Following South Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement and referendum thousands of foreign aid workers began pouring into the country, bringing with them a demand for secure housing, foreign products, and high-end restaurants. With them flocked thousands of savvy entrepreneurs and gutsy laborers keen to capitalize on the nascent economy, the growing imbalance between demand and supply, and the high margins that unevenness afforded. Some of these expats were fleeing stagnate economies back home, others were on the run from military conscription and authoritarian regimes. Some simply saw the opportunity to make good money. All were willing to risk their own personal safety at the prospect of bringing in the cash to build a better life.
The story of cowboy capitalists is well known. Wherever there's a margin, there's someone working to squeeze it, no matter how difficult the surrounding circumstances.
In South Sudan though, these migrant workers are playing a key role in not only providing needed goods and services, but also in tangibly developing a country desperately in need. They've built critical infrastructure in a nation with only a few hundred kilometers of paved roads, provided jobs where there were none, and injected desperately needed cash into an embryonic economy and the pockets of its civilians.