This original research article investigates the compounding effects of climate vulnerability and energy poverty on women’s livelihoods and leadership prospects in South Sudan from 2021–2026. It addresses a critical gap in understanding how intersecting environmental and socio-economic crises uniquely constrain women’s economic agency and political participation in fragile states. Employing a rigorous mixed-methods approach, the study integrates longitudinal climate data analysis with qualitative fieldwork conducted across three states. This includes semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with women entrepreneurs, community leaders, and energy stakeholders. The findings demonstrate that intensified flooding and drought have severely disrupted traditional women-centric livelihoods. Concurrently, pervasive energy poverty—exacerbated by these climate impacts—imposes excessive time burdens through fuelwood collection, which curtails income-generation and civic engagement. A key contribution is the identification of women-led sustainable energy micro-enterprises, such as solar lamp distribution, as pivotal yet under-supported sites for adaptive resilience and leadership development. The study concludes that targeted investment in these gendered energy pathways constitutes not merely an adaptation strategy, but a foundational mechanism for enhancing women’s socio-economic emancipation and political influence. These insights underscore the necessity for African climate adaptation frameworks to integrate gender-transformative energy access as a core component of building equitable resilience in post-conflict societies.