Malawi

Vertical Expansion of Social Protection Program

For the last nine years, Malawi has been supporting on average 1.73 million people each year with emergency food assistance, i.e. about 10% of its population. With widespread chronic poverty and high vulnerabilities, even predictable, recurrent lean seasons and minor weather variations develop into emergencies. Humanitarian actors including UN agencies and NGOs, repeatedly step-in to cover needs.

Poor households are often some of the most vulnerable to disasters. Poor people are among the groups most exposed to and suffering from shocks, including drought or floods: Limited livelihood options, resources, and access to services, mean that these households are often the least able to withstand shocks, and therefore prone to food insecurity, especially without resorting to negative coping mechanisms.

New and more sustainable ways of preventing and addressing recurrent food crises have to be found. An international humanitarian system, which is under strain by ever longer lasting crises, affecting more people, cannot sustainably respond to needs that largely result from chronic poverty. It is designed to support countries overwhelmed by a shock, to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity during and in the aftermath of disasters. It also aims at preventing and supporting preparedness for the occurrence of such situations, through Disaster Risk Reduction measures.[24 page case study] Read More...

Pathways- Global Baseline Report

CARE’s Pathways program focuses on improving poor women farmers’ productivity by empowering them to more fully engage in equitable agriculture systems. The program is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Malawi, Mali, and Tanzania. Aligned with other CARE initiatives, such as CARE Australia’s WE-RISE program, Pathways is designed to overcome the constraints to women’s productive and equitable engagement in agriculture. Utilizing a strong gender focus, the program’s Theory of Change posits that marginalized, poor women farmers will be more productive, and their families more food secure when:
 women have increased capacity (skills, knowledge, resources), capabilities (confidence, bargaining power, collective voice), and support
 local governance and institutions have/implement gender-sensitive policies and programming that are responsive to the rights and needs of poor women farmers
 agricultural service, value chain, and market environments of relevance to women are more competitive, gender-inclusive, and environmentally sustainable. [104 pages] Read More...

Umodzi – research on gender synchronized approaches to adolescent lifeskills

The aim of Umodzi Project was to test the effectiveness of adding gender conscious practice curriculum (GCP) and intergenerational dialogues on existing Auntie Stella life skills curriculum to accelerate and enhance adolescent life skills and sexual reproductive health programming. CARE Malawi contracted the CDM to implement the evaluation to compliment routine monitoring activities and establish the effectiveness of the gender synchronized approach. (169 pages) Read More...

Umodzi -using a gender synchronized approach to accelerate impact-midline

The Umodzi Project aims to test the effectiveness and scalability of a gender synchronized and transformational approach to accelerate and enhance the impact of integrated adolescent life skills and sexual reproductive health (SRH) programming. The Umodzi project relies on coordinating existing initiatives to achieve: 1) Adoption of gender-equitable attitudes and behaviours among adolescent boys and girls in primary school; 2) Improved health and development knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and self-care practices among adolescent boys and girls in primary school; and, 3) Enhanced inter-generational relationships between men and boys and women and girls that are supportive of adolescent gender and SRHR. The Midterm Evaluation (MTE) of the project aimed to explore the effect of UMODZI gender conscious practice (GCP)) on gender conscious attitudes; and on further outcomes identified in coordination with the development of GCP curriculum and Theory of Change. (76 pages) Read More...

Umodzi -using a gender synchronized approach to accelerate impact-baseline

This 112 page baseline study provides quantitative and qualitative data on the UMODZI research project, whose aim is to test the effectiveness and scalability of a gender synchronized and transformational approach to accelerate and enhance the impact of integrated adolescent life skills and sexual reproductive health programming. UMODZI is funded through the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Read More...

SECOND TREND SURVEY REPORT 2ND DRAFT MAZIKO PROJECT (NUTRITION FOUNDATIONS FOR MOTHERS AND CHILDREN)

This report presents results of the 2014 second trend survey carried out by CARE Malawi, in March, 2014. The report is the source of information of outcome indicators for children, lactating and pregnant mothers’ wellbeing which include health, nutrition, water and sanitation gender and social empowerment. In addition to presenting values for the specific indicators CARE Malawi values the report because it provides valuable information on the status of its activities on women and children in term of access to basic needs such as food, nutrition and health. The report also reveals the progress made over the two years towards the contribution of MAZIKO to the wellbeing of children and caregivers in Kasungu and Dowa. [127 pages] Read More...

