Zomba District has become one of Malawi’s most disaster-prone districts amid climate change. Droughts, flash floods, and unpredictable rains disrupt the lives of families who depend on rain-fed agriculture, making each season more uncertain. A road damaged by Tropical Storm Ana exposes the consequences of climate change. | Nation Gathered under a mango tree, women … The post Women lead climate action appeared first on Nation Online .
Zomba District has become one of Malawi’s most disaster-prone districts amid climate change.
Droughts, flash floods, and unpredictable rains disrupt the lives of families who depend on rain-fed agriculture, making each season more uncertain.
A road damaged by Tropical Storm Ana exposes the consequences of climate change. | Nation
Gathered under a mango tree, women exchange ideas, take notes and debate what matters to their community, including the power of irrigation.
They are the new Women’s Forum on Climate Change.
For three years, these women,who bear a disproportionate share of climate change’s effects,have been transforming their district.
“At first, we relied on manual labour for most of the work in our fields and with water scarcity made it difficult to achieve the desired yields. The irrigation system changed everything,” says Mwandyumbu villager Everlista Fabiano.
Fabiano and her neighbours participated in the $950 000 (about k1.6billion) Gender-Transformative Climate Resilience Project, implemented by Oxfam in Malawi with funding from the Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF).
The multi- donor fund hosted by the African Development Bank (AFDB) Group has reached about 42 500 Malawians since 2023.
The initiative, which also covers parts of Mozambique, strengthens women’s leadership, improves access to water through solar energy and promotes more inclusive climate governance.
Finding water and making it available year-round is central to its goals.
“Studies showed that this area could provide a flow rate of 3.5 litres per second,” says project engineer Henry Mtchuka.
The project drilled two wells connected to reservoirs powered by solar, rather than diesel.
A community warehouse followed.
“Oxfam also built a warehouse where all farmers can store their harvest and sell it collectively.
Their produce will now be better protected from damage than before, farmers say.
The growers are no longer forced to sell in a rush right after the harvest. They can store their crops until the time is right.
The project also encourages women to save and invest. Village savings and loans groups let them set money aside and decide for themselves how to use it.
“With Oxfam’s help, we started saving in shares last year,” explains Gertrude Saidi, from Mbalame. “We earned about K4.3 million, shared among ourselves at the end of the year. I received about K420 000, which I used to buy land with my family as an investment.”
Saidi’s household also bought livestock.
“We plan to settle on this land. We’re expecting a baby, who will inherit it and the livestock,” she states.
Zomba District Council gender development officer Ruperth Kamtsendero says the project also involves men as allies, so that the transformation is driven by the whole community.
For the ACCF and the AfDB Group, Zomba shows that climate infrastructure lasts longer when designed and managed by the communities most exposed to climate change.
“The rainfall pattern has become increasingly unpredictable, putting greater pressure on communities that depend on rain-fed agriculture, where farm work, water collection and caring for the family fall primarily on women, while young people see their opportunities dwindling, says Rita Effah, ACCF coordinator at the AfDB.
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