ReliefWeb

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The series of emergencies faced by Malawi from 2015 until 2017 overwhelmed the capacity of the country to respond adequately to protect lives, recover and sustain livelihoods as vulnerable children and women were displaced by the floods and required food and nutrition assistance for most parts of the year. This situation warranted a well-coordinated emergency response that involved many players including the government of Malawi, Donors, United Nations agencies, national and international humanitarian organisations and the community who needed to be assisted.

Guided by the Global framework of cooperation, UNICEF and WFP fostered sound cooperation at the ground, in conjunction with some of the major UN agencies involved in humanitarian work across various spheres to collaborate in responding to the emergencies according to their mandates. The global memoranda of understanding and the policies and technical guidelines is fully endorsed by the Malawi government.

To this end, UNICEF and WFP jointly collaborated with other stakeholders in:

• Coordinating the nutrition emergency at national level as guided by their mandates;

• Leading and co-lead respective clusters (with WFP co leading the Food Security cluster and UNICEF co-leading the nutrition cluster);

• Mobilising resources and financially supporting the implementation of the nutrition emergency response;

• Providing technical leadership and guidance in updating relevant protocols and guidelines;

• Advocating for support to the emergency and generally strengthened the response and managed to save lives.

• Facilitating both food security and nutrition assessments

• Joint information sharing through the monthly food security and nutrition clusters bulletin

This report provides a joint reflection on several lessons learnt during the response cycles from 2015-2017, but also opportunities, recommendations and mitigating measures for now and the future.