South Sudan is a young country in every sense of the word. But the most important meaning of “young” is not the age of our nation. It is the age of our people. In every town, every village, every cattle camp, and every settlement where families are rebuilding life, you can feel the weight and the promise of youth.

That is why 2026 is not just another year for youth in South Sudan. It is a test year.

Will our youth keep being used as fuel for conflict, while others enjoy power and comfort? Will our youth keep being treated like a problem to be controlled, instead of partners to be trusted? Will our youth keep waiting for jobs that may never come, or will they build new ways of living that do not depend on old gates? Will our youth keep inheriting anger, or will they learn how to transform pain into purpose?

RACBO South Sudan believes the answer must be clear. Youth are not a burden. Youth are the builders. Youth are the bridge. Youth are the strongest line of defense against repeated conflict, because when youth choose peace and productive work, the politics of division loses its strongest tool.

But youth will not choose the right path simply because we advise them to. They will choose it when society gives them a real path to walk.

Many adults speak about youth as if youth are naturally violent or naturally careless. That is not fair. Youth behavior reflects youth treatment. When young people are treated as disposable, they become reckless. When young people are respected, trained, and included, they rise.

In South Sudan, too many young people have grown up seeing a harsh lesson repeated. They have seen that carrying a gun can bring quick recognition, quick money, and quick fear-respect. They have also seen that carrying books, tools, and ideas can bring slow progress, slow reward, and sometimes ridicule. So the question is not, “Why do youth fight?” The deeper question is, “What does society reward?”

If we want rising leaders in 2026, we must change what we reward.

We must reward integrity more than noise. We must reward service more than slogans. We must reward skill more than intimidation. We must reward patience more than revenge. We must reward builders more than destroyers.

RACBO’s work is community service, recovery, and access. That mission forces us to treat youth leadership as a practical necessity. Recovery without youth leadership becomes fragile. Access without youth leadership becomes blocked by the same old habits. Optimism without youth leadership becomes a word, not a living force.

When I speak with youth across different communities, I often hear a painful honesty that adults avoid. Many young people say, “We want peace, but we do not trust the future.” They are not saying they love conflict. They are saying the future feels uncertain, and when the future feels uncertain, short-term survival becomes the main plan.

A young person who has never seen stable life will struggle to imagine stability. A young person who has watched family members die in violence will struggle to believe that restraint is wise. A young person who has been displaced many times will struggle to build long-term habits. These are not moral failures. These are the scars of living through repeated shocks.

So when we talk about rising leaders, we must begin with a simple truth. Youth leadership is not born only from talent. It is built through healing, mentoring, skills, opportunity, and trust.

In 2026, if South Sudan is serious about rising leaders, we must be serious about four things: dignity, discipline, opportunity, and belonging.

Dignity means a young person should not feel like a stray dog in their own country. Dignity means youth voices matter in community decisions. Dignity means youth are not only called when there is fighting, and forgotten when there is planning. Dignity means youth are treated as citizens, not as a crowd to be controlled.

Discipline means youth must also be trained to handle responsibility. Leadership is not only confidence. Leadership is restraint. Leadership is showing up when it is hard. Leadership is learning before speaking. Leadership is refusing to be bought. Leadership is the ability to lead peers away from danger, even when anger is loud.

Opportunity means there must be a real economic and social path. Youth cannot eat motivational speeches. Youth cannot pay school fees with advice. Youth cannot start families on promises. When opportunity is missing, even good youth can be pushed into desperate decisions.

Belonging means youth need a community that claims them in a healthy way. If a young person does not belong to a positive group, they will belong to a harmful group. This is how gangs, armed groups, and criminal networks grow. They offer identity and brotherhood, even if they destroy lives.

The good news is this. Rising leaders already exist in South Sudan. They are not waiting to be born. They are already here. They are young men and women who have refused to be used, who are learning skills, who are starting small projects, who are mediating local disputes, who are helping families during floods, who are teaching children in informal classes, who are leading youth groups in churches and community centers, who are learning digital tools even with weak internet, who are organizing cleanups and road repairs, who are choosing long-term dignity over short-term violence.

These young leaders are not perfect. But they are proof that the future is possible.

The challenge is that too many of these young leaders are alone. They have energy, but limited support. They have ideas, but no tools. They have courage, but no protection. They have vision, but no network. They have talent, but no platform.

This is where organizations like RACBO must step in, not as saviors, but as partners.

In 2026, RACBO’s approach to youth leadership will stand on a simple principle: youth must lead solutions, and adults must protect the space for youth to lead.

That protection has many forms.

