Furthermore, recent climate events such as the floods of 2000 and 2007 have undone years of development efforts and the adverse impacts of climate change may further slow Mozambique’s development. The recovery costs following recent climate extremes (Table 2) provide an indication of the magnitude of the annually occurring damages. In Mozambique annual growth was estimated at only 2% after the devastating floods in 2000, having severely declined from 8% beforehand (Washington et al., 2004).

|**Province**|**Rural**<br>**Poverty**||**Droughts**||**Recov**|**ery costs (tho**<br>**Floods**|**usand USD)**||**Cyclones**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**2002/3**|**2003/4 **|**2004/5**|**2002/3**|**2003/4**|**2004/5**|**2002/3**|**2003/4 **|**2004/5**|
|CaboDelgado|64.8|2,324|113|50|231|2,385|76|589|589|82|
|Gaza|61.0|2,222|8|208|903|2,757|707|419|1,548|373|
|Inhambane|84.7|8,199|182|27|894|329|866|1,504|75|8|
|Manica|32.0|1,715|248|73|233|1,303|145|0|85|80|
|Maputo|83.0|4,523|9,095|285|576|4,873|281|380|60|312|
|Nampula|58.7|4,032|117|438|529|1,166|94|4,998|2,836|738|
|Niassa|49.7|1,587|93|35|448|0|0|0|0|0|
|Sofala|40.8|1,185|970|250|191|806|1,028|434|1,300|709|
|Tete|57.8|2,276|2,081|2,191|90|83|3,160|0|0|0|
|Zambézia|45.0|4,695|521|819|987|844|1,786|666|442|1,019|
|**Total**|**55.2**|**32,756**|**13,428**|**4,376**|**5,082**|**14,546**|**8,143**|**8,991**|**6,935**|**3,321**|

**Table 2** : Recovery costs following climate impacts between 2002 and 2004. (Source: GoM, 2004).

Little progress has been made in relation to MDG 1 (Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger), which targets primarily the 86% of the Mozambican population living in rural areas (INE, 2005). Current climate impacts felt by the poor largely arise through inter-annual climate variability (e.g. seasonal droughts) and extreme events (severe seasonal flooding and cyclones). The poor are particularly vulnerable due to variety of factors, including the exposure of their livelihood assets, the lack of access to services, poor infrastructure, limited capacity to cope with adverse events, and prevalence of climate-related diseases. These are frequently exacerbated by food insecurity and gender-specific stress factors (Table 3). Some of the key climate-related factors that were identified through expert interviews include: High degree of exposure of the rural poor: The livelihoods of the poor largely depend on agricultural activities, including farming in areas prone to drought, floods, and cyclones. This exposes their physical assets such as shelter, livestock, and crops to direct damages due adverse events, and tends to increase poverty in the long-term due to the loss of productive assets. Many of Mozambique smallholder farmers are among the poorest and practice farming in downstream areas of the Mozambique river basins that frequently experience flooding and upland areas affected by seasonal drought Limited access to water, economic opportunities and infrastructure: The isolation of rural communities with a lack of economic opportunities and social infrastructure poses a major challenge to poverty reduction in face of adverse climate impacts (Wiles et al., 2005; Chigwada, 2004).

Limited capacity to adapt: The capacity of the poor to adapt to seasonal climate variations and respond to extreme events is frequently limited due to a variety of factors, including limited 6