Malawi Country Profile

MALAWI

selfhelpafrica.org

2018

2018

Linisi Chiumya (35),village Kamtenthenga, Malawi, 2015.

S

elf Help Africa directly implements projects

sustainable livelihoods, is in line with the government’s

in Malawi. The programme goal, to support

current Growth and Development Strategy II.

smallholder farming communities to achieve

MALAWI MALAWI malawi

zambia

burkinafaso

ghana

kenya

togo

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Donor

Total Budget

Time Frame

Implementing Partner

Programme Area

01

BETTER

European Commission

€ 14,697,478

2018 ­ 2022

Action Aid, ADRA, Plan International, and Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM)

Chitipa, Karonga, Mzimba, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Kasungu, Salima, Mulanje, Chiradzulu and Thyolo Districts.

02

Sustainable Livelihood Improvement Resilience Project (SLIP)

Big Lottery Fund

€ 751,437

2015

Blantyre Synod Health & Devt Commission, Nkhadze Alive Youth Organisation

Nkaya & Balaka

Shire Basin Sustainable Natural Resources Management Social Enhancement Project

Millennium Challenge Account

Balaka District

2018

CEPA (Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy)

Developing Remote Sensing Technology to Monitor Fall Armyworm

World Bank

2018

-

Balaka Dsitrict

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04

2018

€ 514,546

€ 24,832

2015

MALAWI PROGRAMMES

Programme

2019

Malidadi Chilongo from Kaphika Village, Malawi, 2015

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MALAWI PROGRAMMES

01

BETTER EXTENSION TRAINING TRANSFORMING ECONOMIC RETURN (BETTER)

Objective: to increase resilience, food, nutrition, and income security of 402,000 smallholder farmers through sustainable agricultural growth in Malawi.

Smallholders produce approximately 80% of Malawi’s food,

integrating nutrition training and appropriate small-scale

and most of the population of rural Malawi are dependent

irrigation technologies; and training of smallholder farmers

on rain-fed agriculture.

on diversification of crops, including early maturing varieties, drought and flood tolerant crops.

The food situation in Malawi has been worsened by El Niño, which heavily affected the 2015-16 agricultural season.

A key constraint for many farmers is access to information

Maize is the most significant crop for food security, but

to guide their production decisions. Improved agricultural

recent outputs have been well below the amount required

extension services provide farmers with the information

to meet national needs, underlining the need for crop

that they need to address their challenges and to exploit

diversification. Around 40% of Malawi’s citizens were

opportunities are important to enable Malawi’s farmers

projected to suffer from food insecurity in 2016-17, with

to significantly raise their productivity levels through

estimates suggesting that 6.7 million people would not be

sustainable agricultural practices.

able to meet their food requirements that year.

Female smallholders are especially vulnerable to food

To combat this, we are also adopting new technologies

insecurity due to their unequal access to land and credit

to make farming more efficient. For this we are organizing

and their disproportionate burden of labour.

the farmers into Farmer Field School groups. They will be farmer-led research to document and share best practices,

This European Union-funded grant project is a collaboration

training farmers in data collection and record management,

between Self Help Africa (SHA) and Action Aid Malawi

linking farmer groups to mobile-phone based information

(AAM), Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA),

services on sustainable agricultural methodologies, and

Plan International UK and the Evangelical Association of

developing Community Early Warning Systems (EWS) in

Malawi (EAM).

flood and drought-prone areas.

Crop diversification and improved adoption of alternative

These actions have been designed to contribute to

crops has been one of the Government of Malawi’s key

improving agricultural productivity in the targeted 10

strategies to achieving food and income security. Malawi

KULIMA districts by improving capacity of smallholder

depends mainly on maize and tobacco for food and income

farmers to farm in a more effective manner, thus reducing

security, however in recent years maize production has

their vulnerability to shocks.

been heavily affected by climate variability and tobacco prices have been low due to anti-smoking campaigns.

There is need for crop diversification in alternative crops which have a relative comparative advantage.

SHA are undertaking a number of activities to build capacity among smallholder farmers to increase production and efficiency. These include: supporting farmer field school groups to promote sustainable agricultural practices, including Conservation Agriculture and soil and water conservation; promoting the adoption of legume and smallscale vegetable production including backyard gardening,

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Beneficiaries: • 402,000 smallholder farmers (including 241,201 females)

THE PROJECT IN NUMBERS: • 13,000 farmer field schools will be created to provide training and promote new crops and climate-smart farming methods.

