Barriers

  1. Human Capacity Barriers
    The NAP stocktaking report (March 2016) identified that Malawi has limited experience in terms of development of long term and medium-term climate change adaptation and/or climate change resilience plans. In addition, the policy landscape shows that there are no deliberate mechanisms or written guidelines on mainstreaming climate change adaptation into policies and strategies

    reliability of available data, inadequate in-country climate science capacity, lack of specialized and trained experts to translate complicated technical information into actionable statements for relevant audience, lack of uniformity in data gathering, and data management as some of the climate change information challenges.  
     
    The 2016 stock-taking report indicated the following barriers: 
     
    Information 

    • Reliability of available data: the need for more updated climate projections, especially through modelling.
    • Sectoral data: the need for more rich data regarding a wide range of aspects within multiple sectors.
    • In-country climate science capacity: the need for more domestic climate science expertise and technical resources within Malawi.
    • Data-gathering systems: the need for more robust data and information gathering mechanisms or networks to be established for every sector that currently does not have such a mechanism.
    • Information integration and access: the need for a centralized, coordinated, user-friendly repository for all climate change studies and data in Malawi, accessible to researchers, planners, and the public.
    • Climate change communication: the need for better science communication to translate technical information into messages that are relevant to the public, and actionable by the target audience.  

     
    Planning Systems 

    • Medium and long-term planning: the need for mainstreaming climate change into planning, including by integrating it into the MDGS process and through the formulation of explicit guidelines on taking climate change into account in planning at various levels
    • Policy landscape: the need for more integration and coordination in what currently appears to be a fragmented landscape
    • Actors and actions: the need for more coordination of adaptation plans and projects, to reduce the multiplicity and duplication of effort, and to have resources be used in an additive manner that can benefit wider spatial scales and greater numbers of people, and result in longer-term interventions. At the same time, there is a need to involve the private sector more strategically in climate change activities
    • NAP Process: the need for more widespread and more coherent understanding of the NAP process by stakeholders. A sustainable source of funding for adaptation in Malawi is also an area of need
    • Monitoring and Evaluation of adaptation action in government and other sectors, including the development of appropriate adaptation indicators. 

    Human Capacity 

    • Low level of awareness about climate change at all levels of the society, including policy makers
    • Professionals, including the academia, public service, and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)/ NGOs
    • Limited number of experts in the various key sectors of climate change adaptation
    • There are no climate change centres of learning and research
    • Lack of locally-driven sustainable climate change funding
    • Limited institutional capacity in terms of resources/equipment
    • Weak enforcement capacity of laws and regulations

  2. Policy Barriers
    There are often unforeseen consequences and overlaps of certain policies with those in other sectors. The heralded Fertilizer Input Subsidy Programme, for example, encourages cultivation of marginal lands and thus, whilst it has contributed to overall production gains, has done so unsustainably in some instances, contributing to land degradation. 

    • The Water Policy (2005) has not mainstreamed climate change in its recommended interventions despite the fact that it acknowledges the risks of climate variability and change for water supply are mentioned (but not elaborated)
    • The National Agriculture Policy (2016-202) acknowledges climate change as a risk, but the implications of climate change are not reflected in the strategies promoted by the policy which emphasises agricultural sector growth and commercialisation. There are limited guidelines on settlements to reduce the impacts of flooding while at the same time avoiding degradation of the watersheds. There is limited guidance on use of groundwater resources, given climate change
    • The forest policies (1996 and 1997) are outdated

    Recommendations to address the barriers to NAP from the 2016 NAP stock-taking reports include: 

    • Commission new and updated climate change projections for Malawi
    • Commission new research on sectoral impacts
    • Strengthen in-country climate change science generation capacity
    • Design and put into place a more comprehensive data gathering and management system in Malawi
    • Create a user-friendly climate change science and adaptation information database
    • Invest in climate and scientific communication efforts
    • Alignment of the NAP with development planning processes
    • Ensuring policy harmonisation
    • Improved coordination among actors and adaptation actions.
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