Malawi’s National Adaptation Plan Framework

The Malawi National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Framework provides a structured approach to building climate resilience, integrating adaptation into national development planning, and coordinating stakeholders. It outlines five key mandates: improving community resilience through agriculture and disaster risk management, sustainable natural resource use, improving soil and land management, conserving biodiversity, and providing policy advocacy. The framework adopts a systems approach and emphasizes vertical and horizontal integration, community participation, and gender-responsiveness. It identifies critical gaps in climate modelling and institutional capacity, proposing a roadmap that includes risk and vulnerability assessments, the mobilization of private sector finance, and the integration of adaptation priorities into ministry spending plans, with support from the Green Climate Fund.

• Malawi suffers significant economic losses due to climate change, losing an average of 1.7% of its GDP annually from disasters, primarily floods and droughts.
• The framework identifies five core mandates for the NAP process: enhancing community resilience via agriculture and disaster management, sustainable use of natural resources (forests, water, fisheries, wildlife), improving soil and land management, restoring biodiversity and ecosystems, and providing climate adaptation advocacy to policy-makers.
• The NAP process will employ seven primary methods: a systems approach, horizontal integration across sectors, vertical integration between national and sub-national levels, a community-based participatory approach, an evidence-based approach, a gender and human rights approach, and the leveraging of the private sector.
• A previous stocktaking exercise revealed critical weaknesses in Malawi's adaptation architecture, including low public awareness, a shortage of experts, a lack of local sustainable funding, and weak institutional capacity.
• The framework proposes that a minimum of 2% of national and sectoral budgets should be allocated toward the implementation of the NAP.
• The government aims to engage the private sector through public-private partnerships (PPPs) to provide innovative adaptation solutions in energy, agriculture, and waste management, such as solar-powered water pumping for irrigation.
• The framework emphasizes the integration of traditional and indigenous local knowledge, such as cloud and animal behavior observations, with scientific weather forecasting to improve disaster preparedness.
• The NAP process is coordinated by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining (MNREM), with the Environmental Affairs Department (EAD) serving as the secretariat.

APA

Kamdonyo, D. (2020). Malawi’s National Adaptation Plan Framework. International Institute for Sustainable Development. http://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/napgn-en-2020-malawis-national-adaptation-plan-framework.pdf

Chicago

Kamdonyo, Donald. Malawi’s National Adaptation Plan Framework. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2020. http://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/napgn-en-2020-malawis-national-adaptation-plan-framework.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kamdonyo |first1=Donald |title=Malawi’s National Adaptation Plan Framework |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=March 2020 |url=http://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/napgn-en-2020-malawis-national-adaptation-plan-framework.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kamdonyo2020malawis, author = {Kamdonyo, Donald}, title = {{Malawi’s National Adaptation Plan Framework}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2020}, month = mar, url = {http://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/napgn-en-2020-malawis-national-adaptation-plan-framework.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }