During the coming decades, global change will impact food and water security in significant but highly uncertain ways. There are strong indications that developing countries will bear the brunt of the consequences, particularly from climate change. In Sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture—the mainstay of rural livelihoods—is particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, and the adaptive capacity of rural smallholders is extremely low. Consequently, it is important to understand the impacts of global change on agriculture and natural resources in Sub-Saharan Africa and to identify informed and effective adaptation measures and investment priorities to alleviate the harmful impacts of global change. This set of briefs assesses these issues with a focus on the Nile Basin in Ethiopia and the Limpopo Basin in South Africa. Authors identify climate change impacts on agricultural productivity and food production; assess the vulnerability of the farming sector and farm households to climate variability and change; examine climate change perceptions; and suggest adaptation strategies at the farm, basin, and national levels alongside the associated investments needed to implement such strategies. We are grateful to the authors for their research and analyses, to the reviewers for their constructive comments, and to Mary Jane Banks and Ashley St. Thomas for their editorial assistance. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany. We hope that the insights on climate change impacts and adaptation options presented here will contribute to policy changes that profoundly increase the capacity of the rural poor in Sub-Saharan Africa to adapt to climate change.