• 400,000 families will be trained using a network of community-based field school.

• The project will intervene in 10 of Malawi’s 28 national districts

Ethel Khundi (32) with daughter Memory (13), Whunachu Village, Malawi, 2017.

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MALAWI PROGRAMMES

Veronica Brown (43) and her daughter Linda Kampira (18), Kuma village, 2017.

SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS IMPROVEMENT PROJECT (SLIP)

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Objective: to reduce poverty levels and improve livelihood resilience of 2,000 poor smallholder households in Balaka District, southern Malawi.

03

SHIRE BASIN SUSTAINABLE NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SOCIAL ENHANCEMENT PROJECT

Objective: to contribute to improving power generation through community-based sustainable use and management of natural resources.

B

and rain-fed food production systems that are facing

T

increasing challenges from land degradation and declining

hydropower facilities. This also negatively affects many of

soil fertility.

the country’s smallholder farmers by reducing soil fertility,

SLIP is promoting improved livelihood security through

yields, income and food security.

increased and diversified crop and livestock production;

Self Help Africa plans to improve power generation by

improved ecological resilience through improved natural

reducing erosion and sedimentation. In order to achieve

resource management; increased incomes and increased

this, the project is focusing on improving local management

and diversified livelihoods options through community-

of natural resources; improving community participation

based rural enterprises.

in environmental and natural decision-making; improving

Self Help Africa aims to establish profitable and sustainable

sustainable management and utilisation of forests and

community-based rural enterprises with developed market

woodlots; promoting conservation agriculture, and

access skills and access to financial services. It is also vital

integrated soil fertility management and agro-forestry

to strengthen the capacity of beneficiaries to effectively

practices.

implement and manage their livelihood activities. This

It will also address the social and gender constraints and

will eventually lead to increased and diversified livelihood

inequalities in sustainable agriculture and natural resource

options and an increase in household incomes.

management. The intervention will focus on engaging

This project will focus on strengthening existing services

communities to promote joint decision making at both

and community structures in their own right. In this manner,

community and household levels. This will be delivered

after the project winds down, local government and farmer

through the provision of literacy training in order to allow

groups should have emerging, workable procedures for

farmers to engage in value addition and marketing.

continuing livelihood opportunities, thus ensuring the

Through this project, communities will have better

sustainability of the project.

participation in decision-making processes surrounding

alaka is one of the districts in Malawi that faces perennial hunger because of frequent dry spells.

Agriculture is dominated by subsistence farming

he Shire River is Malawi’s most important water resource, however, severe erosion is resulting in sedimentation of the River Basin, causing water

shortages and reducing the effectiveness of Malawi’s

the natural resources that they use to survive. It will

Beneficiaries:

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decentralise institutions, and foster a sense of ownership

• 12,000 households

and responsibility around natural resources.

• 50% women

Beneficiaries:

• 12,000 disadvantaged individuals reached in Traditional Authority (T/A) Nkaya, Balaka District

• 3,500 households in Balaka district (21,000 people) • 50% women

Maize infected by Fall Armyworm, Malawi, 2017.

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DEVELOPING REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGY TO MONITOR FALL ARMYWORM

Objective: to contribute to the solution of the Fall Armyworm (FAW) problem by developing a tool for the detection of its hotspots.

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ood security in Malawi has been worsened by

The aim of the project is to create a model to detect and

the increasing prevalence of pests and diseases,

monitor Fall Armyworm (FAW) outbreaks and severity.

including the emergence of the FAW affecting

This model will then be developed into a software tool to

621,875 smallholder farmers. The emergence of the FAW

help public institutions, NGOs and commercial farmers to

across Malawi and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) poses a

maximize the benefits of insecticide, manage yield losses,

critical continuous and recurrent threat to smallholder

and adapt to climate change challenges.

farmers across the continent.

In the initial stages of this project, data will be collected This project is being delivered by an innovative collaboration

at both satellite and field levels, this data will then be

between: SHA, University College Dublin, and Orbas

processed and cleaned, and the model was then built

with the support of the relevant local government district

and optimised based on the baseline data to monitor any

authorities in Balaka District in Malawi.

changes.

Beneficiaries: • 3,500 households in Balaka district (21,000 people) • 50% women

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MALAWI PO Box B-495 Lilongwe, Tel. +265 1750568 E-mail: malawi@selfhelpafrica.org

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June 2018

Cover: Molly Nyasulu (53), Wazikaza village, Karonga, Malawi, 2017.