Early Lessons from Implementation of Climate Change Adaptation Projects in South-eastern Africa Regional Workshop in Maputo, Mozambique

This report documents a regional workshop held in Maputo, Mozambique, on April 24-25, 2007, focused on sharing early lessons from the implementation of climate change adaptation projects in south-eastern Africa. The event brought together practitioners, government officials, and researchers to discuss coping strategies for extreme events, health impacts, and energy and natural resource vulnerabilities, while exploring tools for project design and financing mechanisms.

• In Mozambique, the impact of natural disasters differs by type: droughts are the primary cause of loss of life, with six occurring in the 1990s, while floods are the main driver of human displacement, with 10 events recorded from the year 2000.
• A people-centered early-warning system (SIDPABB) in the Buzi river basin of Mozambique contributed to a significant reduction in flood-related fatalities. While over 700 people died during Cyclone Eline in 2000, floods of greater magnitude in 2007 resulted in fewer than 20 deaths.
• Climate change impacts on health in Zambia are being studied through the lens of malaria, which is the country's second largest killer disease. A project funded by IIED used national archives and discarded health facility files to retrieve health data dating back to the 1940s and 1960s to establish climate-health linkages.
• Sea level rise in Tanzania is threatening the fresh water supply of approximately eight million people as the sea reclaims land and inundates coastal wells.
• In Rwanda, where 90 per cent of electricity is derived from hydropower but only 1 per cent of the population has access, a pilot project is working to reduce the energy sector's vulnerability through watershed management of the Rugezi wetland and improved power station operations.
• The Nhambita Community Carbon project in Mozambique uses the Plan Vivo tool to manage carbon offset projects by small farms. This initiative has generated income used by the community to build a school, improve wells, and construct a new clinic.
• The workshop identified several barriers to adaptation implementation in Mozambique, including a lack of climate and risk data, poor capacity for data interpretation, centralized early warning systems, and the absence of a clear national strategy on climate change.
• Practitioners discussed the difficulty of distinguishing between 'adaptation' and 'development' projects. It was noted that more funds are typically allocated to disaster relief (addressing what has happened) than to disaster preparedness (preventing future events).
• The workshop presented two specific methodologies for adaptation: CRiSTAL (Community-based Risk Screening - Adaptation and Livelihoods), a computer-based tool for assessing impacts on adaptive capacity, and SSNAPP (SouthSouthNorth Adaptation Project Protocol), which uses poverty and climate maps to identify 'hotspots'.
• Regarding financing, the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) was reported to have approximately US$100 million in voluntary contributions to help LDC countries prepare National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), while the Special Climate Change Fund had about US$400 million.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2007). Early Lessons from Implementation of Climate Change Adaptation Projects in South-eastern Africa Regional Workshop in Maputo, Mozambique. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/early_lessons_workshop_report.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Early Lessons from Implementation of Climate Change Adaptation Projects in South-eastern Africa Regional Workshop in Maputo, Mozambique. 2007. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/early_lessons_workshop_report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Early Lessons from Implementation of Climate Change Adaptation Projects in South-eastern Africa Regional Workshop in Maputo, Mozambique |date=April 2007 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/early_lessons_workshop_report.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2007early, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Early Lessons from Implementation of Climate Change Adaptation Projects in South-eastern Africa Regional Workshop in Maputo, Mozambique}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2007}, month = apr, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/early_lessons_workshop_report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }