Dr Katharine Vincent and Ms Tracy Cull are in Malawi this week undertaking consultations for two current projects. In conjunction with FAO, they are supporting the development of a project concept note for submission to the Least Developed Countries Fund. Like Zambia, Malawi is participating in the development of a regional programme on forests, rangelands and climate change adaptation, first conceived of at a regional workshop hosted by FAO and SADC in Johannesburg in June 2013. Consultations will take place in order to determine the nature of country-specific activities within the broad remit of the regional programme. They are also undertaking consultations, in partnership with the University of Leeds, with relevant stakeholders in food security, social protection and disaster resilience as part of the Malawi case study for the Future Climate For Africa programme. This project is concerned with identifying the weather and climate needs of decision-makers. The consultations will focus on understanding decision-making processes in order to design scenarios and simulations that will form the basis of a workshop in August. A background paper on the weather and climate data availability and sources has been published.
