means to invest in more climate-resilient farming practices such as water harvesting and droughttolerant varieties.

Health: Various infectious diseases in Africa are linked to climate (Githeko et al., 2000; WHO, 2004; Thomson et al., 2006). Diseases bear potential to affect household labor and are expected to further increase with climate change. Generally, poor health and sanitation conditions worsened by insufficient water availability act as both driver and consequence of poverty (Malaney et al., 2004).

Gender: The time diverted to household tasks reduces the available time of already climate constrained female-headed households to follow an income generating activity and participate in decision-making (Denton, 2004). Future climate conditions are likely to affect current gender inequalities (Lambrou and Piana, 2005).

Food Security: Food insecurity caused by climate-related agricultural production loss is particularly prevalent in the South of Mozambique (SETSAN, 2005a, b, c) and transport infrastructure significantly hampers effective food distribution in times of disasters.

As a result of the combination of the high exposure to climate events, the high sensitivity and the low adaptation level, climate events have already severely affected poor rural communities. While climate is not directly addressed in the Millennium Development Goals, the examples above show the difficulties to attain MDG 1 given current climate variability. Moreover, climate change is posing further challenges to livelihoods and future development progress may be impeded by the increasing frequency and intensity of climate extremes.

|**MDG 1**|**Impacts of climate variability and change**|**Currently exposed areas**<sup>**6**</sup>|**Affected social groups**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**Eradicate**<br>**extreme**<br>**poverty and**<br>**hunger**|**Current climate variability**<br>• Straining food security due to reduction or failure of<br>agricultural production<br>• Reducing people’s livelihood assets, including housing,<br>education centers, health provision, sanitation supply and<br>road infrastructure as well as the access to water<br>• Tying up work force due to climate-related diseases<br>• Reducing income opportunities<br>**Future climate change**<br>• Straining food insecurity as a result of high flood and erosion<br>risks for the majority of agricultural areas<br>• Destroying maladjusted infrastructure,_e.g.,_housing, roads,<br>education and health centers<br>• Impeding economic development due to destroyed<br>productive assets and diseases<br>• Posing a potential disincentive for investments in high risk<br>areas|**High drought exposure:**<br>Main areas of Maputo and Gaza and<br>parts of Cabo Delgado, Inhambane,<br>Manica, Nampula, Sofala and Tete<br>**High flood** **exposure**:<br>**River valleys and coastal zones**:<br>Inhambane, Gaza, Maputo, Sofala, Tete,<br>Zambézia<br>**High cyclone exposure**:<br>**Coastal zones**: Inhambane, Nampula,<br>Sofala, Zambézia<br>**High exposure to food insecurity:**<br>Gaza, Inhambane, Niassa, Sofala, Tete<br>and major parts of the remaining<br>provinces|• Remote rural<br>communities<br>• Smallholders<br>• Women and girls more<br>severely affected|

**Table 3:** Climate-Impact Matrix for MDG 1 “Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger” (Sources: Expert interviews and literature review).

# **4 Climate adaptation in development assistance**

Official development assistance constitutes 24% of the Mozambican gross national income (OECD/World Bank)<sup>7</sup> and acts therefore as an important development driver. The five main

> 6 Current climate exposure as extracted from SETSAN (2005c).

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