Climate Change Resilience Strategies and Implications On National Security : A Case of Zambia

This paper analyses strategies on climate change and their repercussions to the security of Zambia. Allying the polices noted in the above literature, the study aims at establishing the following: This study examines the available policies to understand how they have influenced the management of climate change related issues; especially with regard to food and water security and socio-economic stability. Consequently, the study adopted the following objectives: To assess the existing policies and strategies on climate change in Zambia, To assess the impact of existing policies/strategies on climate change mitigation and adaptation in Zambia and finally, To identify how to enhance the existing policies/strategies to reduce the effects of climate change impact on security in Zambia. The research used interview with some stakeholders and literature review as research instrument in considering climate change policies and adaptation measures in Zambia. Qualitative interviews were carried out with persons selected from the government, the policy-making institutions, universities, and civil society organizations with a view of understanding their attitudes and experiences as regards climate change policy and planning. On the part of background study, a critique of various academic articles, government reports and policy documents gave background information for analysis. The study identified different climate change policies and plans in Zambia that included matters relating to combating hunger through supporting sustainable agriculture, promotion of renewable energy, disaster risk management and sustainable natural resources management. Despite the understanding these policies brought, concerns continued regarding the ability to implement these policies, lack of funds associated with the same as well as socio-economic issues that surrounded the issue at hand. However, despite the measures in place to mitigate climate change, the effect on food and water insecurity and human security were still huge especially to communities in need. Based on this, the study pointed at the urgency of improving the measures against climate change in Zambia and the issue of policy effectiveness and execution. Despite the efforts made towards capacity development, however, there has been a strong need posed to enhance, innovate, and advance multi-stakeholder collaboration to address climate change effects. It is important for socio-economic status including poverty and inequalities to be given attention in order to achieve a level of fairness in resilience as the effort is being deployed across the communities. Accordingly, some of the propositions that the study suggested as measures to improve Zambian response to climate change include the following. Firstly, it can be also stated that there is a requirement for further development of cooperation between different levels of the state power, NGOs and businesses regarding effective climate change policies and measures. This encompasses creating partnership, resource exchange, and goal congruency in an effort to amplify the effects in the organization. Moreover, there is a need for higher spending on mitigation activities on climate change, especially to the vulnerable groups so as to strengthen the socio-economic systems that have been made vulnerable by climate impacts.