Karonga food-insecure people to get cash transfers
Karonga district principal social welfare officer Tionge Mbale says government has disbursed money to over 12 000 ultra-poor households facing hunger in the district.
Speaking on Monday during a media orientation organised by National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) in the district, he said the beneficiary households include 7 523 under Social Cash Transfer Programme and 5 219 under Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Programme.
Mbale said the targeted households were affected by El Nino-induced droughts that hit the district in the last growing season.
“As of October 31, we had disbursed K75 000 to each beneficiary household through their mobile money wallets. The aim of the pay-outs is to cushion the households from hunger after they failed to produce enough food due to drought during 2022/23 growing season,” he said.
NLGFC Scalable Mechanisms coordinator Mulder Mkutumula said government, through the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project (SSRLP), is scaling up social cash transfers to ultra-poor and vulnerable households faced with extreme weather related shocks.
He said: “Currently, we are implementing the scaled-up cash transfers in Karonga, Nkhotakota, Ntcheu, Chiradzulu, Blantyre and Thyolo.
“These districts were selected based on drought risk, systems readiness and other interventions happening in the districts. However, our aim is to reach out to all disaster-prone districts.”
SSRLP is a Malawi Government project funded by the World Bank and Social Protection Multi-Donor Trust Fund (SP-MDTF) through NGLFC.
The drought in Karonga affected maize and rice crops, among others.
