Dodma says no to response extension
The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) says it will not extend the implementation period for the K260 billion hunger response plan despite the programme raising only 58 percent of the resources.
The response plan started in October 2023 and will end in March 2024, targeting 4.4 million people the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Mvac) estimated would need relief food in the 2023/24 consumption period. The support required ranged from two months to six months.
During presentation of the 2024/25 Budget Statement in Parliament on Friday, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda said government and its partners mobilised K151.96 billion of the K260.26 billion required for the response. The resources cover both food distribution and cash transfers that people are being supported with.
When asked how Dodma plans to fill the gap, Dodma commissioner Charles Kalemba in an interview yesterday said they were still working with partners to raise more resources.
However, he said the response plan will not go beyond the period that was estimated by Mvac.
Kalemba also explained that it is not a must that the target should be met.
He said: “When time expires, you stop there. If we haven’t found resources, we will go based on the time that was estimated.
“You plan based on hope. It doesn’t mean you will have everything that you planned to have.”
Kalemba said the programme has supported people from October and the expectation is that when they start harvesting, their food situation will improve.
The response plan first targeted districts that required six months support.
However, the budget statement indicates that with the resources mobilised, government and the partners have managed to reach at least 95 percent of the 979 556 projected food-insecure households with in-kind maize support for one month.
The programme has also reached at least 33 percent (322 984) of the affected households with cash transfers ranging from one to three months.
Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture chairperson Sameer Suleman said hunger is a serious issue and government needs to give the response plan a priority in terms of resource allocation.
He said if government does not have resources, it should borrow and ensure that people are provided with food.
The Mvac report established that 4.4 million people are at risk of hunger in the 2023/24 consumption period. The figure represents about 22 percent of the country’s projected population of 19.6 million.
There is a 15 percent increase of those requiring food as compared to a similar number in 2022, which was at 3.9 million.
