Publication: Hard Hit by El Nino: Experiences, Responses and Options for Malawi
Loading...
Published
2018-05
ISSN
Date
2018-07-18
Editor(s)
Abstract
In Malawi, the impact of extreme weather events has significantly contributed to the recurrent crises of food insecurity. The extreme weather events have shifted the country’s focus from improving agricultural productivity and resilience to ensuring survival, with most resources devoted toward humanitarian assistance. The country is highly exposed to multiple hazards that cause widespread shocks. In recent years, the country faced successive and compounding climatic shocks: from the worst flood in 50 years in 2015, to the strongest El Niño event in 35 years in 2016. This prompted declaration of a state of disaster and left 39 percent of the country (6.7 million people) at risk of food insecurity during the 2016/17 consumption period. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most important driver of climatic variability in Malawi. Even though El Niño occurrences are predicted to increase in frequency, the Government of Malawi’s (GoM) actions are inadequate, as disaster management is largely reactive than proactive.The agriculture sector, which contributes 30 percent to Malawi’s gross domestic product (GDP), has been severely affected by the extreme weather events. This is amplified by the overreliance on single-season rainfed agricultural production, dominated by maize-based systems that are vulnerable to climatic shocks. The agriculture sector incurs huge losses when disaster strikes, amounting to approximately 89 percent of the total losses. In response to reduced production of most crops, average prices have generally increased, fueling inflation and reduced agricultural growth, and ultimately adversely impacting the economy at large. The Government of Malawi (GoM) has responded by putting in place various policies and coordinating institutions or structures to address extreme weather events, including increasing its responsibility for responding to the aftermath e.g. increasing support to maize purchases. However, its policies are fragmented, with inadequate resources to translate them into action, while capacity gaps further cripple increased coordination requirements. In view of this, efforts have not translated into sustained results when disasters recur, creating a vicious cycle of food insecurity and vulnerability. This analytical work was undertaken to assist the GoM to strengthen its efforts toward effectively responding to extreme weather-related events, especially El Niño and La Niña phenomena. Specifically, the study aims to provide a critical review of how the country has responded to recent extreme weather events, draw lessons for future response planning, and identify gaps and options to strengthen preparedness and response to El Niño, La Niña, and similar weather events. The study used a combination of primary and secondary data collected from July to September 2017. Primary data were collected through focus group discussions and key informant interviews in Malawi’s 15 disaster-prone districts. Secondary data included a review of various policies, research reports, and other documents.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Botha, Blessings Nyanjagha; Nkoka, Francis Samson; Mwumvaneza, Valens. 2018. Hard Hit by El Nino: Experiences, Responses and Options for Malawi. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30037 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Building Resilience to Disaster and Climate Change through Social Protection(Washington, DC, 2013-05)Natural disasters and climate change are among the greatest threats to development. Although natural disasters have always presented risks, climate change increases those risks and compounds them by adding a greater level of uncertainty. As a result of their increased frequency, the economic and social costs of disasters are mounting (World Bank 2010). Natural disasters and climate change can push people into chronic and transient poverty and force them to adopt negative coping strategies. Social protection programs play an important role in protecting poor and vulnerable people from these impacts and helping them reduce their exposure and vulnerability to them. This toolkit provides guidance on how to prepare social protection programs to respond to disasters and climate change. The snapshots of good practice experiences and practical tips for implementation are intended to guide decision makers in countries facing these risks in adapting their social protection programs to reduce negative impacts and accelerate recovery. The focus of this toolkit is aligned with the role and expertise of the World Bank, which has traditionally supported early and long-term recovery and helped rebuild livelihoods and infrastructure. This toolkit provides examples of good practice experiences and practical guidance for the practitioner in that direction.Publication Climate and Disaster Resilience : The Role for Community-Driven Development(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-02-01)This paper is part of a larger effort to document, assess, and promote scalable models and approaches to empower poor communities to manage a climate and disaster risk agenda in support of their development goals and to identify practical ways of getting climate and disaster risk financing directly to the ground level where impacts are felt. Social funds, social protection systems and safety nets, community-driven development (CDD) projects, livelihoods-support and related operational platforms can serve as useful vehicles for promoting community-level resilience to disaster and climate risk. This paper examines the World Bank's Community-Driven Development (CDD) portfolio to assess experience to date and to explore the potential for building the resilience of vulnerable communities to climate and disaster risk through CDD programs. It aims to be useful to both the Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management practitioner as well as the CDD practitioner. The paper assesses the scale of climate and disaster resilience support provided through CDD projects from 2001-11 and characterizes the forms of support provided. For the climate change adaption and disaster risk management (DRM) practitioner, it discusses the characteristics of a CDD approach and how they lend themselves to building local-level climate resilience. For the CDD practitioner, the paper describes the types of activities that support resilience building and explores future directions for CDD to become a more effective vehicle for reducing climate and disaster risk.Publication Social Protection for Disaster Risk Management(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-07-07)Social protection can help build people’s social and economic resilience against disasters in Myanmar. Regular cash transfers, including public works programs, can help smooth consumption,build and maintain assets, and develop human capital to better cope with natural hazards. Disaster risk management (DRM) systems can be linked to social protection programs to trigger a safetynet response in times