Paving Zambia’s Future: How Climate-Resilient Roads Are Driving Change
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f you ever find yourself journeying across the vast Zambian countryside, you’ll quickly realize that roads are lifelines. They connect smallholder farmers to bustling markets, help families reach clinics and schools, and open gateways to trade with neighboring countries. Yet across much of the country, heavy rains can brutally cut off these crucial transport arteries. When the scorching heat arrives, cracks in the pavement become gaping holes. These challenges, sharpened by climate change, are precisely what the Zambia Transport Corridors for Economic Resilience (TRACER) project sets out to address.
A Bold Vision for Connectivity
Launched in partnership with the World Bank Group (WBG), Zambia’s Road Development Agency (RDA), and the Ministry of Transportation and Logistics, and supported by the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), the TRACER project aims to enhance Zambia’s connectivity and resilience by improving and reinforcing several critical transport corridors, and enhancing the institutional capacities to manage the regional road-rail corridors. The project includes the rehabilitation of 200 kilometers of the Serenje–Mpika road stretch along the Dar es Salaam corridor—a vital trade route that links Zambia to Tanzania. It also includes constructing a modern One Stop Border Post at Nakonde and establishing a SMART corridor between Lusaka and Nakonde to streamline the transport of goods and people. Finally, the project will support the design development for the renovation of road sections along the Nacala and Trans-Caprivi corridors, two key routes essential to Zambia’s national and international connectivity.
At the heart of this initiative is a commitment to climate resilience. With support from GCA, stakeholders have developed a comprehensive strategy to future-proof Zambia’s main corridors. Drawing on high-resolution climate data, project teams identify flood-prone areas, heat-vulnerable road sections, and opportunities for sustainable enhancements, such as better drainage systems and nature-based solutions that work in tandem with infrastructure.
With GCA’s support, Zambia’s first corridor-level climate vulnerability assessment was conducted under the TRACER project, providing a scientific foundation to enhance the resilience of the Serenje-Mpika road and paving the way for similar advancements across the country’s key transport corridors,”
“When ecosystems surrounding an infrastructure are strengthened, we build lasting resilience,” said Cedric Malaval, Specialist – Infrastructure and Nature-Based Solutions at GCA. “For instance, wetlands or woodlands along a highway can help manage excess water, preventing runoff and erosion from undermining the road embankment. And beyond the engineering benefits, these ecosystems can support biodiversity and livelihoods.”
Why Zambia and Why Now
Zambia’s position as a landlocked country underscores the urgency of building robust corridors. Copper—the country’s economic lifeblood—makes up 80% of exports, most of which must travel by road or rail to reach seaports. According to a 2018 Climate Vulnerability Assessment, key corridors already face medium to high climate risks, from searing temperatures to intense rainfall events.
New findings from GCA’s analysis indicate that severe drought events are drastically intensifying—increasing in frequency from once every 25 years to once every 3–5 years. Additionally, all road sections studied are likely to be exposed to increased extreme temperatures (around +2°C). This is not a distant threat: higher temperatures and drought stress can cause pavement to buckle and degrade more quickly.
The stakes are high for communities living near these transport links. Only 17% of the population resides within two kilometers of an all-season road, and unreliable access can disrupt everything from school attendance to the timely delivery of food and medicine. As climate extremes become more frequent, the simplest journey can turn into a feat of endurance. The 2024 drought underscored the severity of the challenge, hitting agricultural zones especially hard, particularly communities dependent on subsistence farming. The absence of resilient connectivity systems further exacerbated their difficulties.
A People-Centered Approach
At its core, TRACER is about more than pouring concrete and laying asphalt; it’s about improving lives. Over 800,000 people—including about 255,000 women—will benefit from these upgrades, with tangible impacts on safety, travel time, and economic opportunities.
An integral aspect of the project is gender-disaggregated analysis, ensuring the needs of women and girls are not overlooked. This means studying which roads they rely on to access markets, clinics, and schools, and identifying secondary or tertiary routes that often serve as essential lifelines for rural communities and vulnerable groups.
