Designed in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, our Agricultura Resiliente ao Clima (ARCA) Sofala project uses a nexus approach which integrates climate-smart agriculture, market access, and water and energy to increase productivity and incomes and improve access to water and sanitation.

During its first half (2019 – 2021) ARCA Sofala focused on beneficiaries‘ immediate fodo security needs post cyclone Idai. Adopting climate-smart agriculture helped to immediately increase their yields and, in the longer term, build resilience to future similar shocks (our projects have shown first hand how, when a cyclone hits, adopting conservation agriculture can make the difference between harvesting something and nothing at all). Now in its second half, ARCA is has turned its focus to include more market-led production through activities which increase farmers‘ access to makets and higher margins, for instance by supporting farmers to aggregate, store, add value to and find premium markets for products. ARCA is also improving community-based WASH infrastructure for both home consuption and productive uses (by upgrading selected water infrastructure into multi-use systems), and providing training and institutional support  for water management commmittees to manage community infrastructure.