The 8-Zambezi Basin-member countries in the Southern African region have mooted a US$130 million priority actions to reverse the devastation of the climate change to strengthen food security, livelihoods and ecosystem resilience.

A meeting hosted in Harare, the Zimbabwe capital, resolved to among other actions to advance the Program for Building Resilience of Food, Livelihoods and Ecosystems in the Zambezi River Basin, maximizing the $130 million regional fund to be financed by member states, among other resolutions.

According to the Zambezi Basin, eight countries in SADC share the Zambezi Basin. Zambia contains~40.7%, Angola, ~18.2%, Zimbabwe, ~18.0%, Mozambique, ~11.4%, Malawi, ~7.7%, Botswana, uses ~2.8%, Tanzania, while Namibia shares ~2.0% of the basin on agreed priority actions.

This is arguably to advance the Programme for Building Resilience of Food, Livelihoods and Ecosystems in the Zambezi River Basin (BREFOLE-ZRB), a regional programme that aims to strengthen food security, livelihoods and ecosystem resilience in the Zambezi River Basin.

Architectural designs describe the basin, a regional economic lifeline, and ranking among the continent’s largest river systems, powering the Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams, sustaining agriculture, fisheries and tourism around Victoria Falls, and providing drinking water to millions.

But that same reliance on so many fronts leaves it exposed. Droughts choke off hydropower, floods wreck farmland, and both extremes are getting worse as the climate warms and more people depend on the river each year.

Climate change poses severe and interconnected threats to the Zambezi River Basin, which supports roughly 40 million people across eight riparian countries, Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The basin is faced with frequent and intense droughts, which have reduced water levels in major reservoirs like Lake Kariba to multi-decade lows.

Conversely, the region is increasingly struck by severe storms and cyclones (such as Cyclone Eline and subsequent Category 4 storms in Mozambique), causing catastrophic flooding, destruction of homes, and loss of life.

The basin because of its location, relies heavily on major hydroelectric installations—including Kariba and Cahora Bassa.

Low water levels and dry spells severely limit power generation, triggering widespread and prolonged load shedding across countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Over 70% to 80% of freshwater abstraction in basin countries goes toward agriculture, making smallholder farmers highly vulnerable to erratic rainfall and rising temperatures that ruin corn and staple harvests.

This drives regional food insecurity, rising food prices, and acute child malnutrition, in turn disrupting agriculture and food security.

Plunging water flows, rising water temperatures, and degraded wetlands are other factors that have affected the Zambezi Basin ecosystem, ruin natural habitats, causing fish stock collapses that devastate local fishing communities.

Heightening and indiscriminate cutting of trees in the Zambezi Basin has worsened rural poverty, and accelerates forest clearance, charcoal production, and agricultural encroachment in critical headwater areas (such as Zambia’s North-Western Province and Angola’s highlands), reducing the landscape’s capacity to regulate water flow naturally, among other headwinds.

The basin relies heavily on major hydroelectric installations—including Kariba and Cahora Bassa. Low water levels and dry spells severely limit power generation, triggering widespread and prolonged load shedding across countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Over 70% to 80% of freshwater abstraction in basin countries goes toward agriculture, making smallholder farmers highly vulnerable to erratic rainfall and rising temperatures that ruin corn and staple harvests. This drives regional food insecurity, rising food prices, and acute child malnutrition, data shows.

Interest groups, realizing the accelerating pace of devastation, seek resilience through mitigation and adaptation with funding from African Development Bank and other lending institutions to restore the basin

Meetings held from 9-11 and at the close of September in Zimbabwe, the eight countries, deliberated on various shortcomings including reviews to technical designs, financing allocations, implementation arrangements, geographic priorities and environmental and social safeguards of the future program.

The meetings further embraced the need to attract investments from eight member countries as part of the shared basin benefits.

It further sought to address gender inclusion and alignment with national priorities, the Strategic Plan for the Zambezi Watercourse (ZSP 2018–2040) and the Southern Africa Great Green Wall Initiative.

Zambezi Watercourse Commission, the African Development Bank, the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Government of Zimbabwe formed part of the meeting.

The meeting which also included regional technical partners, civil society organizations, and private-sector representatives.

It served as a precursor to the Appraisal Mission for the design of the BREFOLEZRB Program, with a financing package of around $130 million to redress the shortcomings.

The initial funding to be shared among countries $130 million forms part of the regional climate resilience program to protect food systems, community livelihoods, and ecosystems.

The key resolutions and commitments emerging from the Harare workshop require member states.

The meeting, opened by Emma Ndhlovu, the Senior Water Officer in Zambia’s Ministry of Water Development and Sanitation, sought for sustained engagement across sectors and countries, arguing time has come to migrate from programme preparation to programme ownership and action.”

Eng. Ndlovu urge stakeholders to translate the shared regional vision into lasting results.

The member states resolved among others, that countries allocate at least 10 percent of national budgets toward localized activities that tie directly into the benefits and priority areas of the basin-wide program.

There is need to strengthen transboundary and local land governance frameworks to minimize environmental degradation and prevent tenure disputes as part of the Enhanced Land Governance.

It called for prioritising integrated regional responses over isolated national projects, utilizing solutions like wetland restoration, riverbank vegetation protection, and sustainable agriculture to mitigate localized droughts and floods, as part of the Nature-Based Solutions.