MERCIM - Melhorando a Resiliência Climática em Mozambique + Mozambique is a petri dish of climate change. It is a large, growing, resource- and biodiversity-rich country where magnitude and impact of climate shocks have become so enormous over last few decades to make any further hesitations or delay of decisive interventions untenable. The increasingly frequent and devastating cyclones, the longer and more extensive droughts, recurrent floods and erratic rain patterns are marring Mozambique¿s development potential and raise every year the obstacle that most of the population - especially vulnerable groups - have to overcome in their strive out of poverty. As the first of a multi-annual set of interventions intended to contribute to tackle these challenges, gearing the new cycle of EU support towards Green Deal principles and commitments, it will deliver on the EU¿s commitment to step up international action for climate resilience as laid down in the EU Adaptation Strategy adopted in February 2021. This Action aims at addressing selected bottlenecks hampering Mozambique¿s capacity to adapt efficiently to climate change, while supporting the expansion of concrete adaptation interventions on the ground. MERCIM + is a climate change adaptation specific programme essentially targeted towards increasing adaptive capacity and resilience of the population, in line with the national commitments stated in the updated NDC. First, on the institutional front, capacities would receive a boost on two main strategic functions: strengthening inter-ministerial coordination structures and processes (for a genuine whole-of-economy approach to climate change) and - most importantly - building state of the art Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) capacities. The latter are essential to ground policies and interventions on solid data and - critically - to provide the country with the necessary tools to engage in the global climate architecture and access dedicated, badly-needed financial resources. Secondly, the action intends to expand and reinforce the EU flagship MERCIM[1] intervention, financing adaptation investments in selected Districts, strengthening resilience of communities through a participatory model which develops in parallel local authorities¿ knowledge and capacities. Finally, the Programme would engage local communities and civil society on emergency response and coping strategies, while supporting the dissemination and enactment of sustainable and climate-resilient solutions aimed at reinforcing their livelihoods.