Outcome MWI_D_2.1

By 2028, more people, especially the most vulnerable groups, including women, youths, and people with disability, participate in and benefit from food and nutrition security and a more diversified, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth resilient to shocks.

Women Malawi Country office, through the WRD project, has equipped 4,475 women and girls to cope with adversity to adapt to unexpected events through provision of business knowledge and access to loans for small scale businesses. 292 of these women are using clean energy; 782 women are engaged in solar powered irrigation agriculture; 250 women are championing homestead farming; and 300 women and girls from 15 groups and involved in apiary enterprises. About 56 % of the registered women and girls have accessed loans to venture in small scale businesses and 10 % accessed loans to scaleup their businesses. This followed the capacity building sessions of 44 Village Agents (VAs) (27 M, 17F) which was primarily aimed at empowering the VAs with knowledge on the integration of gender and resilience into VSLA activities. In Zomba, the project targeted some of the VA who have been previously trained on VSLA methodology under the RSFA -Titukulane. Cumulatively, 125 WRD VSLA groups have saved MK 135,523,300.00 (79,720.88 USD) with MK 75,095,365 (44,173.74 USD) out in loans and MK 42,351,315.00 (24,912.53 USD) total interest . The shares have grown for the past month due to increase in number of women and girls who are selling excess vegetables from their homestead gardens and the money realized are being used to buy shares. Furthermore, some women who were trained in biomass briquette production are selling the briquettes and the money realized is being saved in VSLAs. A total of 125 VSLA groups have been assessed by NBS Bank. If they meet the criteria, they will access a loan from a revolving fund that CARE Malawi through RFSA-Titukulane Project has with NBS. The loan from this fund has a very low interest rate of about 10% compared the 15%-35% interest rate provided by other financial service providers. This will support the targeted women to further scale up their businesses. In Blantyre and Phalombe, the project plans to support 20 VSL groups out of the 71 established with start-up funds from a trust fund which will enable them to access soft loans to start and/or scale up climate resilient businesses. The success of this initiative will contribute to ensuring that women in WRD communities have access to innovative and targeted livelihood opportunities that are resilient to climate change and disasters. The VSL initiative will furthermore ensure that, lives and livelihoods of women and girls in the impact areas experience minimal to no disruption when faced with climate induced disasters. UN Women in collaboration with the Ministries of Agriculture and Gender have contributed to increased production of produce for Farmers organized in Cooperatives through knowledge building through a Gender Transformative approach, called Gender makes business sense. The approach has empowered participants to unlock their potential, resulting in significant growth and impact within their cooperative. Through GmBs, groupings like Madzumbi Aggregators, Jemakapanje Cooperative, Chisumbu Cooperative and Yinula Cooperative have experienced remarkable progress following the training. Armed with new knowledge, the cooperative has expanded its market reach. This growth has been accompanied by a surge in production, with the cooperatives producing more high-quality crops. Beyond their own achievements, the members have taken the initiative to train other community members on the principles of Gender Makes Business Sense, spreading the benefits of the program in their community The budget for the outcome was USD1,222,160.