Building Resilience in the greater uMngeni Catchment, South Africa

This project aims to reduce climate vulnerability and increase the resilience and adaptive capacity in rural and peri-urban settlements and small-scale farmers in productive landscapes in the uMgungundlovu District Municipality (UMDM), KwaZulu Natal Province, South Africa, that are threatened by climate variability and change, through an integrated adaptation approach.

This is enabled through implementing a suite of complementary gender sensitive project interventions, focusing on:

• early warning and ward-based disaster response systems
• ecological and engineering infrastructure solutions specifically focused on vulnerable communities, including women
• integrating the use of climate-resilient crops and climate-smart techniques into new and existing farming systems
• disseminating adaptation lessons learned and policy recommendations, to facilitate scaling up and replication

A number of sites have been identified by the UMDM as demonstration sites for the project. Four sites have been selected, based on the results of a vulnerability assessment, stakeholder consultations, and subsequent short-listing and ground-truthing through site visits. The sites are:

• low-lying high-density settlements
• the rural area of Ward 8 of Vulindlela, Msunduzi Local Municipality
• the rural farming area of Ward 8 of Swayimane, uMshwathi Local Municipality
• the rural area of Ward 5 of Nhlazuka, Richmond Local Municipality.

The majority of the population in the province of KwaZulu-Natal lives in rural or peri-urban areas, often in informal settlements; UMDM has a population of one million people, with a high percentage of poverty, HIV/AIDS prevalence and a very high proportion of female-headed households.

Project Documents