A Scoping Review of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in South Sudan (2021-2026): Gendered Dimensions in Central Equatoria, Western Equatoria, Jonglei, and Eastern Equatoria

Climate change in South Sudan is not a background environmental problem but a daily governance, livelihood, health, displacement, and protection crisis. This scoping review maps evidence published between 2021 and 2026 on climate impacts and adaptation in Central Equatoria, Western Equatoria, Jonglei, and Eastern Equatoria, with attention to gendered dimensions of vulnerability and agency. Guided by Arksey and O'Malley, PRISMA-ScR, and JBI scoping review guidance, the review synthesises peer-reviewed and grey literature on floods, heat stress, food insecurity, water stress, mobility, conflict, sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, and adaptation programming. The evidence indicates that women and girls experience climate stress through intersecting pathways: higher unpaid care burdens, disrupted agricultural livelihoods, insecure water and fuel collection, school withdrawal, child marriage risk, reduced access to health services, and exposure to violence during displacement. Yet women are also central adaptation actors through seed selection, informal early-warning circulation, food preservation, water management, local enterprise, savings groups, peacebuilding, and community health work. Jonglei emerges as the most flood- and displacement-exposed state, Eastern Equatoria as strongly shaped by heat, water scarcity, and pastoralist mobility, Western Equatoria as agriculturally strategic but institutionally under-documented, and Central Equatoria as a mixed urban-rural adaptation corridor. The review recommends a gender-transformative adaptation package linking climate-smart agriculture, flood protection, safe mobility, GBV services, SRH continuity, climate information, women's land and enterprise rights, and conflict-sensitive local governance.