Dr. Isaac Tchuwa….we will be using seasonal lens to link livelihoods and programming
By Vincent Gunde
The World Food Programme, Malawi University of Science and Technology, Government and UNHCR say refugee camps and their surrounding communities are fragile landscapes and areas prone to frequent disasters and recurring shocks.
The WFP, MUST, Government and UNHCR held consultative meetings at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa district from 27th September to 1st October, 2021 for the implementation of Seasonal Livelihood Programming [SLP].
SLP is a tool to identify short and long term interventions for integrated resilience building efforts combining seasonal livelihood, gender and crisis aspects.
Introducing the Programming tool to the District Executive Committee (DEC) in Dowa, Dr. Isaac Tchuwa, a Senior Lecturer in Climate Sciences and Head of Earth Sciences Department at the Malawi University of Science and Technology [MUST], said SLP is a consultative process that brings together information on the times, months, seasons of the year when specific livelihood activities are done.
Dr. Tchuwa said SLP identifies the most appropriate range of interventions and aligns these into complementary short and long term action plans that bring humanitarian and development interventions together.
He said the purpose of SLP is to provide foundation for flexible and longer term resilience planning, identifying complementary interventions that are context and target group specific and strengthen existing partnerships and build new ones thereby supporting government to strengthen its coordination capacities.
The Senior Lecturer said specifically SLP is about using seasonal and gender lens to link livelihood and programmes, understanding what changes between the typical years and bad years, identifying programme entry points and guiding the choice of transfer modalities and identifying opportunities for change.
…..’’The major components of SLP process are historical shocks trend analysis, ascertaining seasonal livelihoods patterns, linking livelihood seasonality to programmes, vulnerability profiling and programme alignment, among others,’’…..said Dr. Tchuwa.
He said SLP tool has some benefits such as complementing the existing planning processes, providing foundation for identifying resilience building strategies, identifying opportunities to work together and helping to deliver programmes with multiple benefits, reaching scale.
Dr. Tchuwa said the SLP has a calendar comprising of livelihood activities and indicators, programme rationales, programme activities and targeting, identifying on-going activity gaps and partners as well as implementing them in the areas of Traditional Authorities and the beneficiaries targeted.
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