LINK: Building climate resilience by linking climate adaptation and social protection

Mozambique is highly vulnerable to climate change due to its reliance on climate sensitive agriculture and the frequent occurrence of extreme weather events. The country faces significant challenges such as rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, prolonged droughts, and more intense and frequent cyclones and floods. These climate impacts severely affect food security, water resources, and livelihoods, especially for the rural population. Ranked 183rd out of 193 in the 2023 Human Development Index, the country has limited capacity to recover from these disasters.

In the central region, particularly Tete, Manica and Gaza provinces recurrent and increasingly frequent droughts lead to crop failures, food insecurity, and child malnutrition, affecting over 11 million people. Water scarcity is increasing, leading to more cholera outbreaks annually. Without support, households living in poverty resort to harmful survival tactics, contributing to environmental degradation. Gender-based violence is common, and marginalized groups are excluded from decision-making. Children lack education on climate change, leaving them unprepared to demand action or build resilient livelihoods. While local governments and communities are well positioned to tackle climate change, they lack the necessary technical and financial resources.

LINK is a ground-breaking climate-adaptation project that aims to increase the climate resilience of 414,857 people. It integrates climate adaptation into the national social protection program targeting the most vulnerable families, to deliver improved food and nutrition security, local job creation, and empowerment for women and youth, and builds their adaptive capacity to withstand the impacts of climate change.