UK provides MK57.2 billion to build resilience of 1.2 million Malawians against climatic shocks

Press Release

Lilongwe: the Malawi Government, in collaboration with the United Nations and an NGO-private sector consortium led by Concern Worldwide, welcomes a contribution of MK57.2 billion (£59 million) from the UK Government for a multi-year joint programme aimed at strengthening the resilience of 1.2 million vulnerable people in the country against climatic shocks such as droughts and floods.

With this contribution, Malawi will implement a new joint resilience programme, known as Promoting Sustainable Partnerships for Empowered Resilience (PROSPER), which will support people living in extreme poverty and hunger in four districts of Balaka, Chikwawa, Mangochi and Phalombe.

The programme seeks to improve vulnerable people’s ability to adapt to climate change through various interventions such as diversified agricultural production, improved productive assets and enhanced access to weather information, among others.

The programme also aims to increase access to finance and markets, and support an enabling environment for small-scale enterprises to improve livelihoods of marginalised groups in line with Malawi’s National Resilience Strategy.

Department for International Development (DFID) Country Director, Mr David Beer, in his remarks said, “The UK Government is committed to assisting the people of Malawi to exit out of poverty and hunger while building their resilience to climatic shocks.”

Acting Chief Director for the Department of Economic Planning and Development in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Mr Peter Simbani, said when droughts and floods strike, it is the most vulnerable people who are hit the hardest by the damage to or loss of their crops, livestock and livelihoods.

“The timely support from the UK Government will therefore prevent vulnerable households from sliding deeper into poverty and hunger as the programme will build and enhance systems that will help them withstand the devastating impact of climatic shocks,” said Simbani.

The four targeted districts have some of the lowest development indicators, the highest levels of vulnerability and poverty, and are among the hardest hit by extreme weather events. As a result, these districts experience recurrent cycle of hunger as underscored by recent findings of the 2018 Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Report.

UN Resident Coordinator, Ms. Maria Jose Torres, said, under the programme, the UN and the Concern Worldwide-led consortium will support implementation of a range of social protection, economic development and resilience-building interventions in the four districts. She said the programme is a concrete example of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 on partnerships for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“Building resilience of the poor and vulnerable people will ultimately break the cycle of poverty, hunger and recurrent humanitarian assistance in Malawi,” said Ms Torres. “We are very grateful to the UK Government for its steadfast support which will enable the UN and its partners to help Malawi break this cycle.”

Concern Worldwide Malawi Country Director, Mr. Yousaf Jogezai, added: “The programme will deliver comprehensive packages of activities tailored to the capacities and needs of poor households. Concern and our partners will link proven approaches from our work at community and district level, with innovations in resilience building and market systems development to achieve transformative change.”

Malawi’s exposure to cyclical climatic crises is compounded by underlying household vulnerability to food insecurity, low economic development, and seasonal patterns of production and consumption that exacerbate the impacts of weather-related shocks. These conditions prevent the country from achieving its poverty reduction targets.

In support of the Malawi Government, the PROSPER programme will be jointly implemented by a partnership of the United Nations and Concern Worldwide-led NGO-private sector consortium. Four UN agencies, led by the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, namely Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme (WFP), are involved. The NGO-private sector consortium brings together NGO and private sector expertise from Concern Worldwide, GOAL, United Purpose, Kadale Consultants and Concern Universal Microfinance Organisation (CUMO).

                                         #                           #                            #

About UKAid

UKAid is official development assistance provided by the UK government, to help end extreme poverty. UKAid in Malawi is largely managed by the Department for International Development (DFID). Find out more at www.gov.uk/dfid. Get our latest press releases, free-to-use photos, embeddable videos and case studies online. Follow us on Twitter: @DFID_UK @UKinMalawi

About the UN in Malawi

Currently, there are more than 20 Agencies and specialised organisations of the United Nations active in Malawi which, through their work, contribute to ensuring a better life for the people of Malawi.

About the Concern Worldwide-led Consortium

The consortium brings together the technical expertise and programmatic experience of key NGO partners GOAL and United Purpose, combined with the markets systems and private sector engagement approaches of Kadale Consultants, and micro- finance and insurance reach of Concern Universal Microfinance Organisation (CUMO), under the leadership of Concern Worldwide. The consortium will focus the joint humanitarian, development, resilience, micro-finance/micro-insurance and markets systems development expertise of these partners to building the resilience of poor and extreme poor households in Malawi.

For more information please contact:

James Kessel, British High Commission / DFID Malawi, j-kessell@dfid.gov.uk / +265887005693

Adwell Zembele, Economic Planning & Development, zembeleadwell@yahoo.com

Phillip Pemba, UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, phillip.pemba@one.un.org / +265 995271671

Chris Connelly, Concern Worldwide-led Consortium, chris.connelly@concern.net / +265 992285492