CEWERU News

CPRM members in Twic County takes a group photo after the training. IOM representative Mr. Emmanuel giving a remark at the end of the training in Wau and Commissioner of Gogrial West County, Wek Koor Aru giving closed the training for Gogrial West in Kuajok.

Earlier this year in August, South Sudan Peace and Reconciliation Commission (SSPRC) took another step toward strengthening local peace structures. After the launch of State Early Warning mechanism called State Technical Team (STTs) in Western Bahr el Ghazal (WBGS) and Warrap State, it became evident that peacebuilding had to go deeper down to the counties and communities where tensions first arise.

That is when the need for establishment of County Peace Response Mechanisms (CPRMs) became clear. These mechanisms act as bridges, linking Bomas and payams to county authorities, counties to state leadership, and states to the national level. They make sure that an incident in a remote village does not go unnoticed but instead feeds into a wider system of response.

Training Communities to Prevent Conflict

With generous support from IOM South Sudan, SSPRC established and trained CPRMs in Wau (WBGS), Twic, and Gogrial West (Warrap State).

Each CPRM brings together 35 men and women from all walks of life: youth, women leaders, traditional chiefs, civil society activists, faith-based actors, organized forces, and persons with disabilities. Over the course of three days, these members learned how to:

• Recognize the root causes of conflict and practice resolution skills,
• Identify and document early warning indicators,
• Report incidents using the AlertMe mobile application, and
• Respond quickly and collectively to emerging threats.

At the end of the training, 10 smartphones equipped with the AlertMe app were handed over to selected members in each location. The phones went to those most familiar with digital tools, representing different payams and community organizations. These gadgets became lifelines enabling communities to send alerts directly to the national situation room and receive feedback in real time.

CPRM members of Ikwotos County in a group photo after the training. 

In a bid to enhance local capacity for conflict prevention and peacebuilding, the South Sudan Peace and Reconciliation Commission (SSPRC) with support from KOICA through UNDP successfully reconstituted and trained the County Peace Response Mechanism (CPRM) members in Ikwoto County.

The three-day training brought together 15 CPRM members, traditional leaders, women representatives, and county authorities to strengthen their role in early warning and early response to emerging conflicts. As part of the exercise, all 15 CPRM members were provided with mobile phones to enable them to report conflict early warning alerts in real time through the CEWER mobile application called AlertMe.

The training focused on building participants’ knowledge and skills on the concept of conflict, conflict analysis, conflict resolution, and the practical use of the mobile app for early warning reporting. The platform also served as an opportunity for community leaders to share experiences, challenges, and recommendations for the peaceful existence of the County.

Mr. Tito Abbas, Executive Director of Ikwoto County appreciated the training, noting its value in strengthening information flow and timely reporting. He also expressed concern about limited resources to rehabilitate the county’s poor roads, which restrict access and response to incidents.

“This training will enable this team to report issues timely so that we can arrest the situation before it escalates. We thank KOICA, UNDP and SSPRC for the job well done,” he remarked.

September 2, 2025

Download full report (PDF)

We are excited to share SSPRC’S Gap assessment report of our early warning and early response mechanism in 10 counties in Western Bhar el Ghazel, Warrap and Eastern Equatoria State.

The report captures gap assessment of the early warning mechanism to identify where gaps exist and provide coordinating agencies and policy makers with what the gaps are and how best to coordinate and design interventions that address the challenges.

According to the findings all the 10 counties have different but similar conflict dynamic. These include cattle rustling, child abduction, inter-communal conflict, revenge killings, gender-based violence and cattle migration related conflicts.

Participants to the regional workshop sharing experiences during a group work.

In the face of increasingly frequent and severe climate shocks across the Horn of Africa, a regional workshop held from 22–23 May 2025, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia convened key stakeholders to chart a proactive path forward. Organized by the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), the workshop focused on mainstreaming Anticipatory Action (AA) by developing sector-specific advisories and increasing awareness and application of AA in seasonal forecasting and decision-making processes.

