Using disaster risk financing to build adaptive social protection for climate shocks in Malawi: Social support for resilient livelihoods
This note summarizes the government’s process for establishing this mechanism and presents key results and lessons learned. The Government of Malawi put in place a mechanism that enables its flagship unconditional cash transfer program—the Social Cash Transfer Program (SCTP)—to scale up response to additional beneficiaries when shocks occur. Making the SCTP shock-responsive is a key strategic pillar of the government’s Disaster Risk Financing Strategy. The SCTP scalable mechanism was first implemented during the 2021/22 rainfall season in three initially selected districts (Blantyre, Ntcheu, and Thyolo). In 2022/23, the mechanism was expanded to cover over 100,000 households in six districts; the long-term goal is to make it a nationwide mechanism.
The following were lessons learned from the first year of implementation:
- The implementation of an adaptive safety net requires strong government ownership and multi-sectoral cooperation.
- Pre-established rules and financing helped speed response.
- It requires time and effort to build delivery systems that can provide rapid emergency assistance to households.
- Global expertise is needed to design a well-functioning mechanism that uses remote sensing data.
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