Policy Brief Children and Climate Change in Zimbabwe
Key Findings and Recommendations
About
Children are already experiencing climate change and climate variability
The study found that children living in Agro- ecological Regions IV and V were seriously affected. Direct impacts of droughts were food shortages, causing hunger and malnutrition, and poverty.
“This area experiences drought every year and a lot of families do not have food.”
“When l am hungry l feel weak and sleepy even when the teacher is talking.”
Parents struggling to secure food or get money to buy food, puts emotional and psychological stresses on children.
“When there is no food at home you cannot even talk to parents easily. Sometimes you cannot tell them that you have been sent away from school for non-payment of school fees because of fear of making them angry.”
Parents were engaged in alternative livelihood strategies to cope with the impacts of climate change that sometimes harmed children. Migration of one or both parents to neighbouring countries to engage in work left children vulnerable to neglect and abuse.
