The forecast is for half a country. Green Economy and Environment Minister Gilbert Siame received a senior World Bank Group delegation at his Lusaka office on Friday 9 October with a direct request: support for Zambia's response to the anticipated El Niño drought, including collaboration on early warning systems and vulnerability interventions. "This ministry, the World Meteorological Organisation and the SADC Climate Centre, we are all aligned that half of the country will have a drought," he said, per News Diggers. The delegation was led by Anna Wellenstein, the Bank's regional practice director for the Planet department in Eastern and Southern Africa, with Firas Raad, division director for Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, country manager Martine Valcin and agriculture practice manager Frauke Jungbluth.
The second ask was the corridor. Siame urged the Bank to accelerate green investments along the Lobito Corridor — the rail-and-trade artery on which Zambia's target of three million metric tonnes of copper a year by 2030 partly rides — and welcomed support for the proposed Lobito Forest Economy Programme ahead of a mission scheduled for November 2026. His caution came with the request.
If infrastructure and mining expansion proceed without integrated land use planning and cumulative impact management, we risk undermining the very natural capital that sustains economic growth.
— Gilbert Siame, Minister of Green Economy and Environment, quoted by Zambia Monitor
The partnership has numbers behind it. Siame cited the Eastern Province Jurisdictional Sustainable Landscape Programme, valued at about US$43 million and targeting nearly 29 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission reductions by 2030, with 55 per cent of revenues directed to communities; and the US$137 million Transforming Landscapes for Resilience and Development Phase II — entirely grant-funded, implementing integrated landscape management across 32 districts and restoring degraded miombo ecosystems. "TRALARD II is not merely a project; it is a flagship reform platform," he said. He also called for continued cooperation on climate finance, carbon-market readiness under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and capacity for the Zambia Environmental Management Agency and the Forestry Department.
The Bank's answer was warm but general. Raad said it was committed to projects that protect natural resources and create jobs, particularly for young people, and was working to ensure a timely response to the anticipated El Niño; Wellenstein called for a joint strategy to improve Zambia's access to climate finance; Valcin said the Bank was well placed to help attract foreign direct investment into the corridor. The memory doing the work in the room was 2024's: the drought that year was, per the Bank's own account, the worst in four decades, leaving more than 1.6 million households in need of emergency support and forcing a national disaster declaration — a fact no one in Friday's meeting needed to state.
Sources: Zambia Monitor, “Zambia urges World Bank to fast-track green investments along Lobito Corridor” (9 Oct 2026); News Diggers, “We're seeking support from World Bank to tackle El Nino – Siame” (10 Oct 2026).