T he urban population in Malawi face cyclones, storm surges, heat stress, extreme precipitation, flooding, landslides, drought, and water scarcity with increasing regularity as climate change escalates. The country recently suffered greatly from the effects of the 2019 Cyclones Idai and Kenneth and the tropical Storm Ana and Cyclone Gombe in 2022. In the capital city of Lilongwe, where 76% of the urban population lives in informal settlements, the storms and cyclones caused tremendous damage – particularly in the informal settlements in the Kaliyeka, Mchesi, Kawale and Mtandire wards.

To help the local communities adapt to these extreme weather events, the Malawi Alliance supported resilience efforts in several settlements. The Alliance used the Community Data for Change (CDfC) approach, which empowers communities to generate data about their communities through community-led profiling, mapping, and enumeration. Learn more about Malawi Alliance’s approach and other locally-led stories of resilience.