Climate change and smallholder farmers in Malawi: understanding poor people’s experiences in climate change adaptation
Southern Africa is one of the regions estimated to be most at risk
from climate change. While policy responses to global warming
have been mainly driven by debates among scientists, the insights
of poor people living on the frontline have been largely neglected.
This study seeks to understand what is happening from poor
people’s perspectives. A field study was conducted using
Participatory Vulnerability Analysis (PVA)1 in two districts of Malawi,
Salima in the central region and Nsanje in the south. We selected
two villages (Mphunga and Mulembe respectively) that face both
droughts and floods.