HFA thematic area 4: Risk management and vulnerability reduction

Intervention/practice Description and success factors Impact and appropriateness of practice Small-scale irrigation farming Civil society organizations working in partnership

with government agriculture extension service providers are providing technical and resource support to communities at risk of drought and flood-induced food insecurity in order to engage in small-scale irrigation. This strategy is helping the communities to avert acute food shortages at household level in times of failed harvests when caused by dry spells and wash-aways of crop fields by floods. Factors contributing to the success of this initiative include collaborative efforts by stakeholders and the capacity-building of participating households. People are introduced to good farming technologies, and village facilitators or lead farmers are trained to spearhead the wider adoption of good farming practices at irrigation sites.

Impact:

Perennial food insecurity induced by dry spells and flooding is historically known in vulnerable households that are actively and effectively engaged in small-scale irrigation farming. This initiative provides them with the opportunity to plant twice a year, thereby increasingfood production.

Appropriateness for good practice:

Participating stakeholders, households and agriculture extension service providers are actively involved and ‘own’ the initiative. Small-scale irrigation farming by rural subsistence farming families has helped increase the acreage of land being irrigated in the country as evidenced by statistics at district and national agriculture offices.

This has multiple effects, as the initiative provides opportunities to ensure direct food production for household consumption and the sale of surplus to generate income for other socioamenities.

The challenge, however, is how to come up with strategies to reduce negative environmental consequences because, in most cases, treadle pumps are used to draw water from streams and aredesigned to be placed within the buffer zone along the riverbank. The riverbankis therefore exposed to degradation. The initiative provides opportunities to translate different agricultural strategies into tangible results on the ground. Small-scale irrigation using simple equipment and gravity-fed irrigation where applicable is easy to replicate and sustain.

Intervention/practice Description and success factors Impact and appropriateness of practice

3. VSLA Commonly known as the ‘village bank’, VSLAs

providevillagers with the opportunity to cultivate a savings culture and to access affordable loans in order to engage in profitable nonfarm and farm income-generating activities. One of the socioeconomic vulnerability factors for most households in disaster-prone areas is that they are overly dependentsolely on a single means of livelihood, for instance agriculture, which ironically is susceptible to natural hazards and the changing climate. With any weather-related disaster, crop production is compromised and income generation is affected at the household level. Affected villagers cannot engage in other off-farm income-generating activities because they do not have the start-up capital and are not able to borrow from the village loan sharks, which is another dynamic pressure increasing their vulnerability owing to loan sharks’prohibitive interest rates. The concept of VSLAs is therefore a welcome idea. Civil society organizations are championing the initiative, working in partnership with District Councils, government community development facilitators and community people.

One of the success factors is that the initiative does not use any external start-up capital butis funded by the members themselves.

Impact

VSLAs are helping the vulnerable to improve their savings and to access affordable loans to engage in other off-farmmicrobusiness initiatives. The Ministry of Economic Planning and Development has data on what different players are doing in VSLA-related work with vulnerable communities. The initiative has huge potential to improve the socioeconomic welfare of vulnerable farming families and to enhance their resilience to natural hazards and the effects of the changing climate.

Appropriateness for good practice:

Participating stakeholders, households and community development facilitators, non-traditional DRR groups are actively involved and ‘own’ the initiative. There are multiple effects as, the initiative provides opportunities to ensure diversified means of livelihoods and to increase capacity to prepare for and deal with the impact of disaster-induced food insecurity and property loss. The initiative has the potential to help government machinery translate concepts about economic growth into tangible results on the ground. It is easy to replicate and sustain because it requires no external financial injection except for capacity-building in related procedures and responsibilities.The system also trains village agents who are commissioned to make more people aware and establish more groups of between 20 and 25 people.

Intervention/practice Description and success factors Impact and appropriateness of practice 4.DRR awareness–raising for local building

contractors and artisans in adaptive infrastructure

Raising the awareness of local artisans and building contractors about disaster risk reductionand adaptive infrastructure is one of the most effective ways to promote DRR mainstreaming into the building sector. Civil society organizations (like the Evangelical Association of Malawi and Christian Aid in the Chikwawa district) are working in collaboration with the District Department of Works and UN-Habitat to raise the awareness of local building contractors and artisans as regards disaster risk reduction and adaptive infrastructure. It is a commendable initiative considering that most local artisans venture into building business without formal training and are not conversant with the principles of building better. The initiative promotes the use of locally available materials to build houses that can withstand the impact of floods, strong winds, earthquake and fires following established building codes. The training provides local building artisans and contractors with significant expertise and skills and they now feel knowledgeable about their trade and how best to use their expertise to reduce infrastructure-related disaster risks. Oneof the success factors is that the initiative promotesthe use of locally available materials to construct adaptive structures. It is also an incentive to local artisans, as they improve their credentials to be more marketable.

Impact

The Evangelical Association of Malawi piloted the initiative where over 17 local building contractors and 65 local builders and artisans were introduced to DRR and adaptive infrastructure in 2012 by way of a technical and practical training workshop.

Artisans appreciated the training because it opened their eyes to construction that is donefrom a DRR perspective. They formed their own association and are now advising their clients how to build better.

Some have even gone on to build their second homes better, using locally available resources and adhering to building principles and codes learnt during the workshop.

Appropriateness for good practice:

The initiative brings together members of the community, government departments (Ministry of Works), UN-Habitat and local artisans, a non-traditional DRR group.There are multiple benefits:

building the capacity of local artisans and investing in the construction of adaptive structures for the safety of people in the community.Most of these artisans are hired to build houses for people, or schools, churches or mosques and their involvement in DRR-related buildingwill ensure the safety of people in flood, earthquake and storm-prone areas. The initiative promotes collaborative efforts by government departmentswithin the national institutional DRR environment and in the private sector. It is easy to replicate and sustain because of the training provided and the use of locally available building materials to encourage a culture of safety and resilience.