Participants and Regional Collaboration

The event drew a wide range of stakeholders, leveraging the concurrent GHACOF meeting for cost-effectiveness and cross-sectoral engagement. Attendees included: Sector representatives from all eight Eastern Africa countries, covering Agriculture/Food Security, Water/Hydrology, Disaster Risk Management, Rangelands and Livestock, Health, Climate, and Conflict. Other representatives were from IGAD, the AA Technical Working Group and regional and international partners involved in climate and disaster risk management

Climate Extremes Underscore the Need for Proactive Approaches

The Horn of Africa has endured unprecedented climate crises over recent years. A prolonged five-season drought left 23.4 million people facing acute food insecurity and 5.1 million children suffering from acute malnutrition. This was followed by widespread flooding across Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Burundi, displacing more than 2 million people and spreading waterborne diseases. By March 2024, an estimated 54 million people in Eastern Africa were affected by food insecurity, with climate change and conflict as the key drivers.

Despite longstanding efforts through the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF) and the regional climate services framework, gaps remain in the operational use of seasonal forecasts for proactive decision-making. Much of the guidance produced has been generic, lacking the specificity needed to inform localized actions.

Anticipatory Action: A Paradigm Shift in Forecast-Based Decision-Making

Anticipatory Action offers a new direction. It enables sector-specific early interventions based on probabilistic forecasts, ensuring responses are targeted, timely, and impact-oriented. The Addis Ababa workshop provided a platform for enhancing understanding and integration of AA across sectors, with the aim of transitioning from reactive crisis response to proactive risk management.

By embedding AA into sectoral dialogues, stakeholders can better interpret climate forecasts, understand their implications, and coordinate actionable interventions tailored to evolving threats. The workshop emphasized the need for harmonized tools, templates, and institutional frameworks to support this shift.

Objectives and Key Activities

The regional workshop was designed with three primary objectives:

1. Training sector focal points on how to apply the Anticipatory Action approach using seasonal forecasts to inform sector-specific interventions.
2. Developing a common reporting template for sectoral impact assessments based on seasonal forecasts.
3. Initiating discussions for a Regional Anticipatory Action Plan, aligning with existing climate service and disaster risk management frameworks.

Outcomes and Commitments

Participants emerged with a shared understanding of the AA approach, equipped with tools to co-produce sectoral advisories that are both climate-informed and action-oriented. The workshop also produced a streamlined AA guidance template, facilitating consistent reporting on sectoral impacts, triggers, and actions.

A key outcome was the demonstrated commitment from sector focal points to embed Anticipatory Action in their respective domains ranging from agriculture and food security to health, rangeland management, water, and disaster risk reduction.

Looking Ahead

As climate extremes continue to challenge the resilience of communities across the region, the integration of Anticipatory Action into sectoral planning marks a critical evolution in the region’s approach to climate risk. With growing political and institutional support, and a commitment to operationalizing AA frameworks, this workshop laid the foundation for stronger early warning systems, more effective early action, and ultimately, greater resilience across Eastern Africa

Participants sharing lived experiences of the Climate-induced conflict during the workshop in Entebbe, Uganda.

From 13 to 15 May 2025, CEWARN convened representatives from pilot areas vulnerable to climate induced conflict namely, Aweil (South Sudan), Mandera (Kenya), and Karamoja (Uganda) to test novel tools designed to strengthen early warning systems for climate-induced conflict. The workshop also brought together heads of national conflict early warning and early response units from the three countries, alongside representatives from the UN, African Union, EAC, COMESA, and the Irish government, a key partner in CEWARN’s climate-conflict initiatives.

Climate-Induced Conflict: Voices from the Ground

During the meeting, community representatives shared lived experiences of climate-induced insecurity, local coping strategies, and hopes for early warning tools that can strengthen prevention efforts. From droughts and flashfloods to land degradation and resource competition, these voices highlighted how climateshocks are driving mobility, intergroup tensions, and social instability while also inspiring local innovation and resilience.

Two Novel Tools for Conflict Early Warning

Participants reviewed two novel tools under development, each with distinct yet complementary roles. The first, developed by Nairobi-based DataCraft, is the Climate Conflict Events Scanning & Monitoring System. This tool aggregates diverse data sources including media reports to capture vast amounts of event data, enabling CEWARN to detect emerging trends and monitor key variables in real time.

