Elise’s Pula Journey Continued.. Part 2: Malawi!!
The next morning, I was on an early morning flight to Malawi. On a map, the distance between Kenya and Malawi doesn’t seem very far: there is only one country, Tanzania, between them. But this journey is never short. There is no direct flight from Nairobi to Blantyre. This means a 5 A.M. flight from Nairobi via Addis Ababa. I left my hotel at 2: 30 A.M., a sleep-deprived zombie.
I was supposed to be in Malawi for a week for some big events: a two-day end-of-season all-stakeholders workshop with our implementation partners on the crop insurance program in Blantyre, a full-day payout launch ceremony in Zomba, and a half-day workshop with government and development agencies to share the lessons from our program to support current discussions on embedding insurance to government programs in Lilongwe.
Success in our business involves continuous stakeholder sensitisation and multi-stakeholder collaborations, for which I plan and conduct many workshops. However, this was my first workshop with WFP Malawi and with over 70 participants, it was certainly going to be the largest.
Pula has partnered with WFP Malawi since 2020, when we supported their transition from a purely weather-based insurance, to the area yield index insurance (AYII). This offers far more comprehensive coverage to farmers who experience many risks to yield loss, beyond drought and excessive rain. AYII has helped WFP Malawi’s farmers through three consecutive calamity events over the past three years. In 2022, catastrophic losses of over $1.2 million were largely attributed to devastations in the aftermath of Cyclone Freddy.
Flooded fields in Machinga, Malawi months after Cyclone Freddy. Photo: Pula Advisors
We had a full agenda for the two-day workshop: end-of-season review, sharing results, and planning for the next season; what we can do to improve our collaboration; and technical discussions on how to best group the farmers. From morning till evening, the entire audience remained completely engaged. This was the first workshop I’d ever been to (anywhere in the world!) that started earlier than the planned time because all attendees had arrived ahead of schedule!
It was encouraging to see how passionate our partners were about sharing and learning their lessons from this season and planning our collaborative work into the next. This inspired me so much that I posted my excitement on LinkedIn after the first day! But that was not all — the pinnacle of the week was attending my first payout event, which I captured here in my personal post, and here, on the Pula Linkedin post.
Inmates from Zomba District Prison provided the entertainment: jubilant and colorful traditional dances. Our insured farmers from the district were present to join in on the festivities, and to receive their claim payouts for last season — in this case, just under $35. This is a lot of money for the farmers and represents roughly three times what the farmers paid for their insurance. The rest is subsidized by the World Food Programme and Adaptation Fund.
I sat down on the bare ground to briefly meet our farmers, most of whom were female and were the first to arrive at the day-long event. Since I don’t speak Chichewa, the local language, and the ladies didn’t speak any English, we communicated with each other through our eyes and smiles. I admired a little baby girl who sat so still with her caretaker, who handed me the baby to cuddle her for a short while. This little moment will remain a personal highlight.
Beyond this, the highlight for everyone is that farmers received their pay-outs. All in all, it was a great day.
All Zomba Payout Event Photo Credits: Pluto Studios, Zomba, Malawi
