Action by Churches Together (ACT)
Appeal - Malawi
Famine Recovery & Mitigation - AFMW-31 (Revision 1)
Appeal Target: US$ 3,707,844
Balance Requested from ACT Network:  US$ 2,612,439
Geneva, December 4, 2003


The Malawi appeal has been revised to include a proposal for the Churches
Action in Relief and Development (CARD) which was meant to form part of
the original appeal issued on 23 September, 2003. However, CARD were still
working on some issues that delayed the issuance of their proposal. Like
in the previous appeal AFMW-22, CARD will continue to work in Nsanje
district and this time proposes to assist 25,000 households facing
critical food shortages with relief food. It will also target 2,000
under-five children with supplementary feeding with a dry ration of Likuni
Phala, a nutrient rich food made from Soya. CARD will also aim to assist
10,000 families with agricultural inputs especially seeds. This will
assist the target communities to recover from the hunger situation and
hopefully re-attain their levels of self-sufficiency. Attention will also
be given to families affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic within the target
communities of Nsanje. CARD intervention in the appeal will be 5 months.

The second part of this revision is the corrected budget for NCA/CHAM as
the current budget in the appeal shows that food would be transported over
a distance of 1000 kilometres, but this has now been revised to 250
kilometres drastically reducing the cost of transportation. We are
therefore, not including the whole appeal text for NCA/CHAM as the
description remains as issued in September, 2003. Also no changes are
being made to the appeal programs of other ACT Implementing members in the
original appeal.


Project Completion Dates:
CARD                     -  31 April 2004
CCAP Blantyre Synod      -  30 June 2004
CCAP Livingstonia Synod  -  31 July 2004
NCA/CHAM                 -  31 August 2004
ELDP                     -  31 August 2004

Summary of Appeal Targets, Pledges/Contributions Received and Balance
Requested

                      Appeal     Less: Pledges/  Balance Requested
                      Targets    Contr Recd      from ACT Network

CCAP Blantyre          782,190      443,230            338,960
CCAP Liv.            1,128,204      262,201            866,003
CARD                   551,117       85,858            465,259
NCA/CHAM               704,954            0            704,954
ELDP                   541,379      304,116            237,263
Total Targets US$    3,707,844    1,095,405          2,612,439

Thor-Arne Prois
Director, ACT



REQUESTING ACT MEMBER

Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD)


IMPLEMENTING ACT MEMBER & PARTNER INFORMATION

Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) is an ecumenical
non-governmental organisation formed in 1995. Formerly, CARD was a
department of the Malawi Council of Churches.

>From December 2002 to May 2003, CARD was among the local
Non-Governmental Organisations that participated in the 2002 Food Crisis
Response Programme. CARD implemented the food aid programme in Nsanje and
Nkhota-kota districts.  With support from Christian Aid and Save the
Children UK, CARD also implemented an Agricultural Recovery Programme in
three districts of the country namely: Nsanje, Thyolo and Mchinji.

Apart from relief interventions, CARD is also involved in implementing
long term development programmes, which help to build the capacity of
grass-roots people to be able to withstand the effects of disasters and
other socio-economic pressures on their lives. From the year 2001 to 2003
CARD is implementing an Integrated Food Security Programme in Nsanje,
Thyolo and Mchinji districts, which aims at building the capacity of
people to be food secure at their household level.


DESCRIPTION of the EMERGENCY SITUATION

NSANJE DISTRICT

Nsanje District is located at the southern tip of Malawi bordered by
Chikwawa District to the north, Thyolo District to the northeast and
Mozambique to the south, southwest and southeast. Nsanje district is one
of the districts with frequent disasters caused by floods and drought due
to its geographical position in the Shire valley.

CARD has just completed implementation of the Food Crisis Response
Programme in Nsanje that assisted total of 34,347 households in 3 rounds
of distributions of maize for food. Each household was assisted with a
50-kilogramme bag of maize in each round of distribution.


