Reframing climate security: Incentivising collective action for sustainable peace and resilience in the Horn of Africa  

There is growing global attention on the combined impacts of climate change and conflict risks on vulnerable populations. This is evident along Kenya’s borders with Ethiopia, Uganda, and South Sudan, where prolonged droughts and increasingly scarce natural resources have heightened tensions between communities, worsening the security situation.  

The recent clashes between the Turkana and Dassenach communities along the Kenya-Ethiopia border highlight how climate-induced pressures are deepening both competition for dwindling water sources and grazing land and long-standing rivalries between communities. 

For more than 15 years, International Alert has been working at the crossroads of climate, environment, and conflict by enhancing research, analysis, and responses to climate and natural resource-related conflicts.  

Lessons from Kenya, as documented in this practice paper, highlight the need for cultivating common ground among stakeholders when understanding and developing climate security activity. Creating space for those in conflict-affected areas to engage in dialogue fosters consensus on climate-related security vulnerabilities and risks, laying the foundation for solutions that work.  

The role of security services 

The increasing role of security services, including the police, defence and military forces, in complementing the work of government ministries and civil society to address climate security challenges cannot be ignored. In the media and literature, there is an emphasis on the risks that this poses, with reports of security forces being implicated in human rights abuses or environmental crimes. While these risks remain and there is vital work to be done to address these issues in Kenya, there is also important progress.

For example, in Kenya, the military has played a significant role in stabilising conflict-prone regions. The long-standing military presence in the North Rift has helped restore relative peace in this volatile region, allowing displaced communities to return to their homes and enabling the rebuilding of schools previously closed. The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) have also developed initiatives such as the Environmental Soldier Programme, which focuses on environmental conservation efforts, including tree planting and ecosystem restoration to improve local livelihoods.

These efforts have not only mitigated climate risks but have also played a role in reducing tensions over scarce resources, illustrating how security services can contribute positively to climate resilience and peacebuilding. 

In addition, the KDF has participated in international forums such as the Berlin Climate and Security Conference, where it has highlighted its role in addressing climate-related security challenges. These engagements illustrate the increasing recognition of the military as a key player in climate resilience. 

In line with the Kenyan government’s ambition of planting 15 billion trees by 2032, the Greening Kenya Initiative led through the National Climate Change and Security Response Programme (NCCSRP ) enables security actors, especially the military, to significantly contribute to reforestation efforts. This is particularly valuable in conflict-prone areas, sometimes considered “no man’s land” because of high levels of violent conflict.

These nature-based solutions can, with support from the military, reduce the need for communities to migrate – which is often a cause of conflict – while also enabling them to rebuild their livelihood systems. This approach brings together environmental restoration and conflict mitigation, creating a pathway for sustainable peace and resilience. 

Trust and collaboration 

However, tensions between communities and the security services remain high in many places, with a significant lack of trust not only between local populations and security forces but also between the military and community-based peacebuilding networks. These networks often feel unable to operate effectively in the presence of military interventions and, in some cases, see their progress reversed. Efforts to encourage dialogue and build consensus between groups – critical for sustainable peace and security – can be undermined when military actions overshadow locally led peacebuilding efforts.  

The pathway to building and sustaining peace can only happen in an environment of trust, inclusion, and collaborative action where all actors see clearly the roles they need to play and are willing to work together towards this shared vision.

The context of the community, the knowledge they possess, their fears, and their perceptions are critical. This underlines the importance of including security forces in stakeholder forums to ensure that peacebuilding efforts are strengthened rather than undermined. 

There is, however, an opportunity to shift the narrative, bridge existing gaps, and reframe climate security. A new approach that focuses on fostering cooperation, improving trust, and integrating security services’ efforts into broader, community-driven peace and climate resilience strategies is needed. 

Opportunities in Kenya 

On 19 March 2025, the Embassy of the Netherlands in Kenya hosted a knowledge-sharing event on Water, Peace and Climate Security, which brought together security and civilian participants for discussions on cross-sectoral collaboration. This dialogue, which was later honoured with a visit from Their Majesties, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, reaffirmed that climate security is one of the largest public good portfolios, requiring a collective response beyond the capacity of any single actor. Incentivising collective action is essential, and security services have an important role to play.

The military, known for problem-solving and action-oriented approaches, is well-positioned to contribute through innovative solutions to climate security challenges. 

Key opportunities for collaboration in Kenya include: 

Awareness and education: To ensure climate security becomes a strategic priority, there needs to be greater awareness and education for all levels of security services. 

Building shared knowledge and understanding: Developing a common understanding among all actors – government, civil society, security forces, and local communities – is essential in addressing climate-security challenges. 

Inclusive engagement and responses: Climate security interventions require the involvement of all stakeholders, including the security sector. Success depends on alignment, deliberate focus on efforts, stronger connections, and a shift away from the current fragmentation of actions and responses. If one person or entity takes a positive climate action while its neighbour does not, progress is hindered. 

Integration into policy development: Climate security must be systematically integrated into all levels of policymaking, ensuring that security, environmental, and governance frameworks align to support resilience-building efforts. This means incorporating climate security considerations into national security policies, disaster response planning, and regional cooperation agreements. 

Civil-military cooperation: In fragile and conflict-affected contexts, fostering trust and cooperation between military and civilian actors is crucial to achieving sustainable security and resilience outcomes. 

Peacebuilding, climate adaptation and mitigation go hand in hand: Climate adaptation and mitigation programmes in vulnerable communities must be implemented through a conflict-sensitive lens to prevent exacerbating existing tensions. 

Using security infrastructures for forecasting and information sharing: Military and security institutions have extensive networks that can be leveraged for climate risk forecasting and early warning systems. 

Reducing environmental footprint: The security sector can take innovative approaches, particularly green energy solutions, to reduce its environmental impact. 

Climate security challenges transcend borders, making it imperative to strengthen capabilities for joint action. Now more than ever, security actors, civil society, and governments must work together across the climate, peace and security nexus to build resilient communities.

The narrative needs to urgently change from seeing conflict and climate as separate issues to the reality of compounded risks and looking beyond localised or national responses to a global imperative requiring coordinated efforts across all sectors.