When the rains come late or end too soon, it is not an economic indicator that absorbs the shock. It is a family deciding whether to keep children in school or sell livestock to survive. That human reality sits at the heart of a $30 million climate finance package Zambia has secured to protect its most vulnerable farming communities from the accelerating effects of climate change.
The project “Catalysing a Climate Risk Protection Shield for Zambian Smallholder Farmers” draws on $25 million in grant funding from the Green Climate Fund and $5.26 million in co-financing from One Acre Fund Limited. It will deliver climate risk protection, climate-smart agricultural inputs and land restoration support to farming communities across the country.
Ministry of Finance and National Planning Permanent Secretary Prudence Kaoma described the initiative as a decisive step in embedding climate resilience into Zambia’s development agenda. “Zambia is placing climate risk management at the core of its development. Our accreditation to the Green Climate Fund is not just a technical milestone, it is a mandate to turn climate finance into concrete, measurable results for our people. When the rains come late or end too early, it is not a graph that feels the shock, it is a family deciding whether they can keep children in school or sell livestock to survive. This initiative will ensure timely support, restore degraded land and sustain agricultural productivity through climate-smart solutions,” said Kaoma.
She noted that the project directly supports Zambia’s Nationally Determined Contributions and reflects the government’s commitment to integrating climate resilience into national planning and budgeting, a signal that climate finance is being treated not as a development add-on but as a structural necessity for a country where agriculture and weather are inseparably linked.