Agriculture

The majority of people in Nsanje District practice winter cultivation of
crops such as rice, sweet potatoes, vegetables, maize, and beans. In
normal years the yields from such crops take them some time (on average up
to 7 months depending on the yields and the size of households). Winter
crop cultivation is done along the Shire River Banks and utilises residual
moisture from flooding of these areas during rainy seasons.

The frequent droughts experienced in Nsanje make upper lands in the
district not very productive.

The continuing food shortage in some parts of the country including in
Nsanje district is already having adverse impacts on people’s livelihoods
including the following:

People, such as those along the Shire River banks failed to engage in
doing their winter crop cultivation, a practice which over 50% of the
people in the district rely upon for their livelihood Destruction of crops
in the gardens has also meant that those people who depend upon their
harvest to select seeds for the next crop-growing season have lost their
seeds. Despite good harvest of crops such as maize in some parts of the
country, it is estimated that 131,500 people will require food aid
beginning July 2003, this will peak to 400,000 people from January to
March 2004 (FAO/WFP Assessment Mission, May 2003).


Health and nutrition

The failure of crops due to long dry spells and floodwaters have also
affected the food availability to most households.  Should there be no
relief intervention it is feared there may be a loss of lives especially
among children and those infected by AIDS. It is becoming evident that
good nutrition forms first defense for an infected person to be able to
fight the virus and preventing it into becoming fully blown AIDS.


Economic sector

The country has just experienced 15% devaluation rate between July and
August 2003. The Malawi Kwacha (local currency) fluctuated between 89and
93 Mkw to 1 United States Dollar in July to an average of 105 Mkw to 1 USD
by the end of August 2003.

This fluctuation is already adversely affecting the prices of commodities
such as food and agricultural inputs and other essential commodities most
of which are after fuel price increases.  The rise in commodity prices
will have adverse effect on the poor.


GOAL & OBJECTIVES

Goal:  The main goal is to alleviate the suffering of people affected by
the food shortage in Nsanje District through provision of food aid and
support to local agricultural initiatives.


Objectives

To provide relief food to 25,000 households in the most critically 
  affected food shortage areas in Nsanje District (Traditional Authorities 
  Tengani and Mbenje)
To provide Likuni Phala to 2,000 under-five children in the two TA's of 
  Tengani and Mbenje.
To promote agricultural recovery processes among 10,000 farming families 
  through provision of agricultural inputs (seeds and agricultural 
  extension follow-up messages,)



TARGETTED BENEFICIARIES

Through the assessment done by CARD staff in Nsanje it was clear that not
all the people have been affected in the same way by the floods. Those
people that have gardens only in riverbanks have had a major setback
because they could not cultivate their crops.

This food shortage, if no proper intervention is put in plac,e may turn
into major crisis again. CARD’s programme therefore aims at targeting the
most critically affected groups of people in the community as described
below:

The under-five children will be assisted with a dry ration of Likuni
Phala, a nutritious cereal pulses mix. Children under the age of five will
be deliberately targeted to minimize deaths of children due to
malnutrition.  People whose gardens were flooded by the waters due to the
opening of the barrage across the Shire River have suffered a direct
impact by not being in position to cultivate their gardens. Some people in
the same categories planted their crops but these got submerged in waters
rotted. The sick especially those that are infected by AIDS. The programme
will target people that are terminally ill and those taking care of them.
There is high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the area (estimated at around
17%), and people who are sick affect farm operations directly in that such
people cannot work in the field and indirectly in that such people need
people to care for them. The programme will also target farming families
with farm inputs to assist such households produce their own food. Farm
inputs will only be given to those farming families that can utilize them.
CARD staff will register the names of farming families in collaboration
with the Government of Malawi, which also intends to assists some
beneficiaries with inputs through the DFID funded Targeted Input
Programme.



PROPOSED EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE & IMPLEMENTATION

As mentioned above, CARD through the support under the ACT Appeal AFMW-22
assisted people in Nsanje with maize for food. This new programme will
focus on supporting people with food in a general food distribution,
feeding the under-five children and the sick.  CARD will also support
farming families so that they are in a position to produce their own food
in their areas.

