Zambian Poverty Dynamics and Climate Resilience

The past ten years have witnessed a greater intensity of climate-related crises in Zambia. Alongside this, the number of people living in poverty in Zambia continues to grow. This article investigates key drivers of resilience to poverty and to climate change in Zambia, and as part of this, what the key institutional responses are and policy opportunities to strengthen climate resilience alongside resilience to poverty. It relies on mixed-methods data from 2010 to the present in Zambia: the Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Survey panel (2010–2019), the Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (2022), and qualitative data collection across nine provinces in Zambia (2019–2024). Study findings indicate that climate resilience is in great part built on a foundation of escaping poverty and developing capacities to remain out of poverty. However, degrees of climate resilience can be enabled at lower levels of wellbeing through policies that support climate-smart agriculture and economic diversification.