Using climate services for more climate-resilient planning and policy-making in Malawi

This case study, part of the Future Climate for Africa programme, examines the integration of climate services into national planning and policy-making in Malawi. It identifies a gap between the availability of climate projections and their actual use in ministerial decision-making, highlighting barriers such as technical complexity and timing mismatches with policy cycles.

• Despite the availability of the latest IPCC synthesis and regionally-downscaled climate projections, Malawi's ministries are not currently incorporating longer-term climate scenarios or projections into their decision-making processes.
• Several barriers hinder the use of climate information in medium and long-term planning, including a perceived lack of sector-specific or sub-national data, and a misalignment between the timing of climate service delivery and policy planning cycles.
• The Ministry of Economic Planning and Development is coordinating the successor to Vision 2020 using economic impact modelling for sector investment; however, these models currently account for population growth but exclude climate projections.
• Planners identified a need for specific climate products to inform short-term (1-5 years) and medium-term (6-20 years) planning, specifically multi-year forecasts for temperature, drought, and the intensity, amount, and distribution of rainfall, as well as information on extreme events like floods, droughts, hail, and strong winds.
• The effective use of climate services is further obstructed by a lack of clear understanding of climate change risks across all ministries and difficulties in accessing and interpreting highly technical information.

APA

Vincent, K., Cull, T., Chanika, D., Dougill, A., Stringer, L., Dixon, J., & Mkwambisi, D. (n.d.). Using climate services for more climate-resilient planning and policy-making in Malawi. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/story/using-climate-services-for-more-climate-resilient-planning-malawi

Chicago

Vincent, Katharine, Tracy Cull, Diana Chanika, Andy Dougill, Lindsay Stringer, Jami Dixon, and David Mkwambisi. Using climate services for more climate-resilient planning and policy-making in Malawi. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, n.d. https://cdkn.org/story/using-climate-services-for-more-climate-resilient-planning-malawi.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Vincent |first1=Katharine |last2=Cull |first2=Tracy |last3=Chanika |first3=Diana |last4=Dougill |first4=Andy |last5=Stringer |first5=Lindsay |last6=Dixon |first6=Jami |last7=Mkwambisi |first7=David |title=Using climate services for more climate-resilient planning and policy-making in Malawi |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |url=https://cdkn.org/story/using-climate-services-for-more-climate-resilient-planning-malawi |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{vincentndusing, author = {Vincent, Katharine and Cull, Tracy and Chanika, Diana and Dougill, Andy and Stringer, Lindsay and Dixon, Jami and Mkwambisi, David}, title = {{Using climate services for more climate-resilient planning and policy-making in Malawi}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, url = {https://cdkn.org/story/using-climate-services-for-more-climate-resilient-planning-malawi}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }