Malawi Hazards and Vulnerability Modelling Tool
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Malawi has not been spared from the severe impacts of climate change. In the last two decades, Malawi has experienced a number of adverse climatic hazards. The most serious ones have been dry spells, seasonal droughts, intense and unpredictable rainfall, riverine floods and flash floods. Some of these especially droughts and floods, have since increased in frequency, intensity and magnitude over the past decades, and have adversely impacted on food and water security, water quality, energy and sustainable livelihoods of most rural communities. With its narrow economic base, limited agro-processing industries, over-dependency on rain-fed agriculture and biomass for household energy, Malawi is highly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. This situation is exacerbated by increasing poverty among rural communities, increasing population pressure on a limited land resource base, land degradation arising from agricultural expansion and the cultivation of marginal lands, and increasing deforestation to meet the increasing demands for energy, food and construction purposes.
One of the National Adaptation Programme of Action of Malawi priority areas of action to reduce the suffering of the most vulnerable communities was to improve community resilience to climate change through the development of sustainable livelihoods. In order to achieve this, the Government of Malawi requested RCMRD through the SERVIR program to facilitate national-level analysis and technical capacity building in spatial hazards and vulnerability mapping.
