Resilient Economic Development Gains (RED) Project Evaluation Brief Malawi

The Resilient Economic Development gains (RED) project was implemented from July 2019 to June 2024 through Save the Children Italy’s unrestricted funding of 3 million euros. The project aimed to build the resilience of 1,000 households located in 25 Group Village Heads (GVHs) in the traditional authorities (TAs) of Chikowi and Mbiza, of Zomba District, Malawi. In Malawi, over 80% of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods. High reliance on rainfed agriculture puts the rapidly growing Malawian population at risk from the effect of natural disasters, especially drought and cyclone-induced floods. At project start, the food security level of approximately 700,000 people, or 5% of the population, was considered to be in “crisis” according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC, Phase 3); the district of Zomba classified as Phase 2 – “stressed”. Food insecurity increased in the years due to climatic shocks, national economic decline, and inflation. At project end, the district of Zomba classified as Phase 3 – “crisis”, alongside all the districts in the southern region, totaling to more than 4 million people, or 20% of the national population, who can barely meet their basic food requirements.