Zambia Among First Countries To Benefit From Nature, People And Climate Investment Programme

Zambia has been selected to be part of the first countries that will benefit from the Climate Investment Funds’ new Nature, People and Climate (NPC) investment programme.

Zambia and four of its neighbours namely, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania jointly presented their letter of interest to participate in the investment programme to preserve the environmental integrity of the Zambezi Basin.

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) announced at the on-going 27th Session of Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27) that the five southern African countries were selected as the first countries to participate in the NPC programme, together with the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Fiji and Kenya. 

Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, and Tanzania that are part of the Zambezi River Basin Region presented a joint vision to preserve the environmental integrity of the larger Zambezi basin. The objective is to maintain valuable ecosystem services that support food security and economic development and build resilience to climate change.

Through the NPC investment programme, at least 20,000 farmers will be trained in conservation agriculture and 30,000 hectares of wetlands preserved. According to CIF, at present, contributor-countries have pledged US$350 million to NPC to pilot and scale nature-based climate solutions in developing countries, including Zambia.
Reacting to the announcement, Minister of Green Economy and Environment Honourable Collins Nzovu, expressed Zambia’s gratitude.

“This comes at the right time as the Zambian Government has upscaled its resource mobilisation efforts to address the various challenges its people are facing due to climate change,” said Hon. Nzovu. “We have high ambitions as a country, and support from partners like CIF will be very important going forward. We look forward to quickly work together in mutually beneficial engagements.”

The NPC investments will focus on promoting and protecting natural environments integral to climate action, sustainable agriculture and food supply, healthy forests, resilient coastal systems, and empowers Indigenous peoples and local communities.

The aim of the programme is to support the first group of participating countries, after they present investment plans, to meet some of their most pressing climate challenges.

The Zambezi River flows from Zambia to Mozambique and the Indian Ocean, crossing seven countries and providing one of the largest freshwater catchments in Africa and worldwide.

About 47 million people live along the shores of the Zambezi watercourse, most of them dependent on rain fed agriculture. With climate change, Zambezi basin farmers and communities are faced with emerging risks of drought, decreased crop yields, and damaging floods. Therefore, the NPC will protect the Zambezi River’s headwaters, and forest areas and wetlands along the watercourse, and communities can adapt, safeguard livelihoods, and at the same time contribute to mitigate climate change.