ABSTRACT
South Sudan became the latest member of the East African Community (EAC) in 2016. It is also the world’s youngest state, gaining independence from Sudan in 2011. Struggling with very low development, geographic isolation and civil conflict, the country is still in its infancy stage of state-building.
In this context, the regional integration in the EAC can play a major supportive role, as this chapter explains. Integration in the region has a huge potential to raise the incomes and welfare of the broad population. Most importantly, it can contribute to stability and peace – preconditions for sustainable economic development.
The chapter’s first section provides some basic characteristics of the country as a background. The second section provides an overview of the state of EAC integration of the country, while the third section discusses the economic and wider impacts that deeper EAC integration has and will have on South Sudan. The fourth section concludes the chapter.