of emergencies. Community-driven development (CDD) programs could provide a useful platform for social protection programming to respond to disasters and build long termresilience in Myanmar.Publication Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance in Sub-Saharan Africa(Washington, DC, 2012-11)This policy note is a preliminary effort to present a body of knowledge on the state of disaster risk financing and insurance in Sub-Saharan Africa. It aims to contribute to a strengthened understanding and collective knowledge within Sub-Saharan Africa on disaster risk financing and insurance, and to encourage open dialogue between stakeholders on how strategies can best be developed to increase financial resilience against natural disasters. The report is targeted at policy-makers and actors in the international community with an interest in this agenda. In the context of this report, disaster risk financing and insurance refers to instruments and mechanisms at the macro, market and micro level that provide financial resources to assist with response and recovery efforts in the aftermath of a disaster. This report focuses on natural disasters, which we can describe as unforeseen events driven by natural phenomena that cause serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic and/or environmental losses which overwhelm the capacity of the affected community or society. This report discusses rapid onset disasters such as cyclones, earthquakes and floods but also slow onset events such as drought. Sub-Saharan African countries are highly exposed to a wide range of adverse natural events, with hydro-meteorological hazards impacting the largest number of people. Disaster risk financing and insurance (DRFI) has been highlighted by the African union, regional economic communities and individual countries as an area for regional financial cooperation.Publication Climate Resilient Cities : A Primer on Reducing Vulnerabilities to Disasters(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009)Climate resilient cities a primer on reducing vulnerabilities to disasters is prepared as a guide for local governments in the East Asia Region to better understand the concepts and consequences of climate change; how climate change consequences contribute to urban vulnerabilities; and what is being done by city governments in East Asia and around the world to actively engage in learning, capacity building, and capital investment programs for building sustainable, resilient communities. The primer is applicable to a range of cities from those starting to build awareness on climate change to those with climate change strategies and institutions already in place. It is now undeniably evident that the global climate is changing as a result of human induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Increased levels of heat trapped in the atmosphere have set off a process that is modifying weather patterns, which in turn affect temperatures, sea levels, and storm frequencies. This will impact cities and other urban areas, especially those in coastal zones. Asia already experiences the greatest number of flood events worldwide. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Asia has experienced more than 550 floods affecting over 850 million people. Out of China's estimated urban population of 400 million, 130 million live in coastal cities that are vulnerable to sea-level rise. The high incidence of hydro-meteorological and other disasters affecting urban areas, particularly in vulnerable regions, is a challenge to local officials and their communities in being prepared and proactive in reducing their GHG emissions and in addressing increasingly frequent and extreme climate change events.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication The Global Findex Database 2025: Connectivity and Financial Inclusion in the Digital Economy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-16)The Global Findex 2025 reveals how mobile technology is equipping more adults around the world to own and use financial accounts to save formally, access credit, make and receive digital payments, and pursue opportunities. Including the inaugural Global Findex Digital Connectivity Tracker, this fifth edition of Global Findex presents new insights on the interactions among mobile phone ownership, internet use, and financial inclusion. The Global Findex is the world’s most comprehensive database on digital and financial inclusion. It is also the only global source of comparable demand-side data, allowing cross-country analysis of how adults access and use mobile phones, the internet, and financial accounts to reach digital information and resources, save, borrow, make payments, and manage their financial health. Data for the Global Findex 2025 were collected from nationally representative surveys of about 145,000 adults in 141 economies. The latest edition follows the 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2021 editions and includes new series measuring mobile phone ownership and internet use, digital safety, and frequency of transactions using financial services. The Global Findex 2025 is an indispensable resource for policy makers in the fields of digital connectivity and financial inclusion, as well as for practitioners, researchers, and development professionals.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-10)The global economy is facing another substantial headwind, emanating largely from an increase in trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty. For emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the ability to boost job creation and reduce extreme poverty has declined. Key downside risks include a further escalation of trade barriers and continued policy uncertainty. These challenges are exacerbated by subdued foreign direct investment into EMDEs. Global cooperation is needed to restore a more stable international trade environment and scale up support for vulnerable countries grappling with conflict, debt burdens, and climate change. Domestic policy action is also critical to contain inflation risks and strengthen fiscal resilience. To accelerate job creation and long-term growth, structural reforms must focus on raising institutional quality, attracting private investment, and strengthening human capital and labor markets. Countries in fragile and conflict situations face daunting development challenges that will require tailored domestic policy reforms and well-coordinated multilateral support.Publication CPIA Africa, July 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-10)In 2024, public protests emphasized the urgent need for reforms in service delivery, focusing on efficiency and social justice amid tight fiscal conditions. The latest CPIA report notes that, despite a stable overall score, essential services must be strengthened for inclusive and sustainable growth. It highlights the need for government mobilization to address the needs of the African population in the face of limited external financing. While short-term economic improvements are noted, public dissatisfaction remains, underscoring the necessity for efficient service delivery.