1 Household Food Security in Malawi: Results from a Comprehensive Food Security Survey November 2018 2 Acknowledgement This report is made possible through technical cooperation with the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee, the National Statistics Office, and through financial support from the WFP and UN Women. Special recognition is given to the UN Women through their financial support for the data collection. Process. For more information on this report, please contact: WFP Malawi [email protected] Benoit Thiry, Country Director [email protected] Lazarus Gonani, VAM Officer [email protected] Victoria Geresomo, MVAC Chairperson [email protected] Disclaimer: All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product for educational or other non-commercial uses are authorized without any prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of material in this information product for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission. Applications for such permission should be addressed to the Director, Communications Division, email: [email protected]. The boundaries and names shown and the designation used on the maps in this book do not imply official endorsement of acceptance by the United Nations. Copyright © 2018 3 Table of contents Acknowledgement ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Table of contents ........................................................................................................................................... 3 List of tables and figures: ........................................................................................................................... 5 1. National context .................................................................................................................................... 8 2. Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 10 3. State of food insecurity ....................................................................................................................... 11 4. Food consumption .............................................................................................................................. 15 5. Economic vulnerability ........................................................................................................................ 21 6. Coping with limited food access ......................................................................................................... 23 7. Livelihoods and food security ............................................................................................................. 29 8. Demographics and food security ........................................................................................................ 36 9. Crop production, Livestock and pests ................................................................................................. 46 10. Shocks and external assistance ....................................................................................................... 55 11. Water, sanitation, and household structure ................................................................................... 60 12. Market accessibility and food availability ....................................................................................... 66 13. Market Assessment ......................................................................................................................... 69 Introduction. ........................................................................................................................................... 69 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 70 Limitation ................................................................................................................................................ 70 14. Macro-economic factors ................................................................................................................. 70 Gross domestic product .......................................................................................................................... 70 Inflation rate ........................................................................................................................................... 71 Exchange rate .......................................................................................................................................... 72 15. Maize price trends .......................................................................................................................... 73 16. Households’ access to markets ....................................................................................................... 74 17. Transfer Preferences ....................................................................................................................... 77 18. Flow and volume of traded commodities ....................................................................................... 79 19. Credit and stock strategy ................................................................................................................ 82 20. Traders Response capacity and constraints .................................................................................... 85 21. Recommendations .......................................................................................................................... 87 ANNEX ......................................................................................................................................................... 88 Computation of indicators ....................................................................................................................... 88 4 Food consumption score ..................................................................................................................... 88 Micronutrient intake ........................................................................................................................... 89 Livelihood and asset-based coping strategies ..................................................................................... 90 Coping strategies index ....................................................................................................................... 91 Food security index ............................................................................................................................. 91 Housing conditions .............................................................................................................................. 93 5 List of tables and figures: Table 1: IPC Phase descriptions ................................................................................................................. 12 Table 2: Average days of consumption of food groups per week by district ........................................... 20 Table 3: Economic vulnerability and asset ownership .............................................................................. 23 Table 4: Categorization of severity of livelihood / asset depletion coping strategies ............................. 24 Table 5: CSI by gender ................................................................................................................................ 28 Table 6: Percent of households engaged in main income activities by district ...................................... 30 Table 7: Percent of households that cultivated food crops by crop and district ..................................... 46 Table 8: Percent of households that cultivated cash crops by crop and district ..................................... 48 Table 9: Household estimates of maize harvest (kgs), percent lost and sold, current stock (kgs), and expected months of stock .......................................................................................................................... 50 Table 10: Percent of households that own animals by district ................................................................ 52 Table 11: Percent of households experiencing various shocks in the past six months by district .......... 56 Table 12: Percent of households with exposure to shocks in the past six months by food security classification ............................................................................................................................................... 57 Table 13: Percent of households that received government or NGO assistance in the past year by district .................................................................................................................................................................... 58 Table 14: Percent of households that received assistance in the past year by food security status ..... 59 Table 15: Household preference for food assistance modality by district ............................................... 60 Table 16: Classification of household facilities into unimproved and improved categories ................... 61 Table 17: Percent of households with improved facilities ........................................................................ 61 Table 18: Distances and