Farmers in Malawi are diversifying their crops and adopting sustainable technologies as they look at ways to adapt to a changing climate.

UNDP Malawi
Some farmers in Malawi have started growing tomatoes as they try to adapt to a change in the climate.


26 August 2019
Climate Change

Around 80 per cent of Malawi’s and indeed the world’s agriculture depends on rain, however rainfall is becoming more erratic forcing farmers to change traditional practices.


A UN Development Programme-supported (UNDP) project in the southern African country is helping to mitigate variable rainfall patterns through the introduction of new crops and practices, such as tomatoes and beekeeping, and the installation of a solar-powered irrigation system.

Read more here about how farmers in Malawi are fighting climate change.


In Southern Malawi, in the Sunuzi community, Mrs. Ephelo Bonongwe, her husband and eight children, know how rain-fed farming is making their livelihood more precarious.

With a changing climate leading to more variable rainfall patterns, relying on the rain to feed their family and support their livelihood was difficult. …and here for more information about how UNDP is supporting climate adaptation.



THE PROBLEM WITH RELYING ON RAIN


Nearly 80% of global agriculture relies on rain-fed farming. Rural communities across the world report that rainfall is more erratic, shorter, and heavier within seasons, and that ‘unseasonal’ events such as heavier rains, dry spells, unusual storms, and temperature fluctuations are increasing.

Meeting this challenge demands approaches which enhance the ability of farmers, their households, and communities to adapt to a changing climate.


CALL AND RESPOND


Answering this call for adaptation action, the Sunuzi Irrigation Scheme is changing lives through assistance from the UNDP-supported, Global Environment Facility (GEF) Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF)-financed project ‘Implementing Urgent Adaptation Priorities Through Strengthened Decentralized and National Development Plans (Adapt Plan)’.

Initiated in December 2014, the project is working to reduce the vulnerability of rural communities to the adverse impacts of climate variability and change in Malawi.

By implementing concrete livelihood diversification and capacity building activities in the districts of Nkhata Bay, Ntcheu and Zomba, the project is driving awareness and action on what constitutes effective adaptation at the community level in Malawi.

The communities, whose mainstay has been rain-fed agriculture, are not shy to showcase the range of livelihood options that the Adapt Plan initiative has introduced, as well as how these efforts are changing their fortunes through diversification of income sources.


FROM CORN TO TOMATOES


Mrs. Bonongwe vividly remembers her income from her rain-fed harvest being limited to about 30,000 Malawian Kwacha/MK (≈40 USD) for the whole maize production season.

But now, thanks to the Sunuzi Irrigation Scheme, she earned 50,000 MK (≈66 USD) just from her recent sale of tomatoes. She considers herself fortunate to be able to benefit from irrigation and more stable water supply, and welcomes the training that she received about how to grow irrigated crops and vegetables.






In the Sunuzi community, creating sustainable livelihoods is centred around the irrigation scheme that the communities established in 2017. Encompassing 10 hectares of land, 100 farmers are benefitting from the solar water irrigation system.

A stable water supply and community driven action is helping people to grow more crops and vegetables during the dry season, enabling people to have three meals a day, along with increasing their incomes from selling their produce.

A short walk along the irrigation scheme reveals new fish ponds that get their water supply from the same solar water system, now a source of alternative livelihood for another 18 community members.

This is a vital source of income and improves nutrition among families.


Fish farming

NORTH TO SOUTH


In the Southern and Northern parts of Malawi, in the Zomba and Nkhata Bay Districts, Adapt Plan is tailoring activities to each district, with a focus on reducing the vulnerability of rural communities to the negative impacts of climate variability and change.

Mrs. Falesi Edsoni, mother of five children, joined the Fish Farm Club in 2017. Like many others, she used to be dependent on rain-fed agriculture prior to the project. Now she benefits from the new system. Her fish club is focussing on increasing fish stocks, with the group having already harvested and sold fish where her share was 10,000MK (≈13USD). More sales are anticipated as fish stocks are increased and three other ponds under construction are operational.

Apart from being a source of livelihoods, the solar-powered water system has ensured access to potable water for over 300 households in the neighbourhood by reducing vulnerability to waterborne diseases and eliminating the long distances travelled by women and children to collect water, allowing them to focus on more productive activities to improve health, education and on-farm production.


