Context:
Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries: 70 per cent of the population lives on less than the equivalent of 2 euros a day. The impacts of climate change, such as crop failure due to drought, are exacerbating poverty. Therefore, a social protection system that provides rapid, needs-based assistance to citizens living in extreme poverty or when natural disasters strike, is needed.
Objective:
Malawi’s social protection system is more efficient, robust and able to respond to disasters, providing the population with on-demand social protection services.
Approach:
The project strengthens social protection as a policy field and enhances the capacity of state actors to steer and coordinate measures more effectively. To do so, it works with the Poverty Reduction and Social Protection Unit (PRSP) in Malawi’s Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation and with line ministries and administrations in the partner districts. The project has three priority areas: It advises ministries and local administrations on how to organise, coordinate and implement social protection programmes. Moreover, it provides training on ‘cash plus’ approaches, where cash transfers are combined with complementary measures, for example on financial literacy or nutrition, and is supporting an effective social administration. It supports the development of the national social registry, for better and more up-to-date data, thus enabling beneficiaries to be identified faster and more efficiently. It carries out information campaigns and training to raise awareness among policy makers and the public and is cooperating with civil society organisations, thus solidifying social protection as a policy field to increase its funding. The project primarily benefits households living in extreme poverty in Malawi, including older people, single women with children and people with a disability.