AfDB pours in US$3m for Malawi rural development
The African Development Bank (AfDB) says it has approved a grant amounting to $3 million to Malawi from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) for the implementation of the Climate Adaptation for Rural Livelihoods and Agriculture (CARLA).
The bank says the project goal is to improve the resilience to climate variability and future climate change effects.
“CARLA is designed as a supplementary financing to the Smallholder Crop production and Marketing Project (SCPMP) in order to address issues of climate change. It will therefore be implemented through the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development but with strong collaboration with Department of Environmental Affairs (EAD),” AfDB says.
The project’s principal beneficiaries will be smallholder farmers from 30,000 households and other community members in Karonga, Dedza and Chikhwawa.
“The incremental financing for CARLA will also complement the investments made in SCPMP by the Bank’s ADF resources by ensuring that SCPMP activities contribute to the realization of optimal global environmental benefits including increasing communities’ resilience to climate change effects, reducing land degradation, conserving biodiversity and improving agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods,” the bank says.
The project has three components, the first will focus on the development of a community based integrated climate change adaptation approach through community mobilization, use of model villages, vulnerability assessments, review of existing coping and adaptation actions and develop and implement community based climate change adaptation plans.
The second component will focus on strengthening the national and districts capacities through updating and elaborating capacity needs and training.
The third component will focus on project management which includes recruitment of technical assistants, procurement plans, auditing and coordination mechanisms.
The bank says it is committed to supporting the Malawi government in its efforts to reduce poverty and to achieve equitable economic growth in the country.
AfDB says it is also confident that these resources will support Government’s efforts towards the achievement of goals and targets of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as they relate to the agriculture and food security, irrigation and water development and natural resources, climate change and environment.
