The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is urgently appealing for funds to provide life-saving food assistance to two million people in Malawi who are facing the devastating effects of drought. Today's appeal comes just days after Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of disaster. Malawi, like other countries in Southern Africa, is grappling with the effects of a severe period of dry weather, exacerbated by the effects of the El Niño phenomenon.
The Southern Eastern African country is still reeling from the impact of tropical storms and cyclones in 2022 and 2023, and the compounding effect is pushing up to 40 percent of the country's population - some 9 million people - into hunger, threatening both lives and livelihoods.
In March 2023, one of the longest-lasting tropical cyclones on record hit Malawi, causing widespread damage, killing hundreds of people, leaving more than 650,000 homeless, and affecting some 2.3 million people.
In early 2024, nearly 2 million farming families and more than 40 percent of the country's agricultural land were affected by extreme weather, with rains and prolonged dry spells, as well as flooding, severely damaging crops and food production.
According to WFP, prolonged dry spells have damaged crops in southern and central regions, while floods have washed away crops in northern and central areas. The impact of El Niño is exacerbating the devastating effects of the climate crisis in Malawi.
“The impact is huge, and so are the needs,” said Paul Turnbull, WFP Country Director and Representative in Malawi, in a statement Tuesday.
“We can avert a hunger catastrophe for the hardest hit families, but time is not on our side. I'm calling on the international community to step up now and help us save lives.”
As national maize stocks dwindle, the country has been forced to import staple foods, driving up food prices to alarming levels. Maize prices have nearly doubled in just one year and tripled compared to the five-year average.
With over 80 percent of the population relying on agriculture to meet their basic needs, the steep decline in staple crops such as maize, rice, soybeans, cowpeas and groundnuts has been devastating for millions of people.
On March 23, Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of emergency in 23 of 28 districts affected by El Niño conditions. According to the government's preliminary assessment, nearly two million farming households and 749,000 hectares, or 44 percent of the country's arable land, have been affected.
As a result, the start of the 2024/2025 lean season is expected to be earlier and more severe than usual.
WFP said it will cover part of the food assistance needs and requires US$70 million to provide emergency food assistance to two million people for three months through a combination of in-kind and cash assistance to affected households.
In addition, WFP aims to pre-position food supplies through October to mitigate the impact of the upcoming lean season. The UN agency will also continue to provide effective logistical support for the transportation of maize. Additionally, WFP can provide procurement and transportation services to import cereals.
Humanitarian agencies in Malawi, such as WFP, are scaling up emergency assistance, including food and nutrition, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) support. They are also providing health, protection, education and livelihoods support, despite limited funding.
Before the deterioration, an estimated 4.4 million Malawians - 22 percent of the population - were estimated to be acutely food insecure from October 2023 to March 2024, the period when food is most scarce.
Neighboring Zimbabwe is expected to declare a state of disaster on Wednesday as severe drought has destroyed crops, leaving 2.7 million people in rural Zimbabwe at risk of hunger.
Zambia has also been hit hard by drought. On February 29, the President of Zambia declared a state of disaster and emergency in the nation and called for local and international assistance. The disaster has affected 1 million families across Zambia. The entire southern half of Zambia is experiencing drought, including the northwestern, southern, western, central, and eastern provinces.
According to the latest Integrated Food Insecurity Phase Classification (IPC) report, an average of more than 2 million people in Zambia were food insecure between October 2023 and March 2024.
According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), a record dry spell of more than 30 days has affected much of the Southern African region, including Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The affected areas have received the lowest rainfall for the late January/February period in at least 40 years.
The prolonged dry spell has severely affected crops, with widespread permanent crop losses reported in parts of Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Crop failure in affected areas is likely due to the predicted dry conditions, with little hope for crop recovery in many areas.
By the end of 2023, FEWS NET had issued an alert for Southern Africa, where the ongoing El Niño was expected to result in below-average rainfall and negatively impact harvests across much of the region, leading to high humanitarian food assistance needs by early 2025.
In the alert, FEWS NET reported that more than 20 million people across Southern Africa were expected to face crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse food security levels in the early months of 2024, with Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Madagascar likely to bear the brunt of El Niño's adverse effects.