Malawi Resilient and Strategic Transport Operational Enhancement (RESTORE) Project

Adaptation Need

Approximately 23% of Malawi’s national road network is at risk due to climate hazards, including floods, landslides, and increasingly frequent and intense drought and heat events. GCA’s national-level assessment projects that, without adaptation, direct cumulative damage costs could exceed USD 400 million by 2050—equivalent to physical losses of roughly 18% of the current network. Direct damage costs due to fluvial flooding alone, may potentially rise by up to 86% by mid-century. In parallel, institutional assessments point to systemic challenges in ensuring sustained climate resilience of the road network: long-term planning rarely accounts for climate risks, and climate resilience is not yet systematically embedded in Malawi’s transport management. The Shire River Basin is a critical hotspot due to its combination of high hazard exposure, socio-economic vulnerability, and limited infrastructure resilience. 

GCA Added Value

GCA technical assistance is quantifying climate risks under different climate scenarios, and assessing indirect impacts of the road infrastructure resilience, to prioritize adaptation options based on costs and potential benefits. A key focus is to support the integration of relevant options to increase overall network resilience within the road asset management system at the national level, and to mainstream resilience in the transport asset lifecycle.  This includes through detailed recommendations and procurement support for a climate-informed asset management system, updates to design standards, and capacity-building activities to be implemented under the RESTORE project.