Background/Objectives

Climate change is impacting local communities and their development across the world, and particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Climate shocks such as hurricanes, wildfires, and floods are negatively affecting households, businesses, and whole communities, including smallholder farmers and producers that are integral to private sector supply chains and food security.

Nevertheless, there are those in local communities around the world that are disproportionately impacted by climate shocks. Those in society who are marginalized by virtue of their age, and their access to resources: orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), especially those most at risk of HIV/AIDS, and those living in remote rural areas have less capacity to adapt to a world affected by the cumulative impacts wrought by climate change. These impacts include drought and lost harvests, floods cutting off access to schools, water sources and health clinics, cyclones, and destruction of infrastructure. But there are also impacts on OVC exacerbated by climate change that go seemingly unnoticed. And as the frequency and severity of climate shocks increases year after year, these impacts are heightening the vulnerability of OVC, jeopardizing the productive nature of youth and the workforce of tomorrow.

In the hinterlands of Zimbabwe, in the provinces of Manicaland and Masvingo in the eastern and southeastern part of the country, this scenario is playing out in real time. Climate change has transformed these provinces into semi-arid regions affecting agriculture, the mainstay of communities’ livelihoods, but also the ability to access water, firewood, and health services.

As part of the PEPFAR through USAID-funded Sustaining Care and Support Services for OVC and their Caregivers in an HIV Epidemic in Zimbabwe project (SPACE for OVC) led by Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT), a Zimbabwean NGO, Pact— an international development NGO—is providing technical assistance to foment climate resilience among the OVC population in these two provinces.

Approach/Activities

The SPACE for OVC project is integrating climate resilience into its livelihoods, health, education, and safety programming. As part of this process, the project carried out regional climate change vulnerability assessments (CCVA), engaging OVC, caregivers, elders, and teachers and interviewed headmasters, psychosocial support teachers, and government authorities from various sectors to understand observed and anticipated climate change impacts on the ground and the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of OVC and caregivers in local communities across both provinces.

Results/Lessons Learned

This session will provide an opportunity for development practitioners to learn about the main findings of the CCVA (e.g., how climate shocks are affecting adherence to antiretroviral therapy among children living with HIV/AIDS; how climate shocks are impacting OVC’s mental health and resulting in greater drudgery; how effective early warning systems are for OVC), as well as how the project is strengthening adaptive capacity of OVC and their caregivers across the four focus domains: livelihoods, safety, education and health, and effectively translating climate science into effective policy and community acceptance.