It includes training, not only in technical skills, but also in civic responsibility, peacebuilding, and ethical leadership. A young person can learn how to repair a generator, build a website, grow vegetables, manage a savings group, or run a small shop. Those skills matter. But without character, skills can be used for harm. A skilled youth without integrity can become a clever thief. A confident youth without discipline can become a dangerous manipulator. So youth development must hold both skill and character together.

It includes service opportunities. One of the fastest ways to form leaders is to give them responsibility that helps others. Service teaches humility. Service teaches teamwork. Service teaches patience. Service teaches problem solving. Service makes a young person feel useful, and a youth who feels useful is less likely to be used by destructive forces.

It includes mentorship. Many young people in South Sudan have grown up with broken mentorship chains. War scattered families. Displacement broke community structures. Some elders became bitter. Some leaders became self-serving. Youth were left to learn from peers, and peers often learn from survival, not from wisdom. Mentorship brings back a missing piece: guidance without exploitation.

It includes real pathways. Training without a path becomes frustration. A youth learns a skill, then returns to idleness, then feels mocked by life. That is how anger grows. So training must connect to real work, even if small. Apprenticeships, tool access, cooperative groups, community projects, small grants tied to accountability, and market linkage for local products are not luxuries. They are the difference between hope and disappointment.

It includes psychosocial support. This is sometimes ignored because people think healing is for “weak people.” But trauma affects leadership. A youth carrying unprocessed trauma may react aggressively to small conflict. They may struggle to trust. They may self-medicate through alcohol or risky behavior. They may join violence not because they love it, but because danger feels familiar. Healing support is leadership support.

It includes inclusion of young women. Youth leadership is incomplete if it is only male leadership. Young women carry heavy loads in South Sudan, and they also carry strong intelligence, resilience, and creativity. Yet they face barriers: early marriage pressure, safety risks, limited education access, social judgment, and exclusion from public decisions. If 2026 produces rising leaders while leaving young women behind, we have failed as a society. A community that blocks its daughters blocks its own future.

RACBO’s commitment in 2026 is to promote youth leadership that is safe, ethical, inclusive, and rooted in service.

But we must also face the risks youth face in 2026. If we name them clearly, we can address them honestly.

The first risk is recruitment into violence, whether political, communal, or criminal. When youth are idle, hungry, and angry, they become easy targets for those who pay for chaos. Sometimes recruitment is direct, with money or weapons. Sometimes it is indirect, through propaganda and rumor. Sometimes it is wrapped in “community defense,” even when it becomes aggression. Youth need protection from manipulation.

The second risk is hopelessness. Hopelessness does not always look like sadness. Sometimes it looks like reckless behavior. Sometimes it looks like drinking. Sometimes it looks like mocking education. Sometimes it looks like treating life as cheap. Hopelessness is a silent enemy of nation-building, because a hopeless youth has no reason to protect tomorrow.

The third risk is the education gap. Many youth lost schooling years due to war, displacement, or poverty. Some are adults with the reading level of small children. This is not shameful. It is a national emergency. Without literacy and basic numeracy, youth become trapped. They cannot access training materials, manage finances, understand civic rights, or compete in the job market. They remain dependent on others for simple tasks. Education recovery must be part of youth leadership recovery.

The fourth risk is the habit of quick gain. In places where life feels uncertain, quick gain becomes attractive. Some youth chase quick money through scams, theft, corruption, or destructive relationships. This habit kills long-term development. It also destroys trust. A society without trust cannot grow.

The fifth risk is division. Youth can be taught to hate other youth based on tribe, county, or party. That hatred is often taught, not natural. When youth see themselves as enemies before they even meet, peace becomes hard. Youth need spaces where they can interact across lines, work together, and discover shared humanity.

RACBO’s vision is tied to commonly best optimism. That optimism is not blind. It looks at risks clearly. It refuses to be confused by propaganda. It chooses constructive work as a discipline. It treats every youth as a potential leader, not as a potential criminal.

So what should “rising leaders” look like in 2026?

A rising leader is a young person who can influence peers toward peace and productive work.

A rising leader is a young person who can organize small projects, even with limited resources.

A rising leader is a young person who respects elders but is not controlled by harmful traditions.

A rising leader is a young person who can speak truth without insulting, and who can disagree without dividing.

A rising leader is a young person who can learn new skills and share them.

A rising leader is a young person who refuses to be bought into violence.

A rising leader is a young person who treats women and girls with dignity.

A rising leader is a young person who can admit mistakes and change.

A rising leader is a young person who makes their community safer, not louder.

This kind of leadership is not born in one seminar. It is formed through repetition, responsibility, and real life practice.

