The UMFULA project under the Future Climate For Africa programme has summarised the findings of its research in Malawi into a country brief (How can we improve the use of information for a climate-resilient Malawi?), aimed to inform decision-makers on how climate infromation can be used to build a resilient Malawi. Malawi’s geographical location, between the east and southern African climate systems, means that future climate (particularly rainfall) is challenging to predict accurately – although there are areas of agreement in climate models, notably higher temperatures and higher likelihood of extreme weather events. Given future uncertainty, it is important to design robust management options that work across the plausible range of future climate conditions. This is especially the case for large investments with long life-times, significant impacts and irreversibility, such as water-related infrastructure (e.g. hydropower or irrigation) and agricultural investments in crop-breeding. The recently-finalised National Resilience Strategy provides a policy framework to enable this, but there is also a need for coherence between sectoral policies (for example relating to agriculture, irrigation, water and energy), which requires a more supportive institutional environment for sustainable and resilient decision-making.
UMFULA project produces country brief “How can we improve the use of information for a climate-resilient Malawi?” with inputs from Kulima