Communities in Zimba Lead the Way in Climate Adaptation Through Community Adaptation Action Plans

With a population of 108,316, Zimba District of Southern Province has not been spared from the adverse effects of climate change. The district is characterized by Savannah Miombo Open woodland and dominant tree species, Dambo areas, pans, and small man-made dams distributed all over the district. However, Zimba has experienced massive deforestation, especially in areas around the plateau, thus causing serious ecological imbalances.

These changes have directly impacted agricultural productivity, which is the primary livelihood for most residents. As water becomes scarce and land more degraded, the competition for these essential resources has intensified, leading to conflicts that are often exacerbated by the unequal distribution of power between men and women.

To strengthen the locally led approach, CARE Zambia’s Community-based Adaptation: Scaling-up Community Action for Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Southern Africa and Beyond (CBA-SCALE+) project in Zimba District is supporting communities as they take ownership of their development journey through the Community Action & Adaptation Plans (CAAPs).

The CBA-SCALE+ project, a cross-border community-led initiative, has been working with communities, local governmental institutions, and civil society in vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning processes, working towards implementing inclusive, gender-responsive, and nature-based CBA actions.

The plans were developed, decided upon, and will be implemented by the communities themselves, with CARE Zambia playing a facilitative role throughout the process. Recently, communities received feedback on the number of adaptation initiatives to be funded under different financing options, the timelines for implementation, and their specific roles in driving these initiatives forward.

In Chunndwe Ward, Adetory Mukongolwa, 35, a husband and father of four, said the implementation of the community action plans would ease the community’s long-standing burden of accessing water.

“People walk 3 to 4 kilometres to fetch water, while animals have to move as far as 12 kilometres to drink water, which is a strenuous process,” he said.

Mukongolwa added that he is confident this process will yield results and help improve the lives of both the community and their livestock.

Norah Makalichi, a 35-year-old mother of four, said, “Climate change has brought a lot of hardship into our lives. Water scarcity, animal diseases, and low agricultural production have all affected us, and the drought has only made things worse.”

Meanwhile, Mangonda Ward Councillor, Douglas Maunga, expressed gratitude to CARE Zambia and its local implementing partners Nutri-Aid Trust and Alliance for Nutrition and Reconstruction (ANR) for promoting a locally led approach that allows communities to drive their own development.

“Usually, such programs are driven by implementers, but for us here, communities have been able to provide action plans that will help enhance their adaptive capacities,” he explained.

In nearby Malaba Village, 64-year-old farmer Jameson Syamasau shared how changing weather patterns have wiped out some of the traditional crop varieties that once thrived in his community.

“In the past, we used to grow a local finger millet variety known as paw millet,” he recalled. “It was well adapted to short rainy seasons because it matured quickly and fit within the farming calendar. After every harvest, each farmer was required to take a portion of their yield to the headman’s granary as a deposit. During the next planting season, farmers could go back to withdraw some seed for planting.”

He explained that the headman’s seed storage system used molds built into the ground, which kept the seeds cool and preserved them for future use. “These molds helped regulate temperature  around 10 degrees  and prevented spoilage,” he said.

However, Syamasau lamented that prolonged droughts and erratic rainfall have caused the extinction of many traditional varieties. “We had a short white sorghum called chigari gari, and local melons that were dried and eaten as vegetables. These are now almost gone. The same with our local cucumbers and the small, early-maturing groundnuts that could grow within 60 to 90 days. The commercial ones we have today take too long and can’t survive the short rainy season,” he explained.

He expressed hope that organizations like CARE Zambia could help revive these traditional seed varieties, which he believes are better suited to the new climate realities. In Malaba Village, the rainy season now lasts for only about four months  a sharp contrast to the longer, more reliable seasons of the past.

CARE Zambia is working with the Zambia Agricultural Research institute (ZARI) to contribute to the welfare of the Zambian people through the provision of technologies and knowledge that enhance household food security and equitable income-generating opportunities for the farming community and agricultural enterprises while ensuring the maintenance of the natural resource base.

The CAAPs process is participatory and inclusive, aiming to empower community members and local government to work together in identifying, deciding, planning, and implementing priority adaptation strategies within their communities.

The CBA SCALE+ project empowers people to build their resilience to the impacts of climate change by prioritizing equity and justice in adaptation planning and implementation. It focuses on capacity-building, draws from both local and scientific knowledge, ensures meaningful participation of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups, and improves their access to key resources to adapt thereby reducing vulnerabilities and climate risks.