Malawi and African Development Bank (AfDB) have launched a $21.6 million (about K37.4 billion) Mitigating Fragility Project to strengthen resilience and enhance adaptation to climate and disaster risks among vulnerable communities.
The five-year project, launched through Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme in Southern Africa- Malawi (ADRIFI-II) in Lilongwe yesterday, will also support construction of a humanitarian hub in Mzuzu, an evacuation centre in Karonga, and district emergency operation centres in Mangochi and Nkhotakota.
Speaking during the launch in Lilongwe, AfDB country manager Macmillan Anyanwu said the frequency of climate-related shocks in Malawi is clearly increasing, leaving vulnerable populations with limited time and capacity to recover.
Through a Facebook post, Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) quoted him as having said: “This new project, with a total budget of $21.6 million, will focus on three key outcomes: strengthened institutional capacity for climate disaster risk preparedness and management.”
Anyanwu said the project will also extend to non-sovereign layers of risk, develop the local insurance market, and provide micro-level coverage for smallholder farmers, including coverage for floods.
Dodma Commissioner Moses Chimphepo said the project was timely as it has been designed to address chronic disaster episodes that the country has been experiencing due to climate change, rapid population growth, urbanisation and environmental degradation.
He said: “Most often, partners have rushed to provide temporary support, unfortunately investing little in disaster risk reduction measures. The Government recognises that as a nation, we cannot continue on this path of responding to disaster every year.
“Disasters will continue to occur, but as a nation, we need to do something so that we can see a reduction in the occurrence or impact of disasters.”
Secretary to the Treasury Hetherwick Njati said the ADRIFI II Project sets a transformative pathway for Malawi, harnessing proactive financial strategies to shield vulnerable communities from devastating effects of droughts, floods, and other climate hazards.
In June 2022, Malawi received $14.2 million while in August 2024, it got $11.2 million and this year about $3.38 million insurance payouts under the Africa Risk Capacity (ARC) mechanism, all funded through ADRIFI, following severe droughts.
Njati said such timely support helps to mitigate impacts of droughts, serving more than two million farming households and underscoring the programme’s pivotal role in rapid humanitarian response and agricultural distress.
“These substantial and timely disbursements reflect not only the effectiveness of ADRIFI Phase I but also the African Development Bank’s strong confidence in Malawi’s proactive stewardship of climate risk financing mechanisms,” he said.
In 2018, the AfDB established the ADRiFi programme to strengthen climate resilience through proactive, ex-ante climate risk management.
