GEOGRAPHY | RESEARCH ARTICLE Rural livelihood resilience strategies in the face of harsh climatic conditions. The case of ward 11 Gwanda, South, Zimbabwe Leonard Chitongo* Abstract: Households living in rural areas of developing countries rely on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods and, as such, are highly dependent on climatic conditions. The study is located in Gwanda a dry southern region of Zimbabwe. This study unearths and assesses the livelihood resilience strategies households employ to fight food insecurity in the face of harsh climatic conditions. Thus enhances understanding on how households in the area manage drought and also assist in guiding targeted interventions on areas in similar contexts. The researcher adopted a mixed methods approach were Qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques were used. Data were collected using questionnaires, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and observations. Probability random sampling was used to select 284 respondents. The study revealed that increased frequency and periodicity of drought has created a crisis of food insecurity. To fight this, households engage in several on-farm strategies. These strategies are effective and efficient in reducing households’ vulnerability to food insecurity. Challenges such as the increased frequency and periodicity of drought, environmental degradation, water scarcity, inadequate knowledge and skills and shortage of financial capital reduce the effectiveness of the strategies employed. Subjects: Development Studies, Environment, Social Work, Urban Studies; Social Sciences; Urban Studies; Development Studies Keywords: Resilience; livelihood strategy; aridity; vulnerability Leonard Chitongo ABOUT THE AUTHOR Leonard Chitongo is a hardworking and self- motivated person and is always excited to face new challenges in his academic career. He is a permanent full time senior lecturer in the department of Rural and Urban Development at Great Zimbabwe University. He has a strong interest in carrying out research on issues that affect people’s livelihoods. To date he has pub- lished several articles on rural and urban liveli- hoods, housing, environmental management and public policy analysis. PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT An earlier version of this article was presented at the National Symposium on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Zimbabwe on 22 November 2018 at The Bronte Hotel in Harare. I thank its participants, especially Farai Muguwu, the founding Director of the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) for useful feedback, as well as the article’s anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. There is no poten- tial conflict of interest on this article. The research work in this paper examines how rural communities adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, in particular livelihood diversifi- cation strategies in the face of water scarcity. Chitongo, Cogent Social Sciences (2019), 5: 1617090 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2019.1617090 © 2019 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Received: 11 December 2018 Accepted: 03 May 2019 First Published: 21 May 2019 *Corresponding author: Leonard Chitongo, Department of Rural and Urban Development, Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo, Zimbabwe Email: vachitongo@gmail.com Reviewing editor: Sandra Ricart Casadevall, Universitat d’Alacant, Spain Additional information is available at the end of the article Page 1 of 19