabilization Programme supports South Sudan as it builds democratic institutions and establishes sustainable, accountable and transparent governance and rule of law systems. UNDP has committed significant human, technical and financial resources to improving the performance of government institutions and processes. State-building is at the heart of UNDP’s commitment to South Sudan. 

Our Goals 
A key state-building strategy employed by UNDP has been supporting the government to identify its core functions. These core functions include ramped-up support to key areas such as rule of law, public finance management, public administration and the management of natural resources. UNDP’s rule of law portfolio aims to facilitate a more predictable, accountable and effective rule of law response in a fragile context that is prone to recurrent insecurity and localized conflict. UNDP provides multi-faceted support to rule of law institutions, including the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior (police and prisons), the Judiciary of South Sudan and the Local Government Board. UNDP supports research and discussion on customary law at the community level. 
In-depth (This need the biggest update) 
 
Programmes 
UNDP has committed significant human, technical and financial resources to improving the performance of government institutions and processes. State-building is at the heart of UNDP’s commitment to South Sudan. The Democratic Governance and Stabilization Programme supports South Sudan as it builds democratic institutions and establishes sustainable, accountable and transparent governance and rule of law systems through the following projects: 

Access to Justice and Rule of Law  
UNDP’s engagement in this area seeks to enhance physical and legal protection of people and communities, ensuring legal representation, access to justice, and empowerment of communities and civil society. Programmes work to develop capacities of justice and law enforcement institutions, and ensure that security providers are subject to civilian oversight. Emphasis is placed on tackling sexual and gender-based violence in situations affected by conflict and fragility. 

The Peace and Community Cohesion project
(PaCC) seeks to contribute to the reduction and mitigation of community level conflict and insecurity by investing in initiatives that address key drivers of conflict and insecurity. Using UNDP’s community security and social cohesion approach, the project empowers communities to identify in an inclusive and participatory manner the roots of conflicts in their communities, and using an integrated and gender- sensitive approach, support the communities to effectively prevent, manage and resolve conflict in a non-violent manner. 

Support to Democracy and Participation 
UNDP supports civil society, media, and faith-based organizations to establish mechanisms for discourse on a national vision, civil rights and political governance in the context of constitutional review and deepening democratic governance. The Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) undertake civic education programmes, conducted research, organized public debates and published policy briefs on pertinent political governance issues.