Southern Africa is one of the regions estimated to be most at risk from climate change. While policy responses to global warming have been mainly driven by debates among scientists, the insights of poor people living on the frontline have been largely neglected. This study seeks to understand what is happening from poor people’s perspectives. A field study was conducted using Participatory Vulnerability Analysis (PVA)1 in two districts of Malawi, Salima in the central region and Nsanje in the south. We selected two villages (Mphunga and Mulembe respectively) that face both droughts and floods.