Climate Finance for Building Resilience in Rural Southern Africa: A Systematic Review of the Status Quo, Gaps, and Prospects

Southern Africa bears the brunt of climate change compared to other parts of the world due to low resilience and limited adaptive capacity. While Southern Africa is currently receiving the least climate, finance directed to other regions in African, much of the finance received is not directed to the rural areas, which are disproportionally affected by climate change. This chapter adopted a qualitative research design anchored on systematic review of academic and grey literature in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, and Malawi. The chapter examines the status quo, gaps, and prospects of climate finance in building resilience in these Southern African countries. Southern Africa faces intricate challenges of balancing the huge climate financing gap and the pressing climate financing needed for mitigation and adaptation. Strengthening both domestic and international resource mobilization thus becomes imperative, alongside creating a favourable environment for private sector investments in climate-smart technologies and renewable energy. Additionally, it was revealed that very few studies have been conducted to specifically investigate climate finance in rural areas of Southern Africa which calls for more empirical studies to be conducted in order to show a clear picture of climate finance in rural areas which are mostly affected by climate change impacts.