Zambia is a landlocked sub-Saharan African country sharing boundaries with Angola, Botswana, the democratic republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. It belongs to the least developing countries (LDC).

39.2% of the population lives in the urban areas making Zambia one of the highly urbanized countries within Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Zambia?s life expectancy is just 42 years, due in large part to poverty and HIV/AIDS.

An estimated 73% of Zambians are classified as poor. The level of poverty in the rural areas, where 64% of the population resides, is about 83%. Poverty is attributed to lack of economic growth. Zambia?s economic growth is constrained by many factors but of key concern are macroeconomic instability, low savings, low investment, food insecurity and unemployment. In addition, human resource productivity is constrained by HIV/AIDS and its social consequences.

Zambia enjoys a sub-tropical climate with three distinct seasons. The hot and dry seasons starts in mid-August and ends in November with temperatures that range between26 and 38 degrees Celsius; the cool dry season starts from May to mid-August with temperatures that range between 13 and 26 degrees Celsius and the rainy season which runs from November to April. During the rainy season the temperatures range from 27 to 34 degrees Celsius. The rainfall is unimodal and is influenced by movement of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). The rainfall increases from an annual average of 600mm in the lower south to 1300mm in the upper north of the country. Drought conditions have been on the increase during the last 30 years with the 1991-1992 drought being the worst experienced so far while the 1978 -1979 periods saw the wettest conditions in Zambia. From 2000 to 2007, there have been two drought years, two flood years and two normal condition years. The intensity and frequency of droughts and floods has been increasing. The geographical distribution of these events has also been changing.

These climatic variations have caused immense food security problems including destruction to humans, wildlife and economic infrastructure. The impact of the 2006 to 2007 floods in all the affected areas was cross-cutting affecting 1,443,583 people in 41 districts of Zambia?s nine provinces. The floods also affected all sectors of the economy.

Flooding and cyclone as are major concern in southern Africa during the rainy season (October to April). The increasing frequency and intensity of such events has raised questions about the link between these floods and cyclones and climate change. The 2008/2009 season has brought late but intense and above average rainfall in Zambia and its neighbors from January to April affecting atleast 580,000 people. The inability of most African governments to mitigate extreme natural events demonstrates the difficulties they will face in investing for adaptation strategies that would minimise the impact of climate change.