Slum residents increasing their resilience to climate change in Malawi

In Lilongwe, residents of informal settlements have systematically mapped the risks and challenges they face, which has enhanced local communities and other actors’ understanding of these problems, enhancing their ability to bring about meaningful change.

In Malawi, the climate crisis has triggered more intense and frequent cyclones, storm surges, heat stress, extreme precipitation, flooding, landslides, drought, and water scarcity, resulting in food, water and financial insecurity for many people. The challenges faced by the urban poor in the capital city, Lilongwe, are especially acute, where 76 percent of the population live in informal settlements, making them highly susceptible to damage wrought by extreme weather.

As climate change escalates, the impact on people in Lilongwe is expected to increase. The growth of informal settlements is driven by the high rate of urbanization, with the urban population in the city more than tripling from 850,000 in 1987 to 2.8 million in 2018. Slum communities suffer from inadequate access to basic urban services such as water, sanitation and refuse collection, in addition to risk-reducing infrastructure such as paved roads, storm and surface drainage, healthcare and emergency services, which further exacerbates the problems that climate change-related problems present, and leaves them more politically marginalized. 

Lilongwe-based NGO Center for Community Organization & Development (CCODE) is working to change the lives and prospects of the city’s informal settlement residents by empowering them to be socio-economically self-reliant through capacity building initiatives. The organization, which was founded in 2003, is affiliated with Slum Dwellers International (SDI), and works with the Federation of the Rural and Urban Poor (FRUP) to ensure poor communities have tenure security, access to basic services and economic self-reliance. The CCODE and FRUP together created the Malawi Alliance in 2003 as a bottom-up means to create awareness about climate risks, strengthen local infrastructure, and support community-led monitoring and evaluation to ensure accountability. Initially supporting seven informal settlements in Malawi, the project has since been scaled up to settlements in an additional 22 wards in the country.

The primary strategy of the Alliance reflects an approach, called Community Data for Change (CDfC), developed by SDI based on their experience in several countries across Africa and Asia. This empowers communities to generate data about their communities through community-led profiling, mapping, and enumeration.

“The motivation to build resilience of informal settlements emanates from our realization of the transformative power that lies within, when communities that are fully aware about their current situation and options that are available to address the pressing,” explains Zilire Luka, CCODE Executive Director.

Community mobilization efforts focused on raising awareness about climate-induced disasters and their impacts so as to build a critical mass of residents to influence authorities and service providers. This was followed by capacity building efforts for young people and community leaders for community-led data collection and analysis, including through the use of technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS) to map and identify areas of high risk. 

The process of data collection, dissemination, and analysis that followed was grounded in the participation of communities. Fifty community members from each settlement were then involved, along with representation from Lilongwe City Council (LCC) and other key stakeholders. This helped build a shared understanding of risks and vulnerabilities in the settlements and the production of Community Resilience Plans and Risk Management Frameworks.

Insights into the local drivers of climate vulnerability are key to the intervention’s workings, helping to highlight, for instance, the extreme vulnerability of individuals living in houses made from insubstantial materials, and the need for solid waste management to manage flooding and reduce the vulnerability of residents during storms. This has helped build communities’ collective understanding about the risks that climate hazards present to them, identify the most at-risk individuals and households, enhance community dialogues on resilience-building, and support conversations with local authorities and external agencies. Community resilience plans drawn up through the data collection and analysis process represent blueprints to enhance resilience, and are important tools for negotiating support from funders.

The project has helped to promote the relationship between communities and government says Gift Kasamila, Deputy Director, Department of Planning and Development, Lilongwe City Council (LLC).

“LCC believes that the most effective way to fight climate change disasters is to empower communities to develop sustainable responses to mitigate risks. As such, partnering with the Malawi Alliance has simplified our work."

To finance community-identified priorities, LCC set up a Ward Development Fund, which is available to informal settlements that have completed community resilience or risk management frameworks. This is not only a recognition of the importance of these community plans, but also a good incentive for communities to participate in the planning process.

The majority of funding for the intervention came from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), through Urban Poor Funds (UPFs) and UN Habitat. Local communities themselves contributed to the implementation of low-cost activities through financial contributions to Community Managed Funds, through their time, and by providing venues for community activities. These funds enable communities to take control of their climate adaptation interventions, provide an element of predictability in funding, and are easily accessible by the community.

Women in the settlements were encouraged to set up savings groups, which also served several important purposes.

“The savings group meetings act as a platform for community members to discuss and exchange ideas on how to achieve resilience, while the savings help them improve and increase their incomes and, in the process, become resilient to shocks,” says Modester Kaphala, FRUP National Leader.

Lack of employment, and resulting poverty, was identified as a key driver of climate vulnerability in most settlements.

“We cannot talk about building climate resilience if people’s livelihoods are frail,” adds Kaphala.

To this end, skills development opportunities, ranging from shoe making and tie and dye to mushroom farming and peanut butter production, are provided for community members, with a special focus on women.