Umodzi Project: Men, Women, Boys and Girls in Alliance to Achieve Gender Equality Endline Report

Umodzi Project: Men, Women, Boys and Girls in Alliance to Achieve Gender Equality, was a research project, whose aim was to test the effectiveness of adding gender conscious practice curriculum (GCP) and intergenerational dialogues on existing Auntie Stella life skills curriculum to accelerate and enhance adolescent life skills and sexual reproductive health programming. The project was implemented in Suza Zone. CARE Malawi, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) at district level, had already been working in Suza and Linyangwa Zones to implement an enhanced life skills curriculum that was being implemented by public school teachers in two zones in Kasungu District. The initiative was supported by PCTFI under the CARE Malawi Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment (AGE) program.

Under the Umodzi project, the idea was to test the effectiveness of adding a gender conscious practice curriculum to the existing life skills curriculum. Therefore, the main activity that was implemented under the project was the delivery of a gender synchronized intervention through the Gender Conscious Practice (GCP) curriculum to the supplementary life skills curriculum that was delivered after school by trained teachers in Suza and Linyangwa Zones in Kasungu District. To enhance adoption of GCP, the project promoted intergenerational discussions through the Working with Men and Boys to Advance Gender Equality and SRH (WMB/SRH) manual targeting mostly older men, commonly called ‘Male Champions of gender’ that were recruited through the Pathways program.

This document is a report of findings of an end line evaluation of the Umodzi Project implemented in Suza Education Zone in Kasungu District in the Central Region of Malawi. Data collection and analysis for the end line evaluation took place in February 2018 while the report was compiled in March 2018. The end line evaluation was part of evaluation activities for the project, which were subcontracted to CDM to support learning. Read More...

Enhancing Community Resilience Programme 2011-2017

The Enhancing Community Resilience Programme (ECRP) was designed to address the chronic climate vulnerability faced by rural people in Malawi. It started in 2011 and is closing in 2017. The purpose of the ECRP is to increase the resilience of vulnerable communities to climate variability and change. DFID, Irish Aid and the Royal Norwegian Embassy fund the ECRP. Its total budget is £30.6m, of which £27m is provided by DFID.

ECRP had five major components that aim to build resilience to climate change. They are 1) improved capacity of local authorities (especially village, area and district civil protection committees); 2) improved and resilient livelihoods for vulnerable households in target areas; 3) enhanced early warning for District Governments and vulnerable households; 4) informed policy in areas relevant to climate and disaster resilience;
and 5) strengthened humanitarian response and recovery. Component 4 is managed by CEPA which aims to distil lessons learnt from the programme to advocate for improved policies and programmes at district and national level. Component five was added in 2015-16, following large scale floods that affected the country in January 2015, with the recovery component supporting households affected both by floods and the subsequent drought. Read More...

Global Partnership for Social Accountability- Strengthening Social Accountability in Education Baseline Survey

The purpose of this report is to present findings from baseline survey that was done concerning indicators for the Strengthening Social Accountability in the Education Sector in Malawi (SSAES). The baseline was done to provide the benchmark against the project’s key indicators for the purposes of monitoring, evaluation and learning.
The SSAES is a 3-year World Bank funded project being implemented by CARE Malawi, in partnership with the Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC). The project is funded through the Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA), a World Bank facility that supports civil society and governments to work together to solve critical governance challenges in developing countries. The SSAES project will be achieved through two key objectives, namely: - i) increased level of efficiency, transparency and accountability in the procurement processes; and ii) decreased teacher absenteeism. The project has a crosscutting component of Advocacy, Knowledge Management and Learning. The project is covering a total of 90 schools in six districts of Mzuzu City, Kasungu, Dedza, Balaka, Mwanza, and Mulanje.

The baseline was a cross sectional study using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Primary data was done using five data collection tools: School questionnaire, household questionnaire, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), Key Informants Interviews (KII) and Observational methods. Data was collected from 6 project districts. A total of 360 household questionnaires, 46 school questionnaires, 15 Focus Group Discussions and 18 Key Informant Interviews were administered. Besides, the baseline used secondary data through desk review. Read More...

Food and Nutrition Security and Enhanced Resilience Baseline Study

The current SEWOH Nutrition Baseline Survey was conducted among women of reproductive age, infants and young children between the age of 6-23 months, as well as pre- and primary school children in Malawi in August and September 2015. The main objective of this survey was to describe the nutrition situation among the target groups in selected rural areas of the districts Dedza and Salima. Of special interest were Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD) of infants and young children and Individual Dietary Diversity Score Women (IDDS-W). Further, it aimed to examine linkages between crop cultivation, dietary diversity and complementary feeding practices with living conditions as well as with knowledge and practice in regard to nutrition and hygiene. Read More...

Filter Evaluations