Technical Analysis to Inform the Trigger Design for Adaptive Safety Nets in Malawi 2023

Technical Analysis to Inform the Trigger Design for Adaptive Safety Nets in Malawi 2023 has been prepared by the Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice’s Crisis, and Disaster Risk Finance team in collaboration with Tetra Tech, who acted as technical advisors for the World Bank. Funding and expertise were provided by the Disaster Protection Program (funded by the UK) and from the Global Shield Financing Facility (formally the Global Risk Financing Facility, funded by the UK and Germany).

The Government of Malawi (GoM) has put in place a mechanism to enable its flagship social protection program, the Social Cash Transfer Program (SCTP), to scale up to additional beneficiaries in the event of climate shocks, initially prioritizing drought. This note summarizes the technical work that was conducted to build the government’s capacity to design a trigger mechanism in three steps: (i) reviewing available drought data sources in Malawi, (ii) reviewing drought risk models that have been used in Malawi and the region, and (iii) developing a framework for a triggering mechanism in drought-prone districts.

As well as this technical note, there is a briefing paper that summarizes the findings of this technical note. You can find the briefing paper here.