AHMR African Human Mobilty Review - Volume 8 No 3, SEP-DEC 2022 and displacement. This article uses a contextual analysis by using case studies of South Africa, Mozambique, and Tanzania. These countries were chosen because they are located along the Indian Ocean and have been prone to rapid-onset disasters, and slow-onset disasters as explained below. Also, these countries form part of the Southern African region, which is currently faced with the problems of crossborder migration, displacements, and the impact of climate change, which all lead to statelessness situations in the region.11 This article uses a desktop review of current law and literature in the region to assess the normative frameworks for responding to the needs of those individuals who are forced to move from their original places of habitation on account of environmental or climate change. It examines the extent to which existing laws and policies protect forcibly displaced persons who cross international borders in the Southern African region due to climate change. It assesses the degree to which a progressive interpretation of the laws and policies is required to expand the protection of stateless persons whose statelessness is caused by the impact of climate change. Lastly, the article concludes with recommendations on how statelessness caused by climate change in the Southern African region can be dealt with and ultimately eradicated. Before addressing the issue of statelessness as a result of climate change and how this problem presents itself in the various jurisdictions selected for this article, it is necessary to briefly set out the global legal framework on statelessness and attempts to eradicate it. II. REGIONAL, CONTINENTAL AND GLOBAL INITIATIVES TO ERADICATE STATELESSNESS There have been multiple regional initiatives to reform nationality laws. Some examples of these initiatives are the 2015 Abidjan Declaration of Ministers of Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the eradication of statelessness,12 and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Resolution on the Prevention of Statelessness and the Protection of Stateless Persons in the SADC region adopted by the SADC Parliamentary Forum on 13 November 2016.13 Other initiatives include the Resolution on Legal Identity for Children, adopted in 2016 in Lusaka by the 134th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly,14 which was in line with the First Conclusions on Statelessness, as adopted by the Council of Bronwen Manby ‘Citizenship and statelessness in the Member States of the Southern African Development Community’ (December 2020) at 1. See also Aimée-Noël Mbiyozo ‘Statelessness in Southern Africa: Time to end it, not promote it’ (2019) Institute for Security Studies: Southern Africa Report 32 at 2. 12 The Declaration was adopted on 25 February 2015 by the Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the occasion of a ministerial conference organised by the United Nations High Commissioner and ECOWAS. It underlines, among other things, the need to end statelessness in the ECOWAS. 13 SADC Parliamentary Forum, 40th Plenary Assembly. 14 See the address by MP Godfrey Farrugia to the 134th IPU Assembly held in Lusaka, Zambia, between 19 and 23 March 2016, available at chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://archive.ipu.org/conf-e/134/sr.pdf, accessed on 19 May 2022. 11 96