Mrs. Falesi Edsoni

BEES AND TREES


Forest regeneration and beekeeping are also some of the activities under the Adapt Plan aimed at diversifying livelihoods and building resilience to climate change.

So far, 1,000 hectares of forest areas have been planted/established, and a further 773 hectares have been restored via natural regeneration. In the areas where natural regeneration is taking place, another beneficiary group is undertaking beekeeping, and have already realized over 3.6million MK (≈4,768USD) from their sales.




DIVERSIFYING LIVELIHOODS


The Usisiya community in Nkhata Bay District, Northern Malawi has little room to manoeuvre in terms of their livelihoods, being sandwiched between Lake Malawi on one side and Usisiya mountain on the other. Fish stocks are getting depleted, while the productivity of their land is low, limiting livelihood options.


Lake Malawi


The Adapt Plan initiative supported several community groups in Usisiya to set up enterprises that diversify their livelihoods away from reliance on fishing, dryland agriculture, and illegal charcoal production.

Making use of the perennial river that flows naturally from the mountains into the lake, one group has set up an irrigation scheme for dryland crop and vegetable production.

The irrigation project covers 35 hectares, directly benefitting nine men and 31 women. From their first sale of maize and tomatoes, they earned 260,000MK (≈344USD). The volume of dry season agricultural production now exceeds household consumption and provide a vital source of income to cover expenses such as school fees and clothing.

Mrs. Maggie Longwe, a single mother of three children, used to grow cassava, earning 50,000 MK (≈66USD) per annum. Now she grows vegetables during the dry season, with earnings set to rise to about $140 during the dry season.


Mrs. Maggie Longwe




ONE DOES NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE


The Usisya Tailoring and Chikomu Bakery Groups are another example of how communities targeted by the Adapt Plan initiative are increasing their resilience and adaptation by diversifying their livelihoods and sources of income to help them deal with shocks. The bakery has enabled its 25 members (six men and 19 women) to reduce the risks from over-relying on agriculture and fishing by moving towards more diverse business opportunities.






Usisya Tailoring Group, composed of five men and 15 women, supplies the local textile needs of the community, and has made earnings to date of about 350,000MK (≈464USD) since it started operating in 2016.





WE ARE CERTAIN THAT OUR FUTURE IS BRIGHT


The diversification and economic empowerment initiatives introduced by the Adapt Plan initiative are helping communities to shift from dependence on livelihoods that are highly vulnerable to climate change towards a more climate-resilient future.
The GEF Focal Point and Deputy Director of Environmental Affairs Department, Ms. Shamiso Banda Najira, testifies that the ‘Adapt Plan has also demonstrated how communities can build their resilience while delivering on other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’.

These initiatives will be integrated into District Development Plans and budgets.
‘Having learnt from Adapt Plan what constitutes adaptation in different communities, the Government now wants to build on this to replicate and scale up the project with an innovative, transformative, and ecosystem-based adaptation successor project with the involvement of the private sector in an integrated manner’, said Ms. Tawonga Mbale-Luka, Director of the Environmental Affairs Department of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Management.

For more information, visit the project profile: ‘Implementing Urgent Adaptation Priorities Through Strengthened Decentralized and National Development Plans (Adapt Plan)’.



This project and other UNDP supported initiatives are also advancing Malawi’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, this project supported progress on achieving SDG 1 on poverty, SDG2 on zero hunger, SDG5 on gender equality and , SDG 13 on climate action and SDG 15 on life on land among others.

https://undp-adaptation.exposure.co/a-call-for-climate-action

‘Eco-warriors’ fight climate change in South Africa

11 August 2019
Climate Change


Schools in South Africa have been designating students as “eco-warriors” as part of an initiative supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), to drive environmental and climate change awareness amongst the young and old in their communities.


The youthful warriors have supported rubbish clean-up campaigns around their schools, eliminating over 1000 illegal dumping sites.

© SGP South Africa and Future Leaders of Change | Through the SGP support the Climate Change Warriors Project (CCWP) was able to establish six small-scale conservation agriculture co-operatives and coordinate youth training on sustainable agriculture. ​​​​​

Other students have established agricultural co-operatives and learnt how to farm sustainably in the face of the effects of climate change and the degradation of the environment.

On International Youth Day which is marked annually on 12 August, find out here how South Africa’s youth are mobilizing to take climate action.

The Projects in South Africa are supported by UNDP’s Small Grants Programme.

