To a country like Malawi, impacts of climate change are not new. From the Cyclone Gombe to Idai, Ana and Freddy among others have been catastrophic in the country for the past years.

In Mid March of 2019, the cyclone Idai destroyed countries like Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique, left over three million people affected with over one thousand dead across the southern African region.

Four years on, in March 2023, Cyclone Freddy led to over 676 deaths with 538 people reportedly still missing up to date.

The disaster further rendered homeless to over 650,000 people and destroyed 202,095 agricultural lands across the country, according to Department of Disaster and Management Affairs in Malawi.

However, in all this, to persons with disabilities, the pain that goes with such atrocities are a huge burden and often overlooked.

The Persons with Disabilities suffers disproportionately and have remained most vulnerable in the face of climate change related responses in the times of a disaster.

According to Malawi Council for Disability Affairs (MACODA), the Cyclone Freddy affected over 50,000 Persons with Disability were affected during the disaster in March 2023.

Many of the persons with disabilities, failed to grasp important information regarding the impending disaster due to glaring lack of mainstreaming in communication channels and as a result, the Persons with disability were completely left out in the dark.

The World Bank Climate Change report on disability highlights reports of December 2023, says persons with disabilities are more likely to suffer from climate change emergencies and disasters than people without disabilities and hence there is need to for inclusion and take their needs into an account.

The World Bank report says across the globe, there is high mortality rate between persons with disabilities and they face up to four times higher in natural disasters than people without disabilities.

It says even though 15% of the population across the globe has a disability, the climate change adaptation and resilience efforts does not effectively take their needs into account.

In March 2023, Magret Makawa, from Mtauchila Village in Chiladzulu district, lost 23 relatives during the time of Freddy which included her nine-year-old daughter.

The heavy rains due to the impact of the cyclone Freddy, pulled a mudslide from a nearby mountain swept the whole village of Mtauchila in the night.

The tragedy left many villagers injured including persons with disabilities while some are reportedly still missing up now.

“We had a persistent heavy rain for five days. It kept us indoor, and we could not do anything. However, in the middle of night on 14^th March 2023, I heard a huge blast in the nearby mountain. We didn’t know it was a mudslide and it swept our village, burying houses and injuring many people. I lost 23 relatives including my child,” said Makawa.

Makawa, kept shedding tears when narrating her ordeal, saying she can still can no longer afford some peaceful sleep for the past year.

“I still feel mentally unstable, and I am always haunted by the nightmares of what happened on the day. This goes the same with persons with disabilities. The lack of information as regards to early warning information to impending disasters due to climate change is a problem.

“There are the visually impaired and cannot read information in ink and paper and even those who cannot hear. The Cyclone made the persons with disability to lose their hearing aids and several valuables which were assisting them in daily lives.

“I feel government need to do bring up deliberate efforts to ensure persons with disabilities, just like anybody else, gets climate change information to better prepare ourselves,” added Makawa.

Exclusion or oversight?

Executive Director of the Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi (FEDOMA), Simon Munde, said there are no appropriate and effective strategies put in place to ensure persons with disabilities are included in disaster preparedness, resilience building, or recovery measures.

The Executive Director said this exclusion is not just an oversight—but it is a humanitarian crisis in the making.

Munde We are impacted by climate change badly PIC Courtesy of Simon Munde

Munde said the lack of affirmative action on policies to ensure accessible information communication, infrastructure and aid targeting the persons with disabilities reveals a stark reality, saying the Malawi’s climate adaptation strategies are failing most of the vulnerable population.

“The challenges and risks that persons with disabilities are exposed to during climate disasters are often not recognized by the government, NGOs, or international agencies. This lack of prioritization has increased outcries from the disabled communities leading to some be missed in the distribution of relief aid.

“We feel there is also need to build the capacity of persons with disabilities about issues of climate change so that they are well informed and make decisions from an informed perspective but so far nothing is happening apart from what FEDOMA is doing on our affiliates and yet the impacts of climate change are more felt on the ground within the communities,” said Munde.

Munde urged government and non-governmental organizations to ensure persons with disabilities are participating in decision making as regards to issues of climate change.

The Director General for the Malawi Council for Disability Affairs (MACODA), George Chiusiwa, said regarding disability mainstreaming in disaster risk management, there is still much work to be done in the country.

Chiusiwa said while there have been some progressive efforts to include persons with disabilities in disaster risk management strategies and implementation of the policy governing this, these initiatives are often insufficient and not fully incorporated into mainstream disaster risk reduction frameworks as there are no deliberate efforts.

We are not doing enough for Persons with disabilities in Malawi Chiusiwa PIC Leonard Masauli

“There is a need for more comprehensive policies that explicitly address the needs of persons with disabilities, ensuring their voices are heard and their rights are upheld in disaster planning and response strategies. This includes aspects of ensuring disability inclusive disaster risk management budgeting and financing.

“About 50,000 persons with disabilities were displaced by the disaster with many more were affected by Cyclone Freddy; this is a stark reminder of the gaps in our current programming around managing situations of emergency.

Chiusiwa added that MACODA is working full throttle with organisations implementing inclusive disaster risk management initiatives.

Initiatives on Inclusion

He said for instance, MACODA is part of the consortium of the Enhancing Disability-Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction Capacity project along with the Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi (FEDOMA) and Churches Action and Relief and Development (CARD).

“We have implemented several initiatives aimed at promoting the inclusion of persons with disabilities in disaster preparedness strategies.

“Under his initiative, among other things, MACODA has conducted training sessions for local disaster management authorities and community leaders to raise awareness about the specific needs of persons with disabilities during disaster planning and response,” said Chiusiwa.

We prioritize most vulnerable communities including Persons with disabilities PIC Leonard Masauli

However, In his response, through a phone interview on Thursday, the Public Relations officer for the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) in Malawi, Chipiliro Raymond Khamula said the department has made strides to prioritize most vulnerable communities in the country.

Khamula said this includes people with disabilities, the elderly and child-headed families etc) in its disaster risk management (DRM) planning and programming to ensure that we reduce risks, vulnerability and build resilience to disasters.

“Recently, the department has been engaging organisations of people with disabilities (OPDs) in developing disability inclusive DRM and early warning (EW) messages in line with challenges they face.

“The OPDs have also been engaged in developing and validating tailor-made messages from the DRM Act; and the department is committed to ensuring continued engagement, partnership and coordination to ensure that no one is left behind at all stages of the DRM cycle and building resilience to disasters due to climate change,” said Khamula. According to International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), projected that by 2050, about 18 million persons with disabilities are expected to be displaced by climatic events.