This paper from the UMFULA programme investigates the potential catalyst role of insurance in adaptation to climate change in a developing country context that is characterised by low insurance penetration and a relatively low level of government planning, analysing the problem from the perspective of insurers in South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania. Read more
This brief summarises the main lessons from four years of the UMFULA project – led by the Grantham Research Institute, UMFULA has addressed questions of climate science, climate impacts and decision-making processes for adaptation in central and southern Africa, with focuses on Malawi and Tanzania. Read more
This paper outlines experiences with Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP), which has been used in Malawi as a method to bring together producers and users of weather and climate information to co-produce sector-specific advisories of weather information to make it both useful and usable to the different user groups, including farmers. Read more
Malawi is highly dependent on water from Lake Malawi and the Shire River basin (Figure 1). Over 90% of Malawi’s... Read more
Using the cases of Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, this paper investigates the extent of coherence in national policies across the water and agriculture sectors and to climate change adaptation goals outlined in national development plans. Read more
New research published in Nature Energy this month finds that plans for new dams could put electricity generation and supply at risk and highlights the importance of considering rainfall patterns when planning the location of new hydropower dams in Africa Read more
This brief provides an overview of future climate change in Malawi, using results from the latest available climate model simulations.... Read more
BBC, 24 November Read more
This paper focuses on two main sources of tenure insecurity, informal short-term tenancy contracts, and customary gender-biased inheritance practices. Using a large plot-level dataset from Malawi, the analysis employs a linear probability model with household fixed effects and finds that both sources of insecurity have a negative effect on soil conservation investments. Read more
Working Paper 114 Abstract Tenure insecurity can have important consequences for the conservation of natural resources. Land titling is often... Read more