Stuttgart, Germany, February 25, 2014– D3  Systems participated in the AFRICOM Industry Day and ISR/Logistics Showcase in Stuttgart, Germany on January 29-30, 2014 to present its work in Africa generally and specifically two path breaking surveys of public opinion conducted across South Sudan in 2011 and 2013.

With independence comes a host of new challenges and decisions for South Sudan.  D3 Systems conducted two face-to-face surveys to measure public opinion on the most important issues facing South Sudan.  The first survey was fielded in November 2011 (N=975), just four months after the country officially gained independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, and the second was fielded fourteen months later in January 2013 (N=1,051).

From 2011 to 2013, support for politicians had already started to decline, primarily among respondents from different ethnic groups than the politicians being rated.  President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, experienced a decline in support among Nuer respondents.  Likewise, Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer politician, experienced even greater declines in support among Dinka respondents.  These results suggest that the political environment of South Sudan experienced underlying ethnic tensions prior to the recent string of violence throughout the country in December 2013.

In general, South Sudanese respondents express high levels of acceptance for people from other tribal or ethnic groups, indicating that ethnic divides do not play a significant role in the daily lives of respondents.  In the political realm, however, results indicate that support levels for politicians were divided along ethnic lines well in advance of the public disputes between Kiir and Machar, which started in the summer of 2013.

For more in-depth results of the South Sudan surveys, please see the article posted on our Research & Publications page.