Addressing Southern Africa climate shocks: advocating for child-centred climate resilience and fiscal prioritization

This is a report from the East and Southern Africa Joining Forces Alliance — a coalition including ChildFund, Plan International, Save the Children, SOS Children's Villages, Terre des hommes, and World Vision — published in May 2026. It addresses the escalating climate crisis in Southern Africa, where the region has swung from severe El Niño-driven drought in 2023-2024 to devastating La Niña floods and cyclones in 2025-2026, affecting nearly 1.9 million people. The statement focuses specifically on how these compounding climate shocks are violating children's rights, with orphans and vulnerable children bearing the heaviest burden due to the absence of parental protection.

The report paints a dire picture of a region trapped in a cycle of climate shocks and financial neglect. Crop losses of 40-80% have devastated food security across Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, while floods destroyed over 70,000 homes in Mozambique alone, collapsing vaccine cold chains and health infrastructure. Global climate finance is badly misallocated — flowing toward mitigation projects in wealthier nations while Southern Africa's adaptation needs go critically underfunded, with the region needing up to $190 billion annually but receiving far less. Worse, much of the aid that does arrive comes as market-rate debt, trapping nations in a disaster-debt cycle. The alliance calls for child-sensitive budgeting, concessional grants over debt, localized early warning systems, and debt-for-resilience swaps as urgent remedies.