British envoy tips Malawi

Malawi needs to stand on her feet to deal with risks of natural hazards and climate change by coming up with long-term resilience programmes, British High Commissioner Holly Tett has said.

Speaking yesterday when she toured some sites in Chikwawa to appreciate United Kingdom (UK) government’s support to Malawi in tackling hunger and building communities’ resilience, Tett emphasised the need to intensify climate smart and disaster risk intervention programmes such as irrigation and conservation farming, forestry, disaster recovery and village savings and lending programmes.

She said: “Malawi needs to stand on its feet and move away from depending on aid. Long-term resilience programmes need to be put in place to support and build capacity among vulnerable communities so that they are able to adapt to existing and future risks caused by natural hazards and climate change.”

In support of such interventions, Trett said UK government has invested about £30 million (about K2.7 billion) through a six-year project called Enhancing Community Resilience Programme (ECRP) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and increase resilience of vulnerable communities.

During the tour, the High Commissioner visited Mfera Health Centre where she appreciated achievements of a UK’s Department for International Development funded malnutrition project Nutrition Care, Support and Treatment which is providing nutritional supplements to expectant mothers, TB patients and those on ART who are suffering from acute malnutrition due to lack of food in their homes following disasters.

World Food Programme (WFP) country representative Coco Ushiyama said the organisation has so far received enormous support from its partners in the humanitarian response to Malawi. n