Poor rural households in vulnerable sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries have suffered - and will increasingly suffer - losses and damages due to climate change. These losses and damages put at risk the international commitment to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. The international community is currently discussing a large scale increase in the financing of development assistance to meet this challenge. This note advances a set of propositions to guide international aid in addressing losses and damages due to climate change. The basic principle is that rather than focusing on targeted transfers to compensate for losses and damages - that will only increase over time and become prohibitively expensive -, the international community and SSA governments should seek to create income opportunities for affected rural households through a renewal of the role of agriculture for development, where under-investment relative to potential remains massive.