Episode Details

On Democracy in Action, host Sani Martin opened a discussion on South Sudan’s public finance and economic recovery, drawing on the World Bank’s 2026 Public Finance Review and the 2025 Country Climate and Development Report, which highlight widespread poverty, food insecurity, and the country’s heavy dependence on oil revenue. He was joined by three guests: Kishan Abeygunawardana, a Senior Economist at the World Bank, who explained the purpose of the Public Finance Review and pointed to major gaps in data transparency and governance, Stephen Ling, the World Bank Lead Environment Specialist joining from Addis Ababa, who outlined how worsening flooding and rising temperatures are likely to deepen poverty, strain livelihoods, and fuel resource based tensions, and Agook Riak, a Political Affairs Officer with UNMISS, who described South Sudan’s oil dependence as a “paradox of plenty” driven by weak management, accountability, and public trust. The panel also linked weak fiscal discipline to inflation and currency instability, and took listener questions on declining foreign aid and the urgent reforms needed to strengthen public finance management and improve climate disaster response.