Government, through the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) in collaboration with various development and humanitarian partners, is providing food assistance to over 1.7 million food insecure households in all the 28 districts and four cities of the country, under the MVAC Humanitarian Response Programme (Lean Season Food Insecurity Response Programme).

The response programme is being implemented through two modalities namely; cash transfers and in- kind maize distribution. The affected populations in Nsanje, Chikwawa, Neno, Balaka, Ntcheu, Likoma and Phalombe, and some affected populations in Mangochi and Machinga are getting cash transfers while the rest of the districts and some parts of Mangochi and Machinga are getting in-kind support, in form of relief maize.

The programme rolled-out with Chikwawa district in which slightly over 26,000 affected households, are getting cash transfers of K18,000 each for the purchase of food, monthly; from December 2021 to February 2022 while most of the affected populations in the rest of the districts started getting assistance from 17th January, 2022.

Government allocated 29,168 metric tonnes of maize valued at K6.56 billion from the strategic grain reserves for the programme and the department is working with various partners who are providing cash transfers to affected populations. A total of about K16.09 billion worth of resources (financial and in-kind) have been mobilised so far from government and development partners namely; Germany, Irish Aid, European Union, USAID, WFP and UNICEF.

Currently, the department has finalised distributing maize to beneficiaries in Rumphi, Mwanza, Mzuzu City, Karonga and Chitipa.