In 2026, RACBO wants communities to see youth leadership as something ordinary, not something rare. We want youth to lead local cleanups. Youth to lead peace dialogues. Youth to lead small business groups. Youth to lead literacy circles. Youth to lead early warning communication for rumor control. Youth to lead volunteer support during floods or outbreaks. Youth to lead community mapping of needs. Youth to lead public messages against revenge. Youth to lead by doing.

This is not to replace elders. It is to strengthen the whole community. A healthy community has elders who guide, adults who support, and youth who energize and execute.

Now, some people may ask, “Is this not too ideal?” It is not ideal. It is practical.

Let us be honest. The alternative is already visible. When youth are not guided into constructive roles, they will still lead, but they will lead in destructive ways. They will lead raids. They will lead rumor campaigns. They will lead revenge groups. They will lead crime. Youth leadership is inevitable. The only question is the direction.

So if we want the right direction, we must invest in it.

This also means we must talk about integrity as a youth issue, not only as a government issue.

Corruption is often discussed as a top-level crime. But corruption also grows at the ground level when youth learn that cheating is smart. When youth see adults steal and get praised, they learn a lesson. When youth see bribes as normal, they adopt it. When youth see that “connections” matter more than competence, they become cynical. That cynicism becomes a national poison.

RACBO’s value of integrity must be taught and modeled. Integrity means you do not steal relief items. Integrity means you do not demand “something small” from beneficiaries. Integrity means you do not use your position to exploit others. Integrity means you keep records. Integrity means you tell the truth about results. Integrity means you refuse to be used as a political tool. Integrity means you treat people fairly, even when your group expects favoritism.

When youth learn integrity early, they become leaders who can be trusted with bigger responsibilities later.

Innovation is also a youth issue. South Sudan’s youth are creative. They have learned to survive in difficult conditions. That survival creativity can become development creativity if it is guided.

A youth who can fix a phone with limited tools has a mind that can learn electronics. A youth who can organize transport on broken roads has a mind that can learn logistics. A youth who can negotiate community tensions has a mind that can learn mediation. A youth who can teach younger children informally has a mind that can become an educator. Innovation is already present. It just needs investment and structure.

Resilience is also already present. Many South Sudanese youth have survived what would break many adults. They have lived through displacement, hunger, loss, and insecurity, and still they dream. That resilience is not something to romanticize. It is something to support, so it does not turn into hardness and bitterness.

Growth and sustainability mean we do not want one-time youth events. We want habits, routines, and systems. We want youth programs that continue. We want youth groups that keep meeting. We want skills that keep improving. We want small businesses that survive beyond the first excitement. We want leaders who keep learning.

That is what 2026 should produce.

As RACBO moves through 2026, we will keep telling stories of youth who rise. Not stories to create fame, but stories to create examples. Examples are powerful. A young person can hear a thousand warnings and still choose wrong. But one strong example can make a young person choose right because it feels possible.

We will also speak honestly about the obstacles. We will not shame youth. We will challenge harmful choices, yes, but we will also challenge the systems that corner youth into desperation.

If you are a parent, do not only warn your child about bad friends. Ask yourself, what good path have I helped them see? If you are an elder, do not only complain about youth behavior. Ask yourself, when did I last mentor a young person with patience? If you are a local leader, do not only call youth during emergencies. Ask yourself, how have I included youth in planning and community decisions? If you are a church leader, do not only preach about morals. Ask yourself, what practical training, counseling, and service opportunities have we created for youth? If you are a partner, do not only fund activities. Ask yourself, are we building youth systems that last?

Rising leaders are not born by accident. They are formed by community choice.

In 2026, RACBO is making a clear choice. We choose youth leadership that builds peace, restores dignity, and strengthens community life. We choose youth as partners in recovery and access. We choose to carry optimism in a disciplined way, by doing the daily work that makes hope credible.

South Sudan’s future will not be decided only by speeches in the capital. It will be decided by the choices youth make in villages, towns, and settlements across the country. It will be decided by whether youth choose to protect life or destroy it. It will be decided by whether youth choose skill or shortcuts. It will be decided by whether youth choose integrity or corruption. It will be decided by whether youth choose unity or division.

So here is the call of 2026 for our youth.

Rise, not with anger, but with purpose.

Rise, not by tearing others down, but by building what you want to live in.

Rise, not as tools in someone else’s fight, but as owners of your own future.

Rise as peacemakers.

Rise as workers.

Rise as learners.

Rise as leaders who can be trusted.

And here is the call of 2026 for the rest of us.

Protect the space for youth to rise.

Train them.

Mentor them.

Include them.

Respect them.

Hold them accountable with love, not with humiliation.

Because when youth rise the right way, South Sudan rises with them.