South Sudan is among the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Climate change-related extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, are exacerbating local conflict dynamics, displacing communities, eroding livelihoods, and increasing competition for limited resources.
Within UNMISS, the Climate, Peace and Security (CPS) Unit in South Sudan supports the UN system by providing dedicated expertise on climate-related security risks. Led by the CSM-supported Climate, Peace and Security Advisor, it operates within an interagency framework that includes UNMISS, UNDP, and UN Resident Coordination Office.
The CPS Unit supports peacekeeping, humanitarian, and development actors with specialized tools and analysis to anticipate climate risks, prevent climate-driven conflict, and enhance national resilience. Through integrated analysis, early warning, operational support, and policy engagement, the Advisor and his team, jointly with other UN actors, advance climate security to safeguard lives and enhance stability.
Rationale
South Sudan is ranked by the INFORM Index for Risk Management as the country most at-risk in terms of levels of exposure to hazards, vulnerability and coping capacity. Over 95% of its population is dependent on climate-sensitive livelihoods. Extreme flooding, drought, and heatwaves have exacerbated conflict and displacement, eroded community resilience, and intensified pre-existing tensions around access to and management of water, land and other natural resources. These climate shocks do not create conflict in isolation, but interact with and amplify long-standing structural vulnerabilities, limited coping mechanisms, and governance challenges.
Climate impacts such as drought, flooding and heat stress are reshaping the timing and trajectory of cattle migration routes, and duration of cattle migration, with movements increasingly occurring earlier, later, or for extended periods than in the past. Such shifts place strain on customary agreements and seasonal coordination mechanisms that have historically regulated mobility and resource sharing. In this context, climate shocks can heighten competition over natural resources and increase the risk of violent clashes between farmers and cattle herders as well as among different pastoralist groups.
During the dry season in particular, climate shocks intersect with entrenched cattle-raiding dynamics, which tend to intensify as access to pasture and water diminishes. Cattle raiding and retaliatory violence, often linked to youth mobilization, weapons availability, local power struggles, and weakened local dispute-resolution mechanisms remain a critical driver of localized, sub-national conflict in many parts of the country. In some contexts, these dynamics intersect with broader security responses, which can further heighten risks for civilians and communities.
These climate shocks and stresses interact with existing vulnerabilities, reinforcing cycles of instability that increase risks of violence for civilians and threaten the social fabric of communities, undermining trust and cooperation. Without climate-informed action, climate stressors further complicate peace, humanitarian needs, and mobility dynamics.
Recognising this, the UN Security Council has integrated has integrated the recognition that climate and environmental change impact peace and security into the UNMISS mandate through Resolutions 2820 (2026), 2779 (2025), 2729 (2024), and 2677 (2023), directing the Mission to provide climate-sensitive analysis, gender-responsive assessments, and regular reporting on climate and environmental-related risks to peace and security and impacts on mandate implementation.
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United Nations Mission in South Sudan
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Our work
The goal of the CPS Unit is to advance an integrated strategy aligned with the CSM and rooted in South Sudan’s operational and institutional needs. Our work is structured across four strategic pillars: (I) risk analysis and early warning systems to support anticipatory action across the UN system; (II) a one-mission approach and inter-agency coordination on CPS; (III) Supporting climate-informed decision-making across national and sub-national levels; (IV) capacity building and institutionalisation by strengthening long-term systems and skills so that climate security becomes embedded across peacekeeping and national institutions.
Building on these four strategic pillars, the CPS Advisor and his team have taken concrete and innovative steps. CPS perspectives have already been incorporated during the review of South Sudan’s 2nd Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
UNMISS and UNDP convene the UN Climate Security Working Group, an inter-agency platform that serves as primary coordination mechanism for CPS policy dialogue in South Sudan. It brings together UN agencies to harmonize risks analysis, align programming approaches, and identify joint operational entry points. Through this platform, CPS considerations have been systematically integrated into broader UN strategic processes, including the UNCT Common Country Analysis (CCA), strengthening coherence across the UN system in the country.
In the face of unprecedented flooding in 2024 and 2025, UNMISS and the UN Country Team (UNCT) joined forces with development partners, academic and research institutions to co-lead a conflict-sensitive response and mitigate climate-related peace and security risks. The CPS Advisor and his team collaborated with partners in support of South Sudan’s National Flood Preparedness and Response Plan, ensuring it addressed not only logistical needs but also the drivers of conflict linked to climate stress. A Flood Management and Conflict Sensitivity Dashboard and Database was developed to track climate and conflict-related alerts, including, flooding, drought, population movements, insecurity, and community self-relocation to high ground sites, as well as emerging cohabitation dynamics. The dashboard supports the timely sharing of risk information with relevant mission and UN entities, helping to inform preventive and responsive actions across security, flood management, and community engagement efforts. Community engagement was equally fundamental during such harsh times. Flood sensitization campaigns and peace dialogues helped defuse tensions and violent clashes over grazing rights.
UN efforts in South Sudan have also focused on the links between CPS and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, recognising the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and girls and the importance of systematically integrating gender-differentiated risk into climate, peace and security efforts. In practice, these efforts translate into innovative methods such as community-based early warning systems and conflict prevention initiatives. During floodings, overcrowded high grounds increase the risks of gender-based violence. The testimonies of women leaders led to immediate action in the form of “twilight patrols” by UNMISS personnel in vulnerable areas to deter attacks.
Additionally, in November 2024, a landmark workshop was organized together with the Ministries of Gender and the Environment to embed gender-responsive approaches in climate and security planning, marking as a milestone in advancing gender-responsive CPS planning and policy in South Sudan.
Finally, other innovative work in South Sudan includes a joint UNMISS-UNPOL capacity-building programme to equip UN Police officers with the tools to identify and respond to the climate-related security risks. UNMISS and UNPOL also produced a training syllabus to help include CPS in the daily actions of UN Police across South Sudan.
In parallel, CPS is being systematically integrated into other UNMISS functions, including into programming on Rule of Law and Security Institutions (ROLSI) to support conflict-sensitive, climate-informed approaches across justice, protection and security actors, as well as the mission’s focus on Child Protection, and planning and interventions of UNMISS’ Force components.