Migration and the climate crisis: the UN’s search for solutions

31 July 2019
Climate Change


Throughout human history, migration and climate have always been connected, but in the modern era, the impacts of the man-made climate crisis are likely to extensively change the patterns of human settlement.


Dina Ionesco is the head of the Migration, Environment and Climate Change Division at the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has been at the forefront of efforts to study the links between migration, the environment and climate.

As she explained to UN News, we are now living in an era where catastrophic climate-related events are linked to human activity, and this is likely to have a major impact on the way that we decide to migrate, and settle:



“The Atlas of Environmental Migration, which gives examples dating as far back as 45,000 years ago, shows that environmental changes and natural disasters have played a role in how the population is distributed on our planet throughout history.”

“However, it is highly likely that undesirable environmental changes directly created by, or amplified by, climate change, will extensively change the patterns of human settlement. Future degradation of land used for agriculture and farming, the disruption of fragile ecosystems and the depletion of precious natural resources like fresh water will directly impact people's lives and homes.”

The climate crisis is already having an effect: according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 17.2 million people had to leave their homes last year, because of disasters that negatively affected their lives. Slow changes in the environment, such as ocean acidification, desertification and coastal erosion, are also directly impacting people’s livelihoods and their capacity to survive in their places of origin.

As Ms. Ionesco explains, there is a strong possibility that more people will migrate in search of better opportunities, as living conditions get worse in their places of origin:

“There are predictions for the twenty-first century indicating that even more people will have to move as a result of these adverse climate impacts. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the main UN authority on climate science, has repeatedly said that the changes brought on by the climate crisis will influence migration patterns. The World Bank has put forward projections for internal climate migration amounting to 143 million people by 2050 in three regions of the world, if no climate action is taken.”

“However, our level of awareness and understanding of how environmental factors affect migration, and how they also interact with other migration drivers such as demographic, political and economic conditions, has also changed. With enhanced knowledge, there is more incentive to act urgently, be prepared and respond.”
The Global Compact for Migration: a roadmap for governments

In the past decade, there has been a growing political awareness of the issues around environmental migration, and increasing acceptance that this is a global challenge.


As a result, many states have signed up to landmark agreements, such as the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Global Compact for Migration, which, says, Ms. Ionesco, marks a clear way forward for governments to address the issue of climate and migration.

“The Compact contains many references to environmental migration including a whole section on measures to address environmental and climate challenges: it is the first time that a comprehensive vision has been laid out, showing how states can handle - now and in the future – the impacts of climate change, disasters and environmental degradation on international migration.”

“Our analysis of the Compact highlights the priorities of states, when it comes to addressing environmental migration. Their primary concern is to “minimize the adverse drivers and structural factors that compel people to leave their country of origin”, in particular the "natural disasters, the adverse effects of climate change, and environmental degradation".

“In other words, the main priority is to find solutions that allow people to stay in their homes and give them the means to adapt to changing environmental conditions. This approach aims to avoid instances of desperate migration and its associated tragedies.”

“However, where climate change impacts are too intense, another priority put forward in the Compact is to “enhance availability and flexibility of pathways for regular migration”. States are thus looking at solutions for people to be able to migrate safely and through regular channels, and at solutions for those already on the move.

“A last resort measure is to conduct planned relocations of population – this means organizing the relocation of entire villages and communities away from areas bearing the brunt of climate change impacts.”

“Humanitarian assistance and protection for those on the move already, are also tools states can use. Finally, states highlight that relevant data and knowledge are key to guide the decision-making process. Without knowing more and analyzing better, policies run the risk of missing their targets and fade into irrelevance.”
A range of solutions to a complex problem

Responding to the challenges of environmental migration in a way that benefits both countries and communities, including migrants and refugees, is a complex process, says Ms. Ionesco, involving many different actors.


Solutions can range from tweaking migration practices, such as visa regimes, to developing human rights-based protection measures. Most importantly, they involve a coordinated approach from national governments, bringing together experts from different walks of life:

“There is no one single solution to respond to the challenge of environmental migration, but there are many solutions that tackle different aspects of this complex equation. Nothing meaningful can ever be achieved without the strong involvement of civil society actors and the communities themselves who very often know what is best for them and their ways of life.”

"I also think that we need to stop discourses that focus only on migrants as victims of tragedy. The bigger picture is certainly bleak at times, but we need to remember that migrants demonstrate everyday their resilience and capacity to survive and thrive in difficult situations."