“A single closure can disrupt entire communities,” emphasized Mr. Malaval. “When you think of women needing to reach antenatal care or girls traveling long distances to attend school, investing in resilient roads becomes a direct investment in public health, education, and gender equality.”
Nature-Based Solutions and Beyond
One of GCA’s key contributions is to identify nature-based solutions (NbS) that complement traditional engineering. For instance, rehabilitating wetlands near road corridors can absorb surplus water during heavy rainfall, mitigating floods. Reforestation can stabilize slopes, reducing erosion and landslides that might otherwise degrade road platforms. Such approaches can extend the functional lifespan of vital infrastructure at relatively low cost, while also creating co-benefits like carbon sequestration and habitat restoration.
“We believe that integrated approaches, including nature-based solutions, are vital in fortifying transport systems against climate risks,” added Mr. Malaval. “They help us move from engineering solutions to embrace a more holistic form of resilience.”
Building Skills for the Long Term
Underpinning the physical works is an emphasis on capacity building. GCA’s training modules, including a masterclass on climate-resilient infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships, will equip local authorities, engineers, and policymakers with the know-how to integrate climate adaptation into planning policies and adaptation measures into infrastructure design processes. This “learn-by-doing” philosophy aims to embed climate resilience into Zambia’s transport sector well beyond the lifespan of a single project.
In addition, stakeholder dialogues convened everyone from government agencies to community leaders to discuss specific adaptation options and share lessons learned. These conversations have already shaped the short list of resilience measures planned for future corridor projects, ensuring that solutions remain grounded in local realities.
Bridging Zambia to the Future
With a $270 million investment, TRACER is charting a path to safeguard economic development, community well-being, and inter-regional trade. Early assessments show that high-altitude stretches of road face fewer flood risks, but vulnerable segments demand careful design tweaks—reinforced drainage, elevated roadbeds, or ecosystem buffers—to cope with increasingly volatile weather.
By weaving climate data, gender-inclusive planning, and local knowledge into every stage, the project envisions a new era of connectivity for Zambia—one where roads endure brutal dry spells and torrential storms alike. And there’s a ripple effect: if TRACER succeeds in protecting livelihoods and spurring growth, it will stand as a model for other African nations tackling similar climate threats.
“A resilient road is much more than just an infrastructure,” concluded Mr. Malaval. “It’s an avenue for opportunity, a line of defense against climate shocks for communities, and a lifeline for families. The decisions we make today will echo for decades to come, shaping Zambia’s future for the better.”
GCA’s Innovative Infrastructure Program Strategy
As GCA broadens its support to diverse infrastructure systems—spanning transport, water, and energy—its approach seeks to understand and address climate risks in tandem with social vulnerabilities. This is about more than safeguarding roads or power lines; it’s about understanding how a resilient infrastructure is supporting the resilience of communities, food security and access to critical services.
“At GCA, our Infrastructure Program adopts an innovative approach that places climate risk assessments in direct dialogue with social vulnerabilities. By combining granular data on community resilience with robust engineering solutions, we ensure that infrastructure investments not only stand strong against climate impacts but also support informed decision-making to enhance the well-being and adaptive capacity of the people they serve.” noted Adele Cadario, Program Lead for Infrastructure and Nature-based solutions at GCA.
Under this strategy, GCA aims to integrate community-focused and socio-economic resilience considerations by tailoring adaptation measures that benefit local communities, promoting locally managed operation and maintenance practices, and supporting socially informed decision-making for future investments. . By doing so, roads, bridges, and energy systems become not just strong enough to withstand climate shocks, but also active drivers of social and economic development for the most vulnerable populations. In the end, that’s the real promise of TRACER: roads that stand not only as routes for cargo and travelers, but as pathways to a more inclusive and more resilient tomorrow.
The ideas presented in this article aim to inspire adaptation action – they are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Global Center on Adaptation.
