Country page - Malawi

Updated on 31 January 2024

HAZARD

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE NEEDS

Tropical Cyclones

Immediate reestablishment of critical infrastructures like schools, health centers, irrigation schemes, houses, and roads

Strengthening of early warning systems

Sea-level rise

Robust early warning systems to address forestry and land degradation

Capacity building on sustainable forestry

Ecosystem-based adaptation techniques

  • Malawi’s Strategy on Climate Change learning (2021)
  • 2019 Post Disaster Needs Assessment Report
  • National Resilience Strategy
  • Disaster Risk Management Plans for Cities
  • National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA, 2015)
  • Second National Communication (SNC) to the UNFCCC
  • Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) Reports for Adaptation (Agriculture and Water sectors) and Mitigation (Energy and Forestry Sectors)
  • Malawi Forestry Landscape Restoration Strategy (2017)
  • National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (2015)
  • Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR)
  • National Disaster Contingency Plans Reports (Developed annually)
  • Malawi Growth and Development Strategy III (2017)

Preemptive adaptation:

  • Establishment of Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems
  • Community and Hazard mapping for flood and drought prone areas
  • Construction of dykes in flood prone areas
  • Installation of River gauge monitoring systems
  • Drilling of boreholes in drought prone areas
  • Construction of dams
  • Development of resistant crop varieties and livestock breeds
  • Implementation of irrigation projects
  • Construction of evacuation centres in flood prone areas
  • Construction of emergency operation centres

Contingency measures, e.g. through risk financing with regional risk pooling, insurance facilities and bonds, and through social protection measures, etc.:

  • Implementation of safety net programmes
  • Pilot weather-based crop insurance scheme
  • Malawi a member of the African Risk Capacity (ARC)

Addressing losses through disaster relief funds, credit facilities etc.:

  • The country plans to establish a DRM fund as part of the implementation of the DRM Bill
  • Village savings and loan groups have been established in different prone and vulnerable areas as part of insurance mechanisms

Disaster risk reduction focused strategies and measures through activities under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, contingency and trust funds, disaster legislation, etc.:

  • Reviewed the Disaster Risk Management Bill, awaiting approval by Parliament
  • Developed National Resilience Strategy
  • Reviewed National Disaster Risk Management Communication Strategy
  • Developed National and District Multi-Hazard Contingency Plans
  • In progress of developing the National Adaptation Plan (NAP)
  • Developed Disaster Risk Financing Strategy and Implementation Plan

Transformative actions (which could include any such actions already mentioned above):

  • Implementation of an early warning system
  • Implemented National Disaster Risk Management Communication Strategy through dissemination of EWS messages

Collection and management of data and information (including databases, spatial data, systematic observations, establishing baselines, etc):

  • Use of space technologies in systematic observations and geospatial analyses.
  • Development of databases and information services to support risk profiling and risk assessment of a variety of timeframes by different actors and stakeholders in their decision-processes.

Analyses of data and information (including climate change projections, impact analyses, hazard mapping, etc):

  • Development of local to national climate change scenarios and production of projections of climate risk
  • Conduct of pilot loss and damage assessments for certain key agricultural commodities which are vulnerable to climate change, such as rice, aquaculture, and fruits.
  • Construction of multivariate impacts and loss databases to support assessments and reporting including through the use of bigdata methods.
  • Design of shared database systems to support different ministries and other stakeholders in the country including data collection, storage and sharing protocols and policies.
  • Costing of impacts in the present as well as for projected impacts for use in costs-benefit analyses to appraise options.
  • National-scale site characterization to support hazard mapping, zoning and other land use planning.

Design and implementation of projects on Loss and Damage:

  • Setting up cross-ministerial/sectoral coordination mechanism for the dissemination and linking warnings with early action, and the deployment of emergency assistance for communities.
  • Linking national systematic observations and monitoring to regional and global efforts (for relevant variables, hazards and systems).
  • Development of infrastructure and plans for relocation/resettlement of households and communities from frequently affected areas.
  • Design of proposals and access to financing for climate information services and early warning systems under the GCF and other funding channels.
  • Sustainable landscape management including nature-based solutions.

Financial instruments (such as insurance, risk pooling, contingency funds, etc):

  • Design of combinations of appropriate risk finance tools and instruments applicable to a specific country context and vulnerable groups.
  • Development and deployment of forecast-based finance instruments to minimize potential losses to productive systems.
  • Design and financing of social protection measures.
  • Development of different insurance mechanisms.
  • Design of national trust/contingency/recovery funds.
  • Development of curriculum on various relevant aspects of climate change and loss and damage.
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