K16 billion aid for food insecure people
The government has secured K16 billion worth of resources in cash and kind to assist 1.7 million people that will face hunger in the 2021- 22 lean season.
The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) has also disclosed that the government has allocated 29,168 metric tonnes of maize valued at K6.56 billion to stakeholders for the same cause.
Commissioner for Disaster Management Charles Kalemba said this at a press briefing in Lilongwe Monday.
The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Mvac) conducted two assessments that projected that 1.7 million people across the country would be food insecure.
Kalemba said the K16 billion support had been provided by Germany, Irish Aid, the European Union, United States Agency for International Development, World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund.
He said the maize had been sourced from the strategic grain reserves and that the department was working with partners who were providing cash transfers to affected populations.
“The response programme is being implemented through two modalities, namely cash transfers and in-kind maize distribution,” Kalemba said.
He said some of the affected people would get cash support while others would get relief maize.
“The programme rolled out with Chikwawa District in which slightly over 26,000 affected households are getting cash transfers of K18,000 each for the purchase of food monthly; [this has been happening] from December 2021 to February 2022..
“Most of the affected populations in the rest of the districts will start getting assistance from this week,” he said.
The first Mvac report that was released in August 2021 indicated that the number of affected people would decline from 2.6 million in 2020.
President Lazarus Chakwera last year hailed the Affordable Inputs Programme for contributing to the bumper harvest in the 2020- 21 harvesting season.
Mathews Kasanda is a journalist who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Malawi (The Polytechnic).
In 2015, Media Institute of Southern Africa awarded him the Best Print Media Education Journalist of the Year accolade.
He joined Times Group Newsroom in September 2019.
