Assessment of Agricultural Sector Policies and Climate Change in Malawi-The Nexus between Climate Change Related Policies, Research and Practice

This paper presents results of the assessment of major agricultural related policies in relationship to climate change issues conducted in Malawi to determine the extent to which agricultural sector policy integrates with climate related issues to influence practice and research. Over thirty government policies related to agriculture were reviewed and 50 key informants from government, non-governmental organizations and agricultural research institutes were interviewed. Results revealed that research does not sufficiently influence and inform policy and practice because implementation is greatly influenced by politics and relationship with development partners; only 20% of independent agricultural research outputs find its way into policy and practice while 24 % of research by civil society gets absorbed into policy. Collaborative research among government, civil society and academia results in 41% of research output informing policy and practice. Development partners and civil society organizations have more influence in policy formulation and practice through campaign and advocacy. Climate Change policy for Malawi was still in draft form and the absence of policy has led to duplication of efforts by stakeholders in implementing climate change projects. Weak links between researchers, policy makers, and donor partners are some of the challenges that limit contribution of agricultural research to inform policy and practice. This study calls for harmonization of all outdated agricultural sector policies and mainstream them into climate change framework to influence agricultural practice.