Malawi

Malawi is exposed to a wide variety of natural hazards that include floods, strong winds, dry spells, cyclones, earthquakes, and landslides. Over the past fifty years, Malawi has experienced more than 20 major flooding incidents and eight droughts; it is regularly hit by torrential rainfall, tropical cyclones, occurring almost annually with increasing frequency and intensity in recent years. Malawi’s high level of vulnerability can be attributed to other geo-climatic factors such as the influence of El Niño and La Niña phenomena on climate variability along with the variability in water levels in the country’s three major lakes. Other contributing factors which add to its vulnerability to disasters include rapid population growth, poverty, unsustainable rapid urbanisation and poor urban planning (with an annual increase of 4.2%, Malawi has one of the highest urbanisation growth rates in Africa), and environmental degradation. The impact of extreme weather events have been substantial—hindering people’s lives, livelihoods, the country’s economy, damaging infrastructure and leading to large scale population displacement. In 2019, Cyclone Idai killed 60 people and displaced over 90,000; In 2022, Malawi was the country most affected by disaster displacement in Southern Africa with 297,000 displacements caused by back-to-back storms and cyclones. In 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy brought sudden flash floods and landslides, particularly in the southern districts. At least 2,267,4581 people were affected, of whom 659,278 were displaced to 747 camps. At least 56 per cent of the affected were children and 7.2 per cent were people living with disabilities. The 2023 - 2024 drought, linked with El Niño conditions, had a devastating effect, with Malawi considered as the country having the highest number of affected people across Southern Africa (6 million), and effects continue to be experienced in 2025. As part of the DTM drought assessment deployed in Southern Malawi in November 2024, 410,000 movements were reported over the past year, 65% female,– with 99% of these movements related to drought and flooding.

The impact of extreme weather phenomenon in Malawi are likely to increase and result in repeated population displacement. Comprehensive action is required to support solutions to this displacement and build resilience of communities to displacement risks due to climatic shocks, including for communities already confronted to multiple vulnerabilities. Indeed, disasters disproportionately impact women, children, and persons with disabilities due to pre-existing vulnerabilities and limited access to essential services – women and children represented 80% of movements captured in the last DTM drought assessment.

Excerpted from the RE2CLID Technical Implementation Package: Malawi (indicative; may change during inception).