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WFP Malawi Country Brief, July 2018

Countries
Malawi
Sources
WFP
Publication date

In Numbers

35,421 refugees received food assistance

170,000 households targeted for Food for Assets

41,921 children, adolescents and adults treated for acute malnutrition

880,929 children received school meals

Operational Updates

Refugee Programme

• The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported an additional influx of 2,200 asylum seekers into Malawi since January 2018. In July, a total of 35,241 refugees benefited from general food distribution in Luwani and Dzaleka camps.
Thanks to USAID’s support, WFP was able to provide full food rations in July. However, WFP still requires USD 0.8 million to provide food and nutrition assistance until the end of 2018.

Resilience Programme

• Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) Programme. The 2017/2018 implementation cycle for food assistance for assets (FFA) re-started in July, planning to reach 170,000 households across 10 districts. In July, participants started working on asset creation across all districts and the first food or cash transfers will take place in August.
Activities included training on fruit tree propagation and budding; construction of swales/contour ridges and deep trenches; gully reclamation; establishment of vetiver nursery; among others.

• R4 Rural Resilience Initiative. R4 in Malawi is expanding. From over 10,000 households participating in 2017/2018, the initiative will be scaled up to over 39,000 participants for the upcoming 2018/2019 season. Data collection for the index design was finalised in July.

• Climate Services are trialling the Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA), a methodology used to enable extension officers to interpret and communicate climate service information to farmers. This includes the use of a tablet-supported application that enables extension officers to access and interpret climate and weather information with advisory for dissemination to farmers. Over 220 extension officers will be trained in July and August, leading up to the release of the seasonal forecasts and start of the agricultural season.

• Purchase for Progress: procurement of Purdue Improved Crop storage (PICS) hermetic grain storage bags for programme participants in Blantyre is being finalised. The bags will be used for demonstration of the effectiveness of hermetic storage and the reduction of post-harvest food losses.