Malawi was one of the three most affected Southern African countries in the food crisis that threatened the lives of over 13 million people in the region during the 2002/2003 season. Over 3.2 million people were identified as needing relief food estimated at 485,000 tonnes by the FAO and WFP. The ACT alliance responded to the crisis through an ACT appeal AFMW-22 which had a target of $5.4 million. The appeal attracted a response coverage of 57%.

The last crop harvest in June and July 2003 recorded significant improvement in the food production in the region according to the FAO and WFP reports. The government of Malawi through its Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation announced a cereal harvest of 2.056 million tonnes. Add the carryover stocks brought forward and the informal cross-border imports of maize and rice from the neighbouring countries, the total national cereal availability is estimated at 2.319 million tonnes for an expected utilisation of 2.413 million tonnes. The gap of 94,000 tonnes is expected to be covered by commercial imports and some food aid. Our ACT members who are working in some of the most marginalized areas of the country have reported that despite the good level of food production for the country, most rural Malawians have no proper access to food and remain hungry and impoverished. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has added to the crisis of the food insecurity to most rural communities.

In this appeal, the ACT members, Evangelical Lutheran Development Programme (ELDP), Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM), Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), Church of Central Africa Presbyterian – Blantyre Synod (CCAP-Blantyre – Synod), CCAP- Livingstonia, Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) are proposing to provide relief food to the food insecure in their areas of operations and also provide agricultural inputs and tools to selected households who have lost all means of recovering from the last drought. The programs also intend to address the needs of vulnerable and weak families in the health sector and also ensure that malnourished children are given appropriate assistance for the immediate and long term. All the ACT members undertook comprehensive needs assessments between June and July that formed the basis for their planned response programmes in the appeal.

It should be mentioned that the proposal for CARD does not form part of this appeal as it is still being finalised and will be included in the appeal at a later stage.

Project Completion Dates:

CCAP Blantyre Synod - 30 June 2004

CCAP Livingstonia Synod - 31 July 2004

NCA/CHAM - 31 August 2004

ELDP - 31 August 2004

Signed by:
John Nduna, Acting Director, ACT

For full details of proposals and budgets, please click below to download a PDF file of the entire Appeal.

Malawi - Famine Recovery & Mitigation - AFMW31 (file size: 173 Kb)

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