SCIAF-run Climate Challenge Programme Malawi enters its second year
21 August 2019
The three year, £3.2 million Scottish Government funded Climate Challenge Programme Malawi (CCPM) initiative supports rural communities in southern Malawi.
The Scottish Government funded Climate Challenge Programme Malawi (CCPM) has entered its second year.
The CCPM initiative supports rural communities in southern Malawi and is administered by SMP members the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF).
The three year, £3.2 million programme enables vulnerable Malawian communities to identify and implement solutions to the climate challenges they face, with a particular focus to helping the most vulnerable, including women and girls, and promoting human rights.
Key areas the CCPM addresses include food security, access to clean water and renewable energy.
The CCPM provides a clear example of climate justice in action, recognising that people in developing countries are the first to be affected by climate change, and will suffer the most, despite having done little or nothing to cause the problem.
Malawi is already being hit hard by climate change and communities who depend on small-scale farming to provide for themselves are struggling to know when to plant their crops due to increasingly unpredictable weather.
More frequent and severe floods, storms and drought can destroy their harvests, homes and livelihoods overnight.
SCIAF works closely with partner organisations in Malawi and sister agency Trócaire Malawi to administer the CCPM programme taking an integrated approach to developing improvements to communities’ access to water, food and energy, with a strong focus on communities learning from each other.
The CCPM builds on the historical links between Scotland and Malawi, and complements other Scottish Government water management, renewable energy and poverty alleviation programmes.
The programme will benefit the environment, improve climate literacy in Malawi and Scotland, especially in relation to the rights of vulnerable minorities, and create a sustainable legacy that demonstrates long-term physical, behavioural, and social change in the communities.
By taking direct action to address the impact of climate change at a local level, addressing gender inequality and rights, and reducing poverty, the CCPM is also contributing to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and ensuring the most vulnerable people are not left behind.
