Malawi food security strategy

Guidance to effective food security programmes in Malawi

This paper presents the USAID food security programming strategy for Malawi. Its purpose is to provide guidance to current and potential USAID Mission food security partners on how to design effective food security projects for the period FY 2008-2014 and to improve programmatic and resource integration.

Despite some improvements in food security during the 1990s, the paper highlights that Malawi remains food insecure with improvements needed in food availability, access and utilisation. The country is also highly vulnerable to droughts, floods and external economic shocks, including increases in the prices of petroleum and fertilizer and reductions in the prices of major export crops, such as cotton, tobacco and tea. Given the importance of agriculture and the overall lack of diversity in the Malawian economy, these shocks can have economy-wide effects on national-level food supplies and the level and rate of economic growth as well as adverse effects on individual households’ incomes and access to food. The fact that almost half of the children under five are chronically malnourished is an indicator of the magnitude of the food security problem. The paper also highlights the serious implications of the current food security situation for the country’s future economic, social and political development.

Key recommendations and guidelines include:

in designing their Multi-Year Assistance Programmes (MYAPS), cooperating sponsors (CS) should ensure that their programmes are targeted to the more food insecure and vulnerable regions, districts, traditional authorities and communities within Malawi
to be effective at the community level, the CS’s need to open their agricultural technology transfer and marketing programmes to all community members who wish to participate
organisations that desire to partner with USAID/Malawi in food security programming will need to explore mechanisms for collaboration and joint programming to ensure efficient use of resources.

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Malawi food security strategy