The majority of the Mozambican population lives in the rural areas, where poverty is most prevalent and climate changes show an increasing impact. Paradoxically, agriculture is the main economic activity and the basis for improving the livelihood of the rural communities. This chapter presents a literature review on the main factors of rural development and climate change adaptations in southern Mozambique and similar regions of sub-Saharan Africa. This review allows us to determine the main variables that affect rural development and climate change adaptations. This study concluded that both rural development and climate change adaptations in sub-Saharan Africa are mostly determined by the same variables, which we classify in three main domains of rural development drivers: physical resources, soft resources, and institutional resources. The variables identified will later be integrated in a rural development model, specifically conceived to address overall rural development, including climate change adaptations. This model, which we've named agricultural district, is then proposed as the beginning of a general conceptual model of development that could form the bases of a new sustainable rural development model, since it addresses simultaneously the adaptation to climate change, increase of agricultural productivity, as well as global and integrated growth of rural areas in Mozambique. This study is part of an exploratory work that will be followed by future research, which will include field interviews to key informants to refine the terms of a questionnaire that will be conducted with smallholder farmers dedicated mainly to cashew production in three districts of Gaza province, southern Mozambique. Future research will inform on the progress that rural communities in these areas are making toward the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in regard to adaptations to climate change.

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