Following the 2nd Africa EBA for food security conference convened on 30-31 July 2015 by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) Africa  and partners where over 1200 delegates from all across Africa adopted the Nairobi Action Agenda and the Constitution of the Ecosystems Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly (EBAFOSA), the instruments establishing the Ecosystem Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly, the EBAFOSA Malawi  National Branch has been launched. EBAFOSA is an inclusive pan-African policy framework and implementation platform to ensure EBA driven agriculture and its value-chains, especially clean energy access to catalyze rural agro-industrialization, enhanced access to markets and enhanced access to affordable agro-financing, are up-scaled to being the norm in policy and practice across the entire continent and to ensure that grandeur development blueprints, especially Agenda 2030 and the SDGs, COP21 outcomes and the AU Agenda 2063 are adequately domesticated and implemented, - all these through a country driven process. The aim is to achieve 5 distinct benefits in countries, and ultimately across Africa – food & nutritional security, climate adaptation, enhanced ecosystems capacity and creation of income and job opportunities.

Article 7 of the EBAFOSA constitution establishes the structure of EBAFOSA and Country branches are the critical component where impactful activities are undertaken in a country led process. Country branches register local, continental and global actors within the country and facilitate their interactions and partnership to achieve implementation.

It is against this backdrop that the Malawi National Branch, chaired by the Ministry of Natural Resources Energy and Mining, and hosted by the University of Malawi  was launched on 06 June 2016, during the World Environment Day at a high-powered event graced by His Excellency the President of Malawi at the Bingu International Conference Centre in the Capital Lilongwe. This marked a significant step on country-driveness, giving EBAFOSA Malawi the highest level of policy and political support, which is crucial to expediting National level ownership and progress. Welcoming the launch of EBAFOSA under the theme “Re-shaping Malawi’s food security and climate resilience through EBAFOSA” and the World Environment Day Theme of “Join the race to make the world better place”, His Excellency the President noted that inclusive partnerships as implied in SDG17 were crucial for Malawi to benefit from high level climate policy positions adopted globally, i.e. the Paris agreement and the Agenda 2030 by ensuring action to combat climate change results in sustainable, inclusive, poverty reducing growth and tangible achievement of the SDGs in Malawi. He noted that the SDGs provide a huge opportunity for involving non-state actors like the private sector to realize profitability from the environment, and lauded this as the route to ending poverty, increasing opportunity and laying the foundation for sustainable economic growth. He further noted the need for all sectors to work together to combat climate change and promote sound environmental management, while assuring actors, including manufacturers, promoters and financiers of environmentally friendly technologies and businesses of his governments support in scaling up sustainable technologies and business models.

The president noted that the launch of EBAFOSA meant Malawi will benefit in increased food and nutritional security, enhanced ecosystem productivity and community climate resilience. He further noted that the assembly will help enhance value chains that it will link farm production with opportunities for both demand and supply value chains, and called on all concerned stakeholders to support the establishment and operationalization of EBAFOSA for the betterment of Malawians.

Joining the His Excellency the President in his remarks was the Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, who noted the need for an inclusive approach in combating climate change and achieving sustainable growth. He noted the efforts being put forward by the ministry in combating degradation, including planting and protecting trees, substituting charcoal dependence, a significant cause for deforestation and land degradation. All are efforts that EBAFOSA Malawi will buttress through partnerships for enabling policies and ground actions.

The UN country coordinator noted that action against environmental degradation is a major component of the fight against climate change, and especially in climate adaptation. She commended the government for mobilizing resources than other least developed countries, and for being among the first eight countries to get resources on green world. In addition to His Excellency the president, and the Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, the event was also graced by other high level policy makers, crucial to bridging silos to achieve cross-cutting national and sub-national policies needed to build optimized, climate resilient food systems. These included the Vice President, the Chief Secretary of the government, the mayor, and District Commissioners.  Non-policy actors from academia, private sector, civil society, traditional authorities were also in attendance.

The launch event was also covered by media, both main-stream and digital coverage. This wide coverage was crucial to catalyze participation of more stakeholders and solutions providers, promoting inclusivity which is the essence of EBAFOSA.

The broad participation in the launch, especially cross-cutting policy level, academia, individual professionals & citizens, NGOs, CSOs, private sector, local traditional leaders coupled with significant media coverage was a commendable achievement for the EBAFOSA Malawi. This in ensuring the launch catalyzes progress in the EBAFOSA stakeholder promotion & mobilization and strategic partnership building, the crucial tenets towards EBAFOSA’s mandate of building targeted policy & action solutions for optimized, climate resilient food systems in Malawi and Africa.

The EBAFOSA Malawi branch was declared officially open by His Excellency the president of the Republic of Malawi

EBAFOSA Malawi becomes the 6^th National branch to be launched.

Congratulations EBAFOSA Malawi!