Climate change is projected to have serious impacts on the agriculture of southern Africa, affecting food availability, creating local production shortfalls and resulting in rising commodity prices. This report highlights the risks to agriculture and food systems that may occur in two counties of the region, Malawi and Zambia.

In September 2015, governments at the United Nations took a major step towards defining a common framework for future action, when they adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the new Agenda 2030. Among other things, this included a commitment under SDG 2 to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030.

This document provides a regional assessment of food security and vulnerability for SADC member countries, and aims to synthesise national level vulnerability assessments, facilitate discussions and a shared vision for reducing vulnerability, and discuss emerging trends in vulnerability assessments.

Global agricultural production is growing steadily across most commodities, reaching record levels in 2017 for most cereals, meat types, dairy products and fish, while cereal stock levels have climbed to all-time highs, according to an annual report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the UN's Food and Agriculture