Period covered by this Final Report: 17 October 2012 to 30 September 2013;
Appeal target (current): CHF 1,025,310 but finally revised in a revised Emergency Appeal document submitted on 5 July 2013 to CHF 621,786;
Appeal coverage: ~100%;
Appeal history:
This Emergency Appeal was initially launched on 17th October, 2012 for CHF 1,025,310 for 9 months to assist 17,500 beneficiaries.
CHF 100,000 was initially allocated from the Federation’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the national society to respond.
Operations Update 1 was issued 1 November 2012, to give an update on the funding situation towards the appeal and inform about upcoming results from the household economic security (HES) assessment.
Operations Update 2 was issued 27 November 2012, to provide an update of progress, with focus on informing about the HES assessment, and the development of a detailed plan of action.
A 6 months update was issued 6 June 2013, to provide an overview of progress towards outcomes.
The appeal was revised 5 July 2013, to extend the operation timeframe, and prioritize the plan of action to the funding level.
Summary:
This Emergency Appeal has enabled the Malawi Red Cross Society (MRCS) to respond to the food security needs of 9,000 affected people to mitigate their vulnerable situation resulting from failed crops. Some 24 MRCS volunteers and staff were trained in SPHERE’s minimum standards in food security to carry out the programme activities, including vulnerability assessments, food distribution, community mobilization, and monitoring and reporting. Additionally, 20 volunteers have been trained in community-based first aid and are now engaged in providing community-based health and first aid (CBHFA) services as well as health promotion campaigns, education and sensitization activities in targeted communities. To date, 3,500 people have been reached through these health and hygiene awareness raising campaigns. Distributing cassava cutting, potatoes, veins and fertilizer for winter cropping (MRCS) The operation faced a delay in the implementation of the some of the activities. This was due to challenges in carrying out cash programming and funding transfer requests, rapid inflation of the Malawi Kwacha, lower funding than originally anticipated coupled with changing needs in the context of the food insecurity.
This situation and other factors contributed to variances between budget and expenditure for this Emergency Appeal. For National Society staff costs, there was a variance as the EA budgeted for four staff (two HQ and two field staff). However, more staff were involved in the operations and hence a portion of their salary was paid from the appeal. For distribution and monitoring, there was a variance due to high transportation cost of agricultural inputs. Furthermore, for the distribution and monitoring budget lines, transportation cost of NFI from Johannesburg to Lilongwe and Blantyre were also included. The regional office had a lot of oversight on this appeal due to the implementation delays experienced. Hence, additional technical staff from the zone was needed to ensure that the appeal was implemented well and international staff costs were higher than expected. Lastly, the budget line for transport and vehicles was under budgeted. In reality, fuel and vehicle maintenance costs were much higher. Malawi was facing a lot of fuel shortages in 2013 due to new economic policies, hence inflation and the cost of fuel rose significantly.
The IFRC, on behalf of Malawi Red Cross Society, would like to extend thanks to all partners for their generous contributions. Contributions have been received from the American Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross and the Canadian Government, Danish Red Cross and the Danish Government, the Japanese Red Cross Society, Red Cross of Monaco, Netherlands Red Cross and the Netherlands Government and the Swedish Red Cross.
