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Appeal
Malawi
Food Insecurity in Malawi – MWI151
Appeal Target: US$ 47,553.57
Balance Requested: US$ 24,797.57
Geneva, 22 October 2015
This appeal follows an alert that was issued on 28 August 2015. The issuing of the appeal was delayed due to lack of funding. Now based on interest from ACT funding members and following advice from the ACT secretariat, the ACT forum in Malawi decided to revised the appeal in order to include only 1 ACT Requesting Member and to reduce significantly the appeal target.
Malawi experienced a number of weather related hazards during the 2014/15 agricultural production season. The rain season delayed by 30 to 40 days due to late onset of rains; this delayed planting of all major crops across the country so much so that by the time of the cessation of the rains, most crops had not yet reached maturity. Heavy rains followed in the month of January 2015 resulting in widespread floods and wash-aways. Apart from damage or loss of lives and other infrastructure, the floods severely destroyed field crops, caused wash-away of soil nutrients and affected farming activities such as planting, weeding, and ridging as well as fertilizer application. The country also experienced dry spells in most districts for a period of 4 to 6 weeks, between February and March 2015, which resulted in crops drying up prematurely as rains tailed -off early. The result was low production of most crops and subsequent increase in food insecurity. National Vulnerability Assessment shows that 2,833,212 people (representing 17% of national total population), in 25 of the 28 districts of Malawi will face food shortage and hunger ranging from 3 to 8 months , requiring about 124,183 MT of maize equivalent. Among the districts most affected include: Balaka, Chikwawa, Kasungu, Nkhota-kota, Dedza, Dowa, Karonga, Mchinji, Mulanje,Nsanje, Phalombe, Thyolo and Zomba, where Malawi ACT forum members are also implementing long term development projects.
Currently, both from the Malawi Government side and NGOs, specific activities to assist the communities on how the affected households will recover from the tragedy is not coming out so clearly although government and the World Food Programme are planning to procure food which again will not be enough to meet the current demand. It is against this background that ELDS is submitting this proposal on behalf of the ACT Forum in Malawi, to assist the affected households in the district of Dowa.
For the full appeal document, please click here.
