food |
He was speaking
during the Compact 2025 round table multisectoral discussions in
Lilongwe under the theme "Moving from relief to Resilience: Achieving
Sustainable Food Security for Malawi.
The round table discussion was organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute under the Compact2025.
He said by
achieving resilience, Malawi aims at strengthening households,
communities and the country as a whole to break the circle of food
insecurity and coping beyond emergency interventions which come about
due to negative effects of erratic weather conditions like droughts and
floods.
"Malawi continues
to experience different forms of disasters and the intensity and
severity have been increasing in recent years. It is recorded that
between 1967 and 2003, the country experienced six major droughts and 18
incidences of flooding.
Dr. Chilima speaks with IFPRI Director General Dr. Shenggen Fan at BICC in Lilongwe - Pic by Abel Ikiloni
"More recently,
floods in 2015 affected 1.1 million people, displaced 230 and killed 106
people. In 2016 drought rendered 6.7 million people destitute and
required US Dollars 395 million for intervention and response," said
Chilima.
The vice president
said as one way of addressing the issue, the Malawi Growth and
Development Strategy (MGDS) 3 has agriculture as one of its key priority
areas with emphasis on climate change management.
He said the
National Resilience Strategy has been developed to harness synergies and
enhance cooperation in resilience building through resilience
agriculture growth, risk reduction, early warning and response systems
amongst others.
The Vice-President
said government has, over the years, allocated 10 percent of its
national budget to agriculture, with the sector receiving a lion's share
of 21 percent in 2013.
This, he said,
helped break the circle of food insecurity in the country but did not
make any positive impact in building resilience.
Chilima, therefore,
said it is high time Malawi walks the talk on building resilience if
the country is to achieve food security and development.
"Building
resilience is no longer a Talk Show [but rather] a matter of action.
Disasters are no longer unforeseen. Government is working to address
challenges through the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy 3 and the
National Resilience Strategy.
"Our cooperating
partners, research institutions and nongovernmental organizations should
support this noble cause of making Malawi a resilient nation so that we
truly move from relief to resilience," said Chilima.
In his remarks, Dr
Bob Baulch, Malawi Country Program Leader for International Food Policy
Research Institute, said promoting resilience in the country is
extremely important as Malawi is one of the most vulnerable countries.
He said shocks in
forms of droughts and floods resulting from climate change are
increasing overtime which can make people fall back into poverty and
food insecurity unless measures and programs are developed.
Baulch, however,
added that resilience does not only aim at helping people withstand
shocks but further aims at uplifting peoples living standards by moving
out of poverty.
"The idea of
resilience is not that they only bounce back to their previous level,
but they should get on a higher trajectory which will allow them to
escape from food insecurity and poverty.
"What we have
learnt from last year's food insecurity response plan is that it is
possible to combine humanitarian relief (food or cash) with various
activities that can protect poor households and communities' assets
during difficult times. This means they can get to these higher
trajectories faster," said Baulch.
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