PROGRAMMES

The profile states:

Studies show 76% Zambia's smallholder farmers are vulnerable to climate impacts, only 24% are resilient.

We are further convinced that climate change impacts do not just adversely affect livelihoods but also push exposed communities into adopting negative coping mechanisms that also serve as drivers of climate change, particularly the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources leading to damage to sensitive ecosystems.

This observation calls for deliberate efforts towards restoration of damaged ecosystems and prudent maintenance of those not yet severally damaged as an integral component of diversifying and climate-proofing rural livelihoods.

The profile states:

60% of Zambia's population relies on ecosystems for livelihood.

We are alive to the segregation of climate impacts by sex and age, putting mainly women, children and persons with disabilities in harm's way.

Women bear the brunt of climate impacts more than men.

Children get robbed of their childhood by situations created by climate impacts whereas persons with disabilities have their vulnerabilities worsened.

Young people have their future disrupted or permanently altered on account of socio-economic implications and cultural dimensions brought about by climate change impacts.

Several protection issues arise in the midst of such heightened hazard-induced contexts, rights of exposed and affected individuals and groups get subordinated to other considerations or largely abrogated.

Owing to the foregoing, we have packaged our programming through the identified ‘Focus Areas’ that collectively build our case for embracing the outlined vision and mission statement which we believe when adequately addressed can mitigate the multilayer impacts affecting the identified groups mentioned herein.

The profile states:

By 2023, rural poverty in Zambia is still high at 78%

77% of rural female-headed households live in poverty

Considering a proportion of closer to 46% urban population in 1,716,995 urban households in Zambia and much of that being increasingly concentrated in hazard prone areas, with the capital Lusaka and its hinterland claiming about 16% of national population with at least 687,923 households of which about 70% live in poorly serviced peri-urban settlements, there is an observable steady rise in hazard exposed populations sustained by triple effect of urban to urban migration, rural to urban migration, and net natural increase.

As urban planning areas become increasingly underbounded leading to land scarcity and skyrocketing land pricing systems, many, especially the urban poor find themselves shunted in dangerous locations not suitable for habitation thereby shouldering the brunt of urban climate impacts.

This leaves more assets exposed to hazards, rising economic losses, disrupting urban livelihoods, amidst an upsurge in seasonal epidemics and increasing vulnerability.

With an informed overview of the rural-urban nexus, SUVIZA sees urban climate crises as a compounding challenge that is already undermining rural livelihoods as well since urban areas are the productive hearts of the economy and do not only provide ready market for rural produce but also supply services, goods, tools and technologies pertinent to rural development.

It is therefore imperative that appropriate measures to highlight urban climate impacts are put into programming focal areas and regional-level urban interventions.

• Lusaka sources at least 40% of its water from Kafue

• Lusaka meets only 92% of its water demand

• Only 14% are covered under the municipal sewer network

• This necessitates a surge in seasonal epidemics

There are five (05) programme focus areas that SUVIZA has chosen through which to bring the above described scenario to fruition.

These are:

1. Disaster Preparedness / Anticipation & Local Climate Action

2. Environmental Management and Ecosystem Restoration

3. Livelihood Support

4. Youths (Adolescent Girls) & Women Empowerment

5. Child Safeguarding and Protection

The above focus areas require a multiplicity of modalities contextualised to the geophysical and socio-cultural uniqueness of intervention geographical areas as well as the target group in focus.

SUVIZA adopted locally-led interventions spearheaded by individuals with identifiable situations or conditions that get linked up with available service clusters in their communities as first line of response and thereafter linked to relevant service providers outside the immediate community for services not locally available.

This includes inventorising individual skillsets necessary for engagement in other local activities.

This modality basically links those in need to services and those with skills to where their skills are needed.

This is done through, among other ways, individual interactions, family case conferences, and community dialogues among the community members of the available services and networks for their benefit.

Although cash-based interventions (CBI) and cash and voucher assistance (CBA) are a growing response and preparedness modality of reaching out to needy communities, linking such interventions to critical services that are essential for social transformation of exposed communities is becoming more essential now in view of the need to continuously build local resilience with dignity, especially in the face of rising frequency of hazardous extreme events.

Essential services of public good are to be mutually agreed upon using evidence-based participatory needs assessments.