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Malawi

WFP Malawi - Evaluation of the Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) in the Context of Malawi 2015-2019 (June 2021)

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WFP Malawi has concluded several important pieces of analysis that have provided critical evidence on the positive impact of our activities on improving food security and enhancing resilience, one of which includes the results of the Evaluation of Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) in the Context of Malawi (2015-2019).

The central premise of FFA is that participants build or maintain household and community-level assets (community gardens, irrigation farming, reforestation), to improve their livelihoods, creating healthier natural environments, reducing the impacts of shocks and strengthening resilience to natural disasters. WFP provides food assistance using food or cash transfers to cover immediate food needs while participants build or boost assets that contribute to strengthening their resilience. After a certain period of time, and as their food security improves, participants continue working on asset creation but without transfers.

The results of the FFA evaluation highlighted that, overall, the intervention has had significant positive effects on the lives of participants.

Some key points from the evaluation are:

  1. 95% of households reported experiencing increased crop production thanks to climate-smart agriculture.

  2. The percentage of participating households across eight target districts who reported harvesting over 200 kgs of maize rose from 43 percent in 2019 to 75 percent in 2020.

  3. Soil quality has improved in areas with watershed management and reforestation activities, leading to higher crop yields.

  4. 90% of participants felt that the creation of household and/or community assets protected them from natural disasters.

  5. In areas where cash transfers stopped in 2019, 88 percent of participants are still working on asset creation and maintenance.

The evaluation also noted the complementarity of FFA, noting how linking and layering multiple activities from WFP and other stakeholders increases the impact and sustainability of asset creation. WFP looks forward to continuing working with development partners and the Government of Malawi in building a sustainable model to increase resilience and contribute to break the cycle of hunger in Malawi.