Malawi convenes Scenarios Workshop

15 November 2018 

The Civil Society Agriculture Network (CISANET) in partnership with the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), the University of Leeds, Chatham House and the UK Met Office under the auspices of of the GCRF funded Agricultural and Food Systems Resilience Programme (GCRF-AFRICAP convened the Scenarios Workshop on the 15th of November 2018 at Sunbird Capital Hotel in Lilongwe, Malawi.

The workshop was attended by over 70 participants representing relevant government departments, non-government organizations, farmer organizations, universities, researchers, civil society organizations among others.  The scenarios follow the in-country launch of the GCRF-AFRICAP Programme that took place on the 12th July 2018 at Bingu International Conference Centre in Lilongwe.

The main objective of the workshop was to  project the future of the Malawi agricultural sector on the basis of the prevailing conditions. The AFRICAP Co-Director Professor Tim Benton from the University of Leeds, in his opening remarks emphasized the need to ensure that the Programme provides Malawi with the solutions it needs. He explained that challenges posed by climate change require a multi-sectoral approach as no one discipline can address them all. He employed stakeholders present to bring forth ideas that can be included to ensure that the vison if the project succeed and benefits all stakeholders involved.

The workshop was officially opened by the Chief Director Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation And Water Development, Dr. Yanira Mtupanyama. In her welcome speech she highlighted that the past three growing seasons (2015/16; 2016/17 and 2017/18) in Malawi gave a clear indications of the negative impacts of climate induced phenomena to the country`s food security situation. The challenges and potential threats that climate change poses to the Malawi require a wide range of potential policy tools for averting these challenges.

Dr Mtupanyama emphasised the importance of using existing evidence to hypothesize the future and inform policy options that can sustain the livelihoods of Malawians. She further stated that the focus of the project will help to generate evidence-based policy options that will help us transform agriculture and food systems.

The scenarios were meant to establish consensus on the prospects for developing sustainable, productive, climate smart agricultural systems in Malawi and also to explore critical trends and uncertainties surrounding these prospect.

The scenarios workshop was a success and stakeholders contributed positively to the discussions. Land  tenure and reform, climate change, trade and markets , political & economic stability, technology innovations were the main drivers identified and stated that they could affect food systems.

 

For more information on AFRICAP project activities in Malawi contact: 

Visit www.africap.info

CISANET- Ms Pamela Kuwali (pamela@cisanetmw.org)

University of Leeds – Professor Andy Dougill  (A.J.Dougill@leeds.ac.uk)

Visit www.africap.info