Country: Malawi Sources: Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, World Bank Malawi’s more than 20 million people are no strangers to natural hazards, from landslides and floods to cyclones. In addition to the human and social costs, recovery and reconstruction needs have often imposed tremendous fiscal and economic costs that have proven difficult for the government to bear. For example, in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai in 2019, Malawi faced a financing gap in its disaster recovery needs of more than $200 million, even accounting for available International Development Association (IDA) resources. Against this backdrop, the government of Malawi has drawn on the support of GFDRR as it strives to increase its financial resilience to disasters and climate change in the long term.Most recently, technical assistance from GFDRR was instrumental in supporting the World Bank’s December 2023 approval of the Malawi First Growth and Resilience with Development Policy Operation with a $57.6 million Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat DDO). The Cat DDO is a contingent line of credit that provides immediate liquidity in the aftermath of a disaster or emergency.Just months after the Cat DDO was approved, it was activated after a March 2024 declaration of a state of disaster by His Excellency President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera because of a food crisis affecting 23 of the country’s 28 districts amid El Niño conditions that resulted in rainfall deficits in southern districts and flooding in central and northern districts. Activation of the Cat DDO ensured that the government had access to the resources it needed to respond without delay.The December 2023 Cat DDO was the second time that the World Bank had approved this contingent line of credit for Malawi. Technical assistance from GFDRR had also been instrumental in supporting the June 2019 approval of a $70 million Cat DDO for Malawi that was activated to support the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In both cases, GFDRR provided technical assistance to the government in designing policy actions that paved the way for the World Bank’s approval of the two Cat DDOs.GFDRR supported the June 2019 Cat DDO in the policy dialogue and development effort that the government led, resulting in enactment of the 2023 Disaster Risk Management Act, which enshrines the country’s commitment to shifting its approach from disaster response to disaster preparedness and resilience. For the December 2023 Cat DDO, GFDRR is providing technical assistance toward the establishment of a disaster management fund through which the government is expected to allocate dedicated funding for disaster response and relief.GFDRR’s recent support for increasing Malawi’s institutional capacity and financial resilience to disasters and climate change builds on a longstanding partnership with the East African country. In the past decade, the facility has enabled ordinary Malawians to take the lead in mapping disaster risks in their communities and, more recently, helped the government assess and respond to disaster recovery needs in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Freddy in 2023.