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Assessing the effect of climate extremes on maternal and infant health is hindered by gaps in exposure data, vulnerability assessments and integration of sociobehavioural dimensions.

Bridging the science-policy divide in peace and climate governance demands more than improved communication. It requires sustained, trust-based collaboration, interdisciplinary integration, and adaptive approaches. This article explores the science-policy interface as a dynamic space where knowledge is co-produced through iterative engagement, rather than linearly transmitted. It argues that institutional support for embedded research roles, long-term relationships, and integrative training is essential to align scientific insight with policy needs. In complex, fragile settings, where uncertainty and political constraints are high, adaptive governance and interdisciplinary collaboration offer more resilient pathways than static, blueprint-based approaches. The article highlights the importance of tailoring outputs, building shared platforms, and investing in trust as foundations for effective engagement. By rethinking how research is generated, communicated, and used, we can transform the science-policy interface into a space that meaningfully contributes to sustainable peace and climate resilience.

This chapter offers insight into the geopolitics of water agreements by discussing the contributions to peace. Upholding equitable and reasonable sharing of water is imperative for enhancing access to water as well as ensuring its peaceful management. Existing arrangements for shared water management are threatened by climate change and the increased mining activities which exacerbate the risk of water conflicts. The chapter provides an overview of water interactions and agreements and highlights the impact of water agreements on regional cooperation, sub-national water conflicts, and justice for the marginalized and weaker parties. The chapter also underscores the increasing pressure on water resources from climate change and climate action, particularly the demand for critical minerals for climate mitigation. We conclude that geopolitics complicate water interactions, while the potential of water agreements to overcome geopolitical limits to water cooperation requires further examination.

Background: Growing up in adversity can create enduring deficits in children’s cognitive and socio-behavioral skills that undermine later-life productivity, reduce human capital, and increase social costs. Early interventions that target caregiver mental health offer a promising pathway to strengthen the developmental environment of children exposed to severe stress. Yet, in low-resource humanitarian settings, evidence on scalable approaches that generate such intergenerational benefits remains limited. War-related displacement places mothers and young children at exceptional risk for psychological distress and impaired functioning, with potential long-term consequences for both generations. Self-Help Plus (SH+), a brief, low-intensity WHO group intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, has shown promising short-term effects in reducing psychological distress among South Sudanese refugee women in Rhino Camp, Uganda. However, key questions remain regarding the durability of these effects and whether improvements in maternal mental health translate into measurable gains in children’s own well-being and early development.

Methods: This two-arm, parallel-group cluster-randomized controlled trial will enroll 720 mother-preschool-aged child (3–5 years) dyads from 24 villages in Rhino Refugee Settlement, Uganda. Villages are randomized 1:1 to receive either SH+ and Enhanced Usual Care (EUC), or EUC only. Assessments are conducted at baseline (T0), 3 months (T1), and 12 months (T2) post-intervention. The primary outcome is maternal psychological distress (Kessler-6) at 12 months (T2). The key secondary outcome is parent-reported child psychosocial wellbeing (Kiddy-KINDLR) at T2. Secondary outcomes include additional indicators of maternal wellbeing and mental health, parenting practices, and child outcomes assessed across study time points, including psychosocial difficulties and child self-reported well- being. Analyses will follow an intention-to-treat approach, adjusting for clustering and relevant covariates.

Discussion:This trial replicates and extends prior evidence on SH+ in a large refugee population. It will examine whether early mental health gains are sustained, and whether intergenerational benefits emerge for preschool-aged children. Findings will inform scalable intervention strategies to promote psychological resilience and child development in humanitarian contexts.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07062341. Prospectively registered on July 11, 2025.

BackgroundGrowing up in adversity can create enduring deficits in children's cognitive and socio-behavioral skills that undermine later-life productivity, reduce human capital, and increase social costs. Early interventions that target caregiver mental health offer a promising pathway to strengthen the developmental environment of children exposed to severe stress. Yet, in low-resource humanitarian settings, evidence on scalable approaches that generate such intergenerational benefits remains limited. War-related displacement places mothers and young children at exceptional risk for psychological distress and impaired functioning, with potential long-term consequences for both generations. Self-Help Plus (SH+), a brief, low-intensity WHO group intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, has shown promising short-term effects in reducing psychological distress among South Sudanese refugee women in Rhino Camp, Uganda. However, key questions remain regarding the durability of these effects and whether improvements in maternal mental health translate into measurable gains in children's own wellbeing and early development.MethodsThis two-arm, parallel-group cluster-randomized controlled trial will enroll 720 mother-preschool-aged child (3-5 years) dyads from 24 villages in Rhino Refugee Settlement, Uganda. Villages are randomized 1:1 to receive either SH+ and Enhanced Usual Care (EUC), or EUC only. Assessments are conducted at baseline (T0), 3 months (T1), and 12 months (T2) post-intervention. The primary outcome is maternal psychological distress (Kessler-6) at 12 months (T2). The key secondary outcome is parent-reported child psychosocial wellbeing (Kiddy-KINDLR) at T2. Secondary outcomes include additional indicators of maternal wellbeing and mental health, parenting practices, and child outcomes assessed across study time points, including psychosocial difficulties and child self-reported wellbeing. Analyses will follow an intention-to-treat approach, adjusting for clustering and relevant covariates.DiscussionThis trial replicates and extends prior evidence on SH+ in a large refugee population. It will examine whether early mental health gains are sustained, and whether intergenerational benefits emerge for preschool-aged children. Findings will inform scalable intervention strategies to promote psychological resilience and child development in humanitarian contexts.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT07062341. Prospectively registered on July 11, 2025.

