Key findings:

Zambia is experiencing increasingly frequent and severe droughts, longer dry spells, higher temperatures, flash floods, and changes in the growing seasons, which are projected to worsen by 2050. These climate-driven disruptions are affecting the country's economic performance, particularly in the copper mining and agriculture sectors, leading to food insecurity and other socioeconomic transformations.

The workshop identified four pathways through which climate and societal changes interact and reinforce pre-existing drivers of vulnerabilities to produce peace and security risks in Zambia: (i) competition over water resources, (ii) land-based conflicts, (iii) worsening livelihood conditions, and (iv) human mobility.

Key findings on gender equality and food systems:

* Women are more vulnerable to water scarcity and poor water infrastructure, which affects their access to safe drinking water and increases their risk of sexual and gender-based violence.

* Women have limited participation in land allocation processes and are often excluded from land ownership, which contributes to high levels of poverty and vulnerability to climate-related shocks.

* Women are more likely to experience sexual and gender-based violence when they are forced to migrate or seek alternative livelihoods due to climate-related economic hardship.

* Women and girls are more likely to be forced into early marriage as a way to reduce the economic burden on their households, which can lead to a range of negative consequences, including limited access to education and economic opportunities.

* Women's agency, knowledge, and experiences should be at the heart of all solutions to climate change, and consideration should be given to identifying which groups of women and men may face exclusion from climate-related intervention.

Recommendations:

To address these challenges, the report recommends:

1. Building the required evidence by investing in research that combines climate vulnerability assessments with the analysis of peace and conflict dynamics.

2. Re-thinking relevant policy and governance frameworks for conflict-sensitive climate action, such as revising the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (NAP) to include peace and conflict considerations.

3. Leveraging climate resilience programming as an entry point for conflict prevention and peacebuilding responses, such as promoting climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices and technologies.

4. Investing in anticipatory action and prevention by supporting the establishment and operationalization of national multi-hazard early warning systems.

Overall, the report emphasizes the need for a high-level (political) vision that integrates climate action, conflict prevention, and peacebuilding elements, and for cross-disciplinary and multistakeholder collaboration and partnerships across ministries and sectors.