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This note summarizes the Governemnt of Malawi's (GoM’s) process for establishing a risk insurance mechanism and presents key results and lessons learned. Using Disaster Risk Financing to Build Adaptive Social Protection in Malawi has been prepared by the Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice’s Crisis, and Disaster Risk Finance team in collaboration with colleagues from the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice. Funding and expertise to support the Government of Malawi in the design, implementation, and financing of the mechanism was provided by the Disaster Protection Program (funded by the UK) and from the Global Shield Financing Facility (formally the Global Risk Financing Facility, funded by the UK and Germany). The GoM has put in place a mechanism that enables its flagship safety net —the Social Cash Transfer Program (SCTP)—to scale up response to additional participants when shocks occur. Making the SCTP shock-responsive is a key strategic pillar of the government’s Disaster Risk Financing Strategy. The SCTP scalable mechanism was first implemented during the 2021/22 rainfall season in three initially selected districts (Blantyre, Ntcheu, and Thyolo).

The following lessons were learned: 

• The implementation of an adaptive safety net requires strong government ownership and multi-sectoral cooperation.
• Pre-established rules and financing helped speed response.
• It requires time and effort to build delivery systems that can provide rapid emergency assistance to households. 
• Global expertise is needed to design a well-functioning mechanism that uses remote sensing data.