Coastal social ecological systems in eastern Africa are subject to a range of environmental, social and economic changes, and the impacts of climate change are likely to further exacerbate their vulnerabilities. This paper presents an analysis based on local perceptions of recent changes at four sites in coastal Tanzania and Mozambique.In the study, poor communities recognise and rank a number of climate and non-climate stressors which have contributed towards higher risk and lower diverse livelihoods. Importantly, regional and international policy initiatives – in the form of river basin management in Mozambique and South Africa, and development of a Marine Protected Area in Tanzania – are perceived to further erode resilience and exacerbate vulnerabilities.The authors suggest this is a form of policy misfit, where policies developed to address a specific issue do not take account of cross-scale dynamics of change, the interactions between multiple stressors, nor longer term climate change. It is argued that this policy misfit may be remedied by a move towards adaptive forms of governance, and an explicit focus on building the adaptive capacity of the poor and most vulnerable in society.