Summary

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa which makes it highly vulnerable to direct or indirect impacts of climate change. It is one of the least contributors to GHG emissions, with the contribution being less than 0.1%. Zimbabwe graduated from being among the least developed countries (LDC) to being a developing country, and is now a lower-middle economy with a national vision to transform the country to an upper middle-income economy by 2030. Zimbabwe has strengthened its mitigation contribution to be a 40% reduction per capita GHG emissions below the projected Business As Usual (BAU) scenario, which is a significant 7% increase from the 33% reduction in per capita emissions targeted in the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) from 2020, which focused on the energy sector only. Further, with 70% of people in Zimbabwe employed (directly or indirectly) in agriculture and forestry, Zimbabwe’s NDC makes a strong effort to outline critical climate adaptation solutions.

On gender mainstreaming, women are beneficiaries to adaptation measures in the NDC, which also addresses their high vulnerability to climate change impacts as a large share of the agricultural workforce. In addition to it’s National Gender Action Plan, created in 2017, gender mainstreaming is a strategy the government is employing across all adaptation actions to reduce the gender bias of climate action initiatives with the mantra “Leave no one Behind” as part of the country’s vision 2030 stipulated in the National Development Strategy. Zimbabwe’s NDC also recognizes that gender equality is central to climate action and a prerequisite for poverty reduction, food and nutrition security, and sustainable development. Example actions include learning about gender barriers to accessing information on climate impacts and new climate-smart technologies and utilizing data from an assessment on gender impacts of climate policies to inform climate mitigation. 

On youth inclusion, Zimbabwe is working on engaging young people in climate action as stakeholders, beneficiaries, and implementers of NDCs, following the guidelines of its 2013 National Youth Policy that “ensures the active involvement of young people in national development” and aims to “foster skills, entrepreneurship, environmental education, and active participation in environmental conservation.” For example, some youths are participating in the NDCs process as GHG inventory experts and Biennial Transparency Report reviewers, which enables youth participation in some of the climate change initiatives. Further, the NDC acknowledges the importance of increasing access to resources, markets, and information for young people, particularly rural farmers. Despite its youth inclusion efforts, the only action to focus on youth relates to climate-smart agriculture.