Malawi
Food and Nutrition Security, Enhanced Resilience: Nutrition Baseline Survey Malawi
Over 800 million people worldwide suffer from hunger and two billion do not meet their micro nutrient requirements (Global Nutrition Report, 2016). While the global starving population has gone down in recent decades, the number of people suffering from hunger in sub-Saharan Africa today is higher than ever. Malnutrition is particularly prevalent in developing countries, where it has an impact not only upon the development prospects of an entire country, but also of each individual affected. If a child does not receive sufficient nutrients up to its second year, i.e. over its first 1,000 days beginning with the early embryonic phase, the impact on growth, mental faculties and therefore learning and work¬ing potential will endure a lifetime.
The German Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) launched an Initiative “On World – No Hunger” to improve food and nutrition security (https://www.bmz.de/webapps/hunger/index.html#/de). Within this initiative GIZ implements the program “Food and nutrition security, enhanced resilience” in 11 countries in Africa and Asia.
The project‘s main target group includes women of childbearing age, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and infants. The project‘s objective is to improve the nutritional situation of approximately 880000 women, 235000 young children and 4.000 households. Structural measures to combat hunger and malnutrition, particularly among mothers and young children, are one of the most effective ways of investing in the future of a society. Read More...
The German Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) launched an Initiative “On World – No Hunger” to improve food and nutrition security (https://www.bmz.de/webapps/hunger/index.html#/de). Within this initiative GIZ implements the program “Food and nutrition security, enhanced resilience” in 11 countries in Africa and Asia.
The project‘s main target group includes women of childbearing age, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and infants. The project‘s objective is to improve the nutritional situation of approximately 880000 women, 235000 young children and 4.000 households. Structural measures to combat hunger and malnutrition, particularly among mothers and young children, are one of the most effective ways of investing in the future of a society. Read More...
Cash and Voucher Assistance that Works for Women: 6 Lessons from the Field
A brief summary from a multi-country study on "what does gender-sensitive cash and voucher assistance look like?".
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
Cash and Voucher Assistance that Works for Women: 6 Lessons from the Field
A brief summary from a multi-country study on "what does gender-sensitive cash and voucher assistance look like?".
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
Cash and Voucher Assistance that Works for Women: 6 Lessons from the Field
A brief summary from a multi-country study on "what does gender-sensitive cash and voucher assistance look like?".
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
Cash and Voucher Assistance that Works for Women: 6 Lessons from the Field
A brief summary from a multi-country study on "what does gender-sensitive cash and voucher assistance look like?".
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
Cash and Voucher Assistance that Works for Women: 6 Lessons from the Field
A brief summary from a multi-country study on "what does gender-sensitive cash and voucher assistance look like?".
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
What Does Gender-Sensitive Cash and Voucher Assistance Look Like?
CARE is committed to being “cash ready” to achieve breakthroughs for women and girls in its cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and to convene other stakeholders on the gendered aspects of CVA. Building that commitment, CARE commissioned a study on gender-sensitive CVA from its own project participants. The study aimed at understanding the:
- Extent to which women, men, boys, and girls have been involved in the design of CVA and the implications of this involvement.
- Potential for CVA to foster positive and sustainable gender roles and relations that contribute to gender equity.
- Gender-related barriers and risks associated with collecting and receiving CVA including social and cultural
attitudes and protection risks. Read More...
- Extent to which women, men, boys, and girls have been involved in the design of CVA and the implications of this involvement.
- Potential for CVA to foster positive and sustainable gender roles and relations that contribute to gender equity.
- Gender-related barriers and risks associated with collecting and receiving CVA including social and cultural
attitudes and protection risks. Read More...
Pathways Project End of Project Evaluation Report
Pathways aimed to increase productivity and income in equitable agriculture systems. CARE innovated an effective Theory of Change to address real issues affecting rural women farmers by providing them with capacities in agriculture; access to inputs, extension services and markets; empowerment to influence decisions; and an enabling environment for growth.
Pathways has met and, in most cases, surpassed targets set in its M&E framework. In the words of women themselves the project has worked very well, focusing on groundnuts and soybean as high-value cash crop substitutes for tobacco because of their high potential for markets, ability to replenish the lost soil fertility and strong nutritional value. It has grown from working with 9,000 to 14,282 farmers (hosting a population of 71,410 people), organising them into 1,528 groups. Women provide leadership to most of the groups after being transformed to become successful wives, farmers and entrepreneurs who can make independent decisions and speak in public.
In 2015 alone, collective sale revenues from groundnuts and soy amounted to MK128, 601,938 (US$233,821.7) and rose to MK854, 356,267 (US$751,511) by the end of 2017. Contract farming organized by the project contributed US$34,233 to these revenues. In 2014, the project conducted 188 community-wide gender dialogue sessions and reached out to 9,654 people, 7193 female and 2464 male, helping them to internalize and address gender inequalities. Men have generally started looking at women as partners in agriculture and development that is cementing marriage bonds and creating an enabling environment for women to succeed. Along with this, CARE Malawi linked women farmers to key players in the groundnut and soy value chains to help them excel.
