A landlocked country already impacted by climate change
Malawi is a landlocked country in southern Africa, covering a total area of 118,484 square kilometres. Of this, 80% is land, while the remaining 20%) is taken up by the vast Lake Malawi. Malawi is divided into three main regions: Northern, Central, and Southern regions, each with distinct geographical and cultural characteristics.
Malawi experiences cool-dry season from May to October and the hot-wet season from November to April. The country generally receives sufficient rainfall, but with uneven and unpredictable distribution due to local environmental factors, climate variability, and overall climate change. This inconsistency leads to extreme weather events like floods and droughts that impact various regions differently. These extreme weather conditions negatively affect food security, water resources, energy supply, infrastructure, public health, and the livelihoods of families.
Malawi’s latest national inventory data estimate total greenhouse (GHG) emissions excluding forestry and other land use (FOLU) at 9.33 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) for 2017. Agriculture accounted for by far the largest share of the total (54%), followed by energy (25%) and waste (18%). Emissions from industrial processes represented just around 3% of total emissions in 2017.
The ambition to be one of the first countries to contribute to the LDC Vision
Malawi joined and signed the LIFE-AR compact at COP25 in 2019 to become among the Front Runner Countries from the LDC group. The expectation was to be amongst the first countries that would benefit and contribute to the LDC vision.
LIFE-AR fully aligns with national priorities as outlined in the Malawi’s National Climate Change policy of 2016 and Nationally Determined Contributions of 2021 which outlines Malawi’s commitment in emission reduction and climate change resilience building. Through LIFE-AR, communities are expected to implement high value and serious investment to enable them to strengthen their adaptation and resilience capacities.
Key achievements
The LIFE-AR initiative is currently in the Test and Evolve phase which commenced in November 2023. Since joining the LIFE-AR initiative, Malawi has made achievements in the following areas:
The establishment of the LIFE-AR governance structure
The organizational arrangements for financial management, procurement and granting of LIFE-AR Initiative in Malawi takes into consideration the Initiative organizational structure and that the implementation is undertaken by various implementing and participating agencies with varied capacities.
Development of the LIFE-AR Delivery Mechanism
LIFE-AR Malawi has employed the Local Government Development Planning System (DDPS) as the appropriate delivery mechanism. By working with the DDPS, LIFE-AR Malawi will integrate with the public decentralisation architecture and local institutions to support community-prioritised investments for building local resilience. The DDPS institutional structures are hierarchically framed in the order of Village Development Committees (VDCs), Area Development Committees (ADC), Area Executive Committee (AEC), and District Executive Committees (DEC). Eventually, the District Council supports communication, coordination and oversight of programmes.
Communities’ selection process and involvement
The selection of beneficiary districts and communities followed a criterion which was developed during the Situational analysis at the entry of the initiative in Malawi. Some the key aspects considered were the Vulnerability levels, Population, Geographical balance and number of similar projects being implemented.
LIFE-AR Malawi has engaged communities within the selected project sites. Entry meetings have been conducted to brief communities on the LIFE-AR initiative and its objectives. The meetings also assessed the communities’ capacity on natural resource and landscape management and gaps identified will inform the required trainings.
Investment selection process
Participatory Climate Vulnerability Assessment were undertaken in each of the beneficiary communities to facilitate selection of adaptation investments. Communities with the guidance of District officials and Task Team members listed down climate change risks in their area using the problem tree method. The risks were ranked according to their likelihood, severity, and impact. The significant risks were analysed to determine adaptation measures which were then recruited to form the priority areas requiring investments to address the risks. The process facilitated the identification of climate hazard prone areas which were updated into a map.
The selected investments include, but not limited to:
- Tree planting
- Promotion of natural forest regeneration and trainings in sustainable forestry practices
- Construction of solar-powered irrigation schemes and piped water system
- Promotion of Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies
- Implementation of Sustainable Land Management practices
- Multiple Trainings in Financial Literacy and Business Management, Agri-business and entrepreneurship, disaster preparedness, risk management and participatory climate vulnerability assessment, sustainable land management, soil and water conservation technologies and forest land restoration, or early warning sytems
- Link farmers to agriculture markets (offtakers)
- Reclaim gullies through check-dam construction
- Develop a flood risk map of areas
- Construction and installation of hydrological monitoring station
Moving forward
During the Test and Evolve Phase of the initiative Malawi is expected to challenge the delivery mechanism by implementing the identified adaptation and resilience building investments in the pilot districts. Through the initiative, Malawi will ensure that at least 70 percent climate finance inflows to the local level. Malawi has developed several instruments including Project Implementation Manual, Quality Assurance Plan, MEL Plan and Communication Strategy to support the implementation and achievement of overall objective of the initiative.