The second Novel tool, developed by Boston based Virtual Research Associates (VRA), is the Climate-Conflict Early Warning & Predictive tool. It uses rainfall, vegetation, and conflict trend data to offer predictive insights on climate-induced conflict risks. This tool is refined and advanced continuously based on the extensive trend analysis made possible by the first tool.

Group photo of the participants that attended the Novel tool testing workshop

User-Centered Design for Greater Impact

A key discussion point emphasized that while vegetation health is a useful indicator, it is not sufficient alone. Factors such as delayed rains, drought recovery, and pasture pressure combined with local context, past shocks, and existing tensions shape how climatestress translates into instability.

The workshop also underscored the importance of user experience: for these tools to serve vulnerable communities effectively, they must be simple, adaptable to local needs, and accessible to a diverse range of stakeholders.

The insights gathered will guide ongoing refinement of the tools to ensure they reflect the realities of communities facing climate-induced conflict risks, providing actionable data to support policy level responses. Ultimately, the goal is to provide timely, actionable data that strengthens regional peacebuilding and prevention efforts through an inclusive and forward-looking early warning system.

The South Sudan Peace and Reconciliation Commission (SSPRC), with support from UNDP through KOICA funds, recently concluded an assessment of Conflict Early Warning and Early Response (CEWER) mechanisms in key conflict-prone areas of South Sudan. The assessment focused on Jur River (Western Bahr el Ghazal State), several counties in Warrap State (Tonj North, Tonj East, Tonj South, Gogrial East), and four counties in Eastern Equatoria State (Magwi, Ikotos, Torit, Kapoeta East).

The goal of the assessment was to understand how well existing CEWER systems are functioning and to identify the gaps that weaken community-level responses to conflict before it escalates into violence.

Mixed Results Across States

In Eastern Equatoria State, CEWER structures were found to be active and functional. Community peace actors are using tools like the AlertME mobile application to report incidents and collect data. They are also playing a key role in local and cross-border dialogues, such as those between the Toposa and the Turkana communities along the South Sudan Kenya border. However, challenges persist many peace actors have lost or damaged their communication devices, and there is limited support from local authorities.

In contrast, no formal CEWER units were found in Western Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap States. While Peace Committees do exist and are engaged in activities such as peace dialogues, youth and women’s initiatives, and peace sports programs, the lack of structured early warning systems hampers timely responses to emerging conflicts.

Complex Conflict Dynamics

The assessment highlighted diverse and complex conflict drivers across the regions, including cattle raids, child abductions, gender-based violence, and land disputes. Tensions between pastoralist and farming communities are particularly acute in areas like Magwi and Tonj, where violations of a 2020 presidential order for cattle herders to leave agricultural lands have continued unabated. Displacement, food insecurity, school closures, and deteriorating relations between local communities and security forces compound the challenges

What’s Holding CEWER Back?

Several common gaps were identified that weaken CEWER systems in the assessed counties:

• Weak coordination between local, state, and national actors.

• Slow response times due to limited institutional capacity.

• Poor communication infrastructure in remote conflict hotspots.

• Lack of incentives for volunteer data collectors, who often balance peace work with livelihood activities.

• Insufficient and poor-quality communication devices, often without solar chargers.

• Limited access to vast geographical areas with minimal logistical support.

A Path Forward

Based on the findings, SSPRC recommends a range of actions to strengthen CEWER across South Sudan:

• Build capacity of local peace actors through training and exchange visits.

• Equip communities with reliable communication tools and transportation (Motorcycles) to improve mobility.

• Provide incentives to grassroots data collectors to sustain their engagement.

• Improve coordination among peace stakeholders at all levels.

• Integrate humanitarian support with CEWER activities, especially in displaced and vulnerable communities.

As South Sudan continues to face recurring conflict risks, strengthening early warning and response at the grassroots level is not just important it is essential for building lasting peace and protecting communities from further violence.