Green Climate Fund approves $52 million to support FAO-led project in Malawi

Songdo/Rome – A $52.3 million project approved today by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) aims to help Malawi cope with the devastating effects of climate change and boost the country’s long-term food security.

Led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the project is set to benefit nearly 575,000 vulnerable people in rural communities over six years. It will deliver urgently needed investments in adaption and resilience in Malawi, which the UN categorizes as a Least Developed Country.

The project, Ecosystems-based Adaptation for Resilient Watersheds and Communities in Malawi (EbAM), was approved by the GCF Board at its 39th meeting in Songdo, South Korea.

“This project offers a comprehensive, inclusive, and innovative approach to building climate resilience in Malawi, addressing both major environmental and socio-economic challenges in the context of climate change. We welcome the GCF Board’s approval and look forward to working with our Malawi counterparts to help transform Malawi’s agriculture sector through impactful, holistic ecosystem-based climate actions,” said FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo. This is part of implementing FAO’s strategy on Climate Change 2022-2031 and Action Plan 2022-2025.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with 70 percent of its population living below the international poverty line. Its rural communities, which depend primarily on rainfed agriculture for their livelihoods, are already experiencing the effects of climate change, including rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, and more frequent and intense extreme weather events.

In 2023, acute food insecurity reported in the country was attributed to a significant decrease in the production of maize—the country’s leading staple food—due to droughts and floods brought about by tropical cyclones, coupled with existing soil degradation.

Going forward, climate change is expected to continue to alter the onset of the rainy season, increase water stress, and intensify incidents of pests and diseases, making it even more difficult for smallholders to grow cash and subsistence crops. This will likely put farming communities under increased pressure to resort to unsustainable land use practices, further exacerbating land degradation.

Inclusive approach

The project aims to increase the resilience of rural communities at the watershed and farm levels, where ecosystem-based approaches and integrated sustainable water and soil management are critical to agricultural production and adaptation to climate change. It will also restore more than 83,000 hectares of communal and farmland.

Crucially, it adopts an inclusive and participatory approach that engages women, youth, and other vulnerable groups in all aspects of the project.

Local communities will be empowered to formulate village-level action plans (VLAPs) to conserve, restore, and sustainably manage landscapes through green infrastructure (such as gully plugs and check dams) and sustainable forest management and restoration. Communities involved in the project will receive native and well-adapted seeds and seedlings to promote high biodiversity, which is crucial for resilience, as well as equipment and materials such as wheelbarrows, shovels, wire, and boulders required to perform the work.

Farmer Field Schools will enable community members to acquire essential knowledge in sustainable agricultural practices that enhance resilience and minimize greenhouse gas emissions. This includes promoting agrobiodiversity, growing drought-resilient crops, and using weather information.

In addition to improving livelihoods and resilience, the project also aims to increase farmers’ access to markets and financing opportunities, as well as to regional and international value chains, through the strengthening of Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA), the creation of public-private producer partnerships, capacity building for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and technical support to financial institutions. 

“Today marks a historic moment for Malawi’s agricultural sector,” said Sam Dalitso Kawale, Malawi’s Minister of Agriculture. “The investment will increase the resilience of our rural communities at watershed and farm level, where good water and soil management are crucial to sustainable agricultural production.”

FAO and the GCF

As a GCF Accredited Entity and specialized agency of the United Nations, FAO provides countries with the necessary support to develop funding proposals and implement transformative GCF projects with low to medium environmental and social risk and up to $250 million in grants and co-financing.

The total value of the FAO-GCF portfolio currently amounts to $1.2 billion, with 95 readiness grants and 20 investment projects in place worldwide. FAO-led GCF investment projects in Africa are being implemented in Benin, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, the Gambia, and Sudan.

The EbAM project, designed with the assistance of the FAO Investment Centre, has received $42.8 million from the GCF and an additional $10.4 million in co-financing from FAO and the Malawi government.