Bridging disaster risk and internal displacement in Malawi: reflections on Malawi’s Disaster Risk Management Policy

Published on March 2, 2021

Joe MLENGA | genida

This article is a short discussion of the Malawi Disaster Risk Management Policy, a document that is indirectly linked to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in that country.
The paper focuses on how the Policy can be advantageous for internally displaced persons, despite the fact that it does not have terminology such as ‘internal displacement’ or ‘internally displaced persons’. The paper ends by making three recommendations on policy and legislation regarding IDPs in Malawi.
In Malawi, internal displacement is mainly caused by natural disasters such as flash floods over hilly areas, tropical storms and rivers breaking their banks. The biggest natural disasters on record to have struck Malawi include Cyclone Idai in 2019. The storm left 60 people dead, directly affecting 868, 900 people, and 86, 000 of the victims were left in IDP camps. Flooding in 2015, killed 280 people and 230, 000 people were displaced from their homes in half of Malawi’s 28 districts (The Guardian, 2015). Lastly in 1991, flash floods killed between 700 and 1000 persons in the southern district of Phalombe (Daily Times 2016).

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