Mediating Resilience: Inclusive and Climate-Informed Pathways to Peace

Climate change is intensifying competition over land, water, and other shared resources—fueling disputes, insecurity, and violence in climate-stressed pastoralist regions. At the same time, effective natural resource governance and dispute resolution depend on inclusive processes that reflect the distinct roles and influence of men, women, and youth in both resource use and community decision-making. Yet women and girls—often central users and stewards of natural resources and informal conflict mediators—are frequently excluded from formal governance and mediation mechanisms. This exclusion weakens the legitimacy and durability of agreements and can limit communities’ ability to adapt to climate shocks and prevent conflict.

This report examines how inclusive, gender-responsive natural resource management (NRM) and conflict mediation can strengthen community resilience at the climate-conflict nexus. It draws on two complementary programs in the Karamoja sub-region spanning Northeast Uganda (Kotido and Kaabong) and Northwest Kenya (Turkana):

• Climate Change Leaders Advancing for Peace (CCLAP, funded by the Austrian Development Agency) worked to reduce structural barriers that prevent women, girls, and youth from participating in climate-smart NRM and conflict resolution.
• Advancing Inclusive Mediation (AIM, funded by Ann Pelligrino) supported training-of-trainers in inclusive and climate-informed Interest-Based Mediation and Negotiation (IBMN) for the CCLAP team.

Using a mixed-methods approach (baseline/endline survey analysis, focus groups, key informant interviews, and program documentation), the study asks: how inclusive NRM and inclusive, climate-informed mediation shape participation and gender attitudes—and what those changes mean for climate adaptation, resilience to shocks, and conflict dynamics.

Key findings:

• Inclusive NRM and conflict mediation improved gender attitudes, but primarily among women. Men reported more gender-equitable attitudes overall but showed little change over time; women’s attitudes shifted significantly in program communities, and changes were stronger with greater program participation.
• Strengthening women’s roles in NRM increased women’s engagement and influence in community decision-making. Multiple measures, including self-reported participation, broader community perceptions, and qualitative testimonies, indicate meaningful increases in women’s participation and voice in NRM and conflict resolution processes.
• Inclusive NRM and mediation approaches strengthened resilience to climate- and conflict-related shocks. While resilience declined across communities during the study period, program participants fared significantly better; higher participation was associated with stronger resilience outcomes, suggesting the program buffered households and communities against shocks.
• Inclusive mediation strengthened conflict resolution capacities, though short-term effects on violent incidents were less clear. The program increased knowledge and engagement in conflict resolution and strengthened local mechanisms, but external violence data showed limited detectable change over the evaluation period—highlighting that governance and dispute resolution improvements may precede measurable reductions in violent events.

Recommendations for policy and practice:

• Engage men intentionally and systematically in gender-inclusive NRM and mediation efforts. Programs should treat men’s engagement as a core component, not an afterthought, to reduce gatekeeping and backlash risks and build buy-in for women’s meaningful participation.
• Adopt an integrated, long-term model to build resilience. The strongest results came from linking technical climate adaptation capacity (skills/tools) with strengthened participation and influence in governance, rather than treating climate, governance, and gender as separate tracks.
• Focus on meaningful influence, not just participation. Increasing attendance is not enough; programs should build pathways for women, youth, and marginalized groups to exercise decision-making power and track whose input actually shapes outcomes.

This evidence underscores that inclusive, climate-informed approaches to natural resource governance and mediation can strengthen community resilience in climate-conflict settings, especially when implemented with sustained engagement and designed to shift not only participation, but influence.