As a consequence, by December 2016 a total of 246 farmer groups had accounts with OIBM and other banks through which they saved MK49, 175,577 and 6 VSLs accessed two group loans worth MK4,800,000 (US$7,804.88) which they invested in agriculture, business and VSL activities. VSLs profited and shared out US$871,178 in the year, with more benefits seen in 2017 when savings accumulated to US$3,756,435 e.g. earnings of MK47, 489.32 to MK204, 769.33 per household on average. In turn, per capita household monthly incomes and expenditures doubled by the time the project closed in December 2018. Although agricultural productivity continued to decline over the project life due to poor weather conditions, Pathways farmers remained food secure and continued to eat at least two meals a day. Household dietary diversity (HDDS) and women intra-household food access (AHA) data from this evaluation found levels of consumption to be acceptable and typical of food secure households. These results showcase that Pathways beneficiaries have grown their incomes, assets and food availability in the face of the changing climate and are better off even in difficult years. Read More...
Pathways has met and, in most cases, surpassed targets set in its M&E framework. In the words of women themselves the project has worked very well, focusing on groundnuts and soybean as high-value cash crop substitutes for tobacco because of their high potential for markets, ability to replenish the lost soil fertility and strong nutritional value. It has grown from working with 9,000 to 14,282 farmers (hosting a population of 71,410 people), organising them into 1,528 groups. Women provide leadership to most of the groups after being transformed to become successful wives, farmers and entrepreneurs who can make independent decisions and speak in public.
In 2015 alone, collective sale revenues from groundnuts and soy amounted to MK128, 601,938 (US$233,821.7) and rose to MK854, 356,267 (US$751,511) by the end of 2017. Contract farming organized by the project contributed US$34,233 to these revenues. In 2014, the project conducted 188 community-wide gender dialogue sessions and reached out to 9,654 people, 7193 female and 2464 male, helping them to internalize and address gender inequalities. Men have generally started looking at women as partners in agriculture and development that is cementing marriage bonds and creating an enabling environment for women to succeed. Along with this, CARE Malawi linked women farmers to key players in the groundnut and soy value chains to help them excel.
As a consequence, by December 2016 a total of 246 farmer groups had accounts with OIBM and other banks through which they saved MK49, 175,577 and 6 VSLs accessed two group loans worth MK4,800,000 (US$7,804.88) which they invested in agriculture, business and VSL activities. VSLs profited and shared out US$871,178 in the year, with more benefits seen in 2017 when savings accumulated to US$3,756,435 e.g. earnings of MK47, 489.32 to MK204, 769.33 per household on average. In turn, per capita household monthly incomes and expenditures doubled by the time the project closed in December 2018. Although agricultural productivity continued to decline over the project life due to poor weather conditions, Pathways farmers remained food secure and continued to eat at least two meals a day. Household dietary diversity (HDDS) and women intra-household food access (AHA) data from this evaluation found levels of consumption to be acceptable and typical of food secure households. These results showcase that Pathways beneficiaries have grown their incomes, assets and food availability in the face of the changing climate and are better off even in difficult years. Read More...
Cyclone Idai Regional Rapid Gender Analysis
CARE International is responding to the impact of Cyclone Idai and the associated floods in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. As part of our response, CARE’s team in each of the countries is currently developing or is planning to develop a Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) for the affected regions. An RGA provides information about the different needs, capacities and coping strategies of women, men, boys and girls in a crisis. It is built up progressively using a range of primary and secondary information to understand gender roles and relations and how they may change during a crisis. It provides practical programming and operational recommendations to meet the different needs of women, men, boys and girls of different ages, abilities and other contextually relevant forms of diversity and to ensure we ‘do no harm’. RGA uses the tools and approaches of Gender Analysis Frameworks – such as community mapping; focus group discussions, key informant interviews, safety audit tools and secondary data review - and adapts them to the tight time-frames, rapidly changing contexts and insecure environments that often characterise humanitarian interventions. Read More...
Pro-Resilience Action Program Baseline Study
Christian Aid and United Purpose are leading separate consortia implementing the ProResilience Action (Pro ACT) programme with funding from the European Commission. The programme aims to address existing food and nutrition security challenges among the poorest households under social cash transfer in seven districts by increasing their resilience to climaterelated stresses and shocks. The project will support interventions that foster great resilience to climatic shocks and diversification of livelihoods for vulnerable households and create synergies with the existing support to Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP). With this background, Christian Aid Malawi and United Purpose jointly commissioned the baseline study for the programme. The assessment was required to establish and verify baseline indicators related to the current food and nutritional status of the project beneficiaries and their ability to respond to climatic shocks. The baseline was conducted in the 7 districts of Nsanje, Zomba and Mulanje under the United Purpose led consortium and in Chikwawa, Mwanza, Neno, Mzimba North and Mzimba South under the Christian Aid led consortium The overall objective of the assignment was to carry out a baseline study for the “Pro-ACT programme” in order to determine the pre-project situation against major project indicators. This would provide a benchmark on which to formulate project targets and a basis for assessing project milestones during and impact after implementation. [83 pages] Read More...