The party was born in 2016 as a political-military movement. Most of its top leadership including the Chairman and his Deputy were founding members of the Democratic Change Party in 2009. It was the new military option that made them to resign from the DCP and form together with other South Sudanese of different political backgrounds the National Democratic Movement. True to its policy of building a national consensus, the NDM continues to engage in building alliances/coalitions. Even before it was officially launched, it organized a conference for the opposition in Nairobi in August 2016 and spearheaded or participated in several follow-up meetings in Kampala, Nyahururu and Addis Ababa. These culminated in the formation of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) in February 2018 which played and a pivotal role in the peace talks leading to the signing of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan 2018. Although the subsequent conduct of the SSOA left a lot to be desired, this experience doesn’t in anyway subtract from the noble principle of coalition building. It rather enriches the principle by avoiding in future alliances the shortcomings that had emerged. Following the conclusion of the peace agreement in 2018, the NDM abandoned military struggle and is now fully committed to peaceful transfer of power through democratic means.