 Climate change increasingly shapes how groups share—or fight over—water-dependent resources. Synthesizing 235 peer-reviewed studies published between 1980 and 2022, this article clarifies when water scarcity fuels communal conflict and when it sparks cooperation. Rather than treating water scarcity as a purely physical condition, the review conceptualizes it as a socially and politically mediated process that shapes, and is shaped by, access, governance, and inequality. Evidence is concentrated in farmer–herder settings across 30 countries, yet more than half of all work focuses on five African nations and relies on single-case designs. The analysis shows that water scarcity alone rarely drives violence. Instead, outcomes depend on how water and water-dependent resources are accessed, governed, and contested across social and institutional settings. Water governance thus emerges as a central arena of power and social justice, shaping whether environmental stress produces conflict or cooperation. The same shocks foster negotiation over water resources when customary rules remain legitimate and include marginalized users. For practitioners and policymakers, strategies like conflict-sensitive adaptation, fostering institutional pluralism, and implementing early-warning systems that integrate climate forecasts with social indicators may transform water stress into opportunities for collaboration rather than sources of confrontation.

Despite frequent warnings of ‘water wars’, conflicts over water rarely escalate into violence. While most disputes over water access, quantity, or infrastructure remain non-violent, the gap between national water diplomacy and local water disputes presents a critical governance challenge. Such challenges are more severe in regions affected by armed conflict and climate stress, with water shortages disrupting livelihoods and aggravating inequalities. This policy brief examines conflict- and climate-related challenges to water governance and explores how multi-level collaboration can bridge the gap between global policies and lived realities.

Chapter III examines how climate change and water scarcity drive conflict by increasing competition and vulnerability, particularly in fragile regions. It shows that armed conflict further damages water resources, worsening crisis for vulnerable groups. While water scarcity can fuel violence and unrest, strong governance and inclusive managment can reduce these risks. The chapter highlights the need for integrated water governance and peacebuidling to address the climate-water-conflict nexus.

Concern has risen that current global warming and more frequent extreme events such as droughts and floods will increase conflict around the world. This concern has spurred both social science research on contemporary climate, peace, and conflict as well as research in the historical sciences on past climate, weather, warfare, and violence. This perspectives article compares these two fields of scholarship and examines how each may benefit the other. It finds significant convergences in methods and insights across contemporary and historical research as well as persistent patterns in causal pathways between climate and conflict. Contemporary climate, peace, and conflict (CPC) research may sharpen methods and causal models for historical researchers. Historical studies, particularly those informed by contemporary research, may elucidate deep origins and long-term effects of climate-related conflicts. For policymakers and the public, history offers comprehensible ways to make sense of complex and contingent linkages and to construct cogent narratives of the past as well as storylines for the future.

Background

Climate extremes in Africa threaten the food security of war-affected refugees, who often experience mental health challenges that hinder their capacity for agricultural adaptation. Cost-effective, climate-smart farming interventions are crucial for addressing food insecurity in humanitarian contexts, yet evidence on their effectiveness is limited, and the potential benefits of integrating them with mental health interventions remain unexplored. We hypothesize that the success of agricultural interventions, especially under adversity, is influenced by mental health and psychological functioning.

Methods

This study employs a three-arm, parallel-group, cluster-randomized controlled trial (cRCT) in the Nakivale refugee settlement, Uganda. Thirty villages within the settlement will be randomized in a 1:1:1 allocation ratio to one of three conditions: Enhanced Usual Care, a Home Gardening Intervention (HGI) or HGI combined with the peer-delivered psychosocial intervention Self-Help Plus (SH + HGI). A total of 900 refugee mothers and their children (aged 3–4 years) will be enrolled, with 30 dyads per village. The primary outcome is food insecurity at 12 months post-intervention, assessed using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). Secondary outcomes include dietary diversity, child malnutrition and mothers’ psychological distress. Data will be collected at baseline, 3-month and 12-month follow-ups. Primary analyses will use an intention-to-treat (ITT) approach.

Discussion

This study will shed light on the role of mental health in agricultural adaptation for food security, evaluating the efficacy of scalable, cost-effective interventions in a refugee setting. The findings will have implications for the design and implementation of integrated food security and mental health programs in humanitarian and other resource-constrained settings.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06425523. Registered on 24 May 2024.