Attachments
In Numbers
483 mt of maize distributed for 2025/26 Emergency Lean Season Response
43,479 people assisted for 2025/26 Emergency Lean Season Response
USD 64 million six-month net funding requirements (December 2025 to May 2026) representing 58 percent of total requirements.
Operational Updates
• Emergency lean season response: A country-wide State of Disaster has been declared following prolonged dry spells. This follows the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) findings that 4 million people are food insecure. In response, WFP started food distributions in November 2025 in Phalombe and Mulanje. A total of 483 metric tons of maize has been distributed, reaching a total of 9,662 households (43,479 people). Between now and March 2026, WFP aims to assist 1.5 million food-insecure people by distributing maize, nutrition treatment and emergency school meals, a revised targeting figure from the original plan due to funding constraints. Current funding levels are only enough to reach half of those targeted.
• Refugees: WFP continues providing critical cash-based food assistance to around 60,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Dzaleka Refugee camp to purchase food. Due to funding shortfalls, WFP had reduced the ration to 50 percent from March to October this year. From now onwards, the ration has been revised upwards to 60 percent for households to cope to the rise in food inflation. WFP together with UNHCR and the Department of Refugees remains committed to protection to affected populations by raising awareness of available assistance and ensuring access to complaints and feedback mechanisms.
• Nutrition: Data shows an increase in Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) by 2 percent (from 3,284 to 3,342) and a decrease in Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) by 24 percent (from 3,871 to 2,958), the latter largely attributed to suboptimal coverage of nutrition mass screening during the lean season. Urgent scale-up of mass screening is required to improve early identification and uptake of nutrition services. WFP continues supporting the Ministry of Health in the treatment of MAM reaching 19,644 children under five, pregnant and breastfeeding women and people living with HIV and Tuberculosis achieving an 84 percent recovery rate.
• School Meals: The Government, with WFP support, held an annual school feeding review meeting to share best practices, challenges and recommendations. Improved coordination amongst stakeholders was highlighted as a key success. Furthermore, the programme technical committee convened to discuss how rising food prices are affecting the programme and integrating school feeding into district budgets and development plans. This reaffirms the Government's commitment to reach 100 percent coverage of Home-Grown School Feeding • Livelihoods: WFP distributed 28 metric tonnes of fertiliser to 693 smallholder farmers and 2.7 metric tonnes of high-yield maize seed to 673 beneficiaries across 14 districts. This support aims to enhance crop productivity, improve household food security and strengthen resilience against adverse weather events.
• Food Systems: To support national food safety standards, WFP procured genetic testing equipment for the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) to improve testing and certification of agricultural commodities to meet international quality requirements. In Phalombe, WFP trained 560 farmers on land preparation, soil fertility management, certified seed use and integrated pest and disease control. Additionally, 117 farmers in Zomba received seeds for sesame, cowpeas, and sorghum. In Chikwawa, WFP trained 60 farmers from 20 farmer organisations in agribusiness to help transition from subsistence farming to value chains. Together with the government, WFP continues to promote market linkages through private sector engagement. • Health Supply Chain: WFP continues to support the Ministry of Health’s capacity and its personnel across the country in supply chain management through trainings on fleet management and quality and risk management in temperature sensitive logistics. The aim is to ensure compliance with good distribution practices and maintain quality, safety and integrity of health products distribution to the last mile.
• Emergency Preparedness and Response: WFP supported refresher training on the Commodity Tracking System, a digital platform for commodity dispatchers from the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA). This digital system enables the monitoring of commodities dispatched from the Strategic Grain Reserve and other government sources to delivery points across the country. The goal is to strengthen accountability, improve reporting, and enhance transparency during the Lean Season Response and in future or potential disaster situations.
• Transport and Logistics Cluster: As co-lead of the Transport and Logistics Cluster, WFP is supporting the Government in transporting maize for the 2025/2026 Lean Season Response. To date, WFP has assisted with transportation of 4,432.25 metric tons of maize to various districts. • Gender, Protection and Inclusion: To strengthen Government and partners’ capacity to protecting vulnerable groups in programme delivery, WFP conducted trainings across 10 districts reaching 128 people (78 Males and 50 Females). The outcome of the sessions is to implement updated referral pathways and ensure accountability to affected populations (AAP) in programme delivery.