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Malawi - Climate

There are three seasons. A cool, dry period, May to August, is followed by hot weather (very hot in low-lying regions) during which humidity builds up until the rains commence November/December; the rains peak around the turn of the year and continue intermittently until April. Rainfall varies countrywide from 600mm to 3000mm.

More than 90 per cent of the population of Malawi is engaged in subsistence-level rain-fed agriculture, and 60 per cent of these are food insecure on a year round basis. Climate change affects countries across the globe. However, due to high population growth, rapid deforestation, and widespread soil erosion, Malawi’s agriculturally-based economy is particularly susceptible to climate change’s negative consequences.

Malawi is a well known exporter of tea and sugar to most developed countries as it depends on rain fed agriculture for its economy sustainability. No wonder 85 percent of its 17.5 million plus population consists of farmers living in rural areas. Apparently climate change is having an impact on Malawi’s economy, for example, the insurance industry, as it is often times on the fore front responsible in putting back pieces after extreme weather or in assisting businesses and farmers when longer term weather patterns affect their bottom lines.

Already, temperature increases and changing precipitation patterns are harming agricultural growth. To make matters worse, this problem is expected to worsen in the coming decades, when temperatures will reach the heat threshold of some crops and extended dry periods will become more common. In addition, due to the changing precipitation patterns, rainfall is likely to become more erratic and concentrated which can cause flooding and further crop damage. Overall, climate change is expected to reduce the food supply and have major implications for human welfare, harming development progress across sectors.

An Oxfam report [June 2009], "The Winds of Change: Climate change, poverty and the environment in Malawi", said that an increase in temperatures and intense rain in Malawi over the past 40 years has led to drought and flooding, causing shorter growing seasons, poor crop yields, food shortages, hunger and the spread of disease in a country where 29 per cent of people already live in extreme poverty. Oxfam Malawi Country Director, Sanjay Awasthi, said: “Despite the fact that Malawi’s greenhouse gas emissions are minuscule, climate change is hitting poor countries like Malawi first and worst and people are suffering, especially women. Climate change is exacerbating the inequalities that already exist for women in Malawi. Men are also struggling to cope with the effects of climate change, but as we are more likely to be educated, to have savings and skills to earn money, we have more opportunities to adapt.”

To address these challenges, USAID partners with the Government of Malawi (GoM) and a wide variety of Malawian institutions to advance Malawi’s low-emissions, climate-resilient development. At the national level, USAID works with the GoM to develop a strategy for combatting deforestation and for improving forest governance. Complementary site-based interventions have been initiated to address drivers of climate change, while also helping to generate livelihood opportunities for vulnerable households.

In 2015, USAID and its partners helped more than 1,200 stakeholders adapt to the effects of climate change through training and capacity building activities. In addition, a comprehensive Environmental Threats and Opportunity Assessment provided information about habitat protection and restoration efforts within Malawi’s most globally significant ecosystems. These ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation have led to improved management of more than 92,500 acres of biologically significant land.

In the forestry sector, USAID supports the Government of Malawi’s adherence to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, or REDD+, an international effort to reduce climate change by decreasing deforestation. In 2015, the Kulera REDD+ Project, initiated through USAID support, attracted more than $500,000 in private financing for local conservation and development priorities.

Through this program, data on the drivers of deforestation and associated livelihood opportunities is collected which, in turn, helps USAID generate household-level economic benefits for more than 11,000 project participants and also contributes to Malawi’s nation-wide efforts to reduce deforestation.