Zambia

Women’s Leadership

The central role of women in proposing and implementing solutions proved to be a core driver of successful resilience-building for Zambian households and communities. In addition to being agents of change, women and girls were also among the main beneficiaries of the PPCR programming, representing 54% of the people reached by the program and exceeded its initial targets: nearly 464,000 women and girls compared to a target of 151,500.

READ More

Integrating Resilience into Local Planning

Integrating resilience into local planning processes helped enable the delivery of local future proofing solutions. For example, in one project, eleven local governments and community groups benefited from training on integrating risk management into district development plans (100% of target), contributing to a total of 30 development plans which successfully integrated resilience considerations into local area planning which exceeded the target by 125%This approach demonstrates the importance of a strong, local-level foundation for the integrating of resilience in policies and planning.

Vertical and Horizontal Integration

The vertical integration of resilience-building in Zambia -from national level to provincial, district, ward and community levels - coupled with capacity-building enabled resilience to be incorporated into development policies, planning, and execution at multiple levels. This resulted in a National Policy on Climate Change (2016), new regulations for greenhouse gas emissions, and screening guidelines.

Meanwhile, the horizontal integration enabled the adoption of resilience measures across seven sectors: environment and natural resources; agriculture; health; transport and infrastructure; energy; tourism; and water. The 2016 policy also cuts across sectors, minimizing the need for sector-level policies.

READ More

Priority Infrastructure and Sustainability

The establishment and implementation of regulations to future- proof infrastructure was a major achievement of PPCR in Zambia:  from the 247 km of strategic farm-to-market access roads constructed or rehabilitated, to the 1 386 smaller-scale-projects that helped upgrade community- and farm-level infrastructure, exceeding initial targets by 120%.

Other PPCR infrastructure investments in Zambia facilitated resilience-building in additional sectors. For instance, support for a canal system in the Barotse basin improved water resource management in a drought-prone rural area, including more than 5 900 hectares of resilient crops in the vicinity – more than 14 times the target. However, ensuring adequate maintenance and resilient infrastructure remains a challenge in some localities supported through the plan.

Delivering Local Solutions 

PPCR’s local-level, demand-driven approach helped ensure the right interventions were implemented in the right locations. A pilot system of sub-grants empowered local actors to identify and carry out their own resilience-building solutions where they were needed most – a powerful model that exceeded its target, reaching 167%.

Need for Further Private Sector Engagement

Zambia’s PPCR close-out noted support for private sector approaches in agricultural value chains and cold storage, for example, showed promise. This can be built on in the next series of resilience investments, including through Zambia’s Investment Plan under CIF’s Nature, People, and Climate (NPC) Program. 

The close out affirmed the need for further engagement with the country’s private sector. This was a challenge from inception - when one private sector project identified in the investment plan did not move forward - right through to delivery, when the enterprise sub-grant window did not generate the same level of demand as the public sector window.