CARD will provide maize for food to 17,000 households in two Traditional
Authorities mostly affected by food shortage due to the effect of drought
and flooding of gardens. A total of 2,550 metric tonnes of maize for food
for 3 rounds of distributions will be distributed.  Likuni Phala will also
be provided to under-five children to minimize the rates of malnutrition
especially among children who are the most vulnerable groups in such
times.  A total of 120 metric tonnes of Likuni Phala will be distributed
in the period – December 2003 to March 2004.  CARD will also provide
agricultural inputs, mostly seeds, aimed at supporting the local food
production initiatives in order to reduce the dependency on food aid.


FOOD AID - MAIZE DISTRIBUTION

The situation at national level indicates that the country has adequate
maize supplies. The problem observed, however, is that this maize is not
accessible to all the areas and people. Hence if the trend continues like
that CARD plans to procure the maize locally at the estimated cost of MK
12.00/kilogramme. Currently the price of Maize is at K10.00/kilogramme
FEWSNET/MALAWI: monthly food Security Report, end June – Mid July 2003.

After procurement the maize will be stored in the Central warehouse in
Nsanje District.

Through the District Civil Protection Committee (CARD is a member in
Nsanje District), a list of those affected people will be prepared. CARD
Relief Team will verify this list when the distribution exercises
commence.

In collaboration with the District Commissioner, other implementing
agencies and local leadership in the district CARD will designate
distribution centres in the two targeted TA’s.

Each household will receive a 50-kilogramme bag of maize each round of
distribution. This will be a ration for a month.  This programme is
expected to cover 3 months when most people run-out of food even when the
agricultural seasons are considered normal.

CARD will publicly announce to the people the source of the assistance. In
addition to that, CARD will also buy and print T-Shirts with ACT - Logo.

Security during distributions will be arranged through the office of the
District Commissioner.  Special arrangements will be made that one or two
police officers will accompany distribution staff to maintain order.

There will be six members of staff directly working on the programme (1
Programme Coordinator based at CARD Headquarters, 1 Programme Supervisor,
1 Stores Clerk, 3 Distribution Clerks).


DRY RATION - LIKUNI PHALA DISTRIBUTION

The objective of the Dry-Ration Likuni Phala distribution is to provide
food to under-five children to curb the malnutrition rates.

The dry ration Likuni phala will enable guardians to prepare the food in
their own time without being distracted from their agricultural activities
except for the actual day of distribution, which will take place once a
week. However, to ensure that the Likuni phala is fed to children, the
programme staff will come up with a monitoring mechanism that will also
include home visits to follow-up on how the guardians are using the Likuni
Phala.

The programme will employ 3 temporary feeding programme clerks (1
supervisor, 2 clerks).

The programme will procure a total of 120 metric tonnes of Likuni Phala
within Malawi.



AGRICULTURAL RECOVERY PROGRAMME

CARD plans to procure and distribute maize and sorghum seeds to a total of
10,000 farming families. This will complement the effort started by the
Government of Malawi in boosting agricultural programmes through the DFID
funded TIP programme.

CARD will utilize the extension staff already in the district working
under its long term Integrated Food Security Programme. It has been
planned that the staff will have routine visits to farmers’ gardens to
assist them on the appropriate technologies in crop production.

The programme will distribute a total of 10 Metric tonnes of sorghum and
20 Metric tonnes of open pollinated variety (OPV) of maize. And through
CARD agricultural extension services, farmers will be encouraged to
diversify their crop production by including other types of crop seeds
such as beans, sweet potatoes and vegetables.

The agricultural Recovery component aims at supporting local farming
activities to reduce the dependency syndrome if emphasis is only put on
food aid



ADMINISTRATION, FINANCE MONITORING & REPORTING

Administration

The Programme Coordinator will be responsible for the day to day running
of this programme with support from the Programme Manager, the Director,
and Finance and Administration Manager and other support staff at CARD
Headquarters.

The District Programme Supervisor will oversee the actual execution of the
programme activities at field level

The Programme Supervisor to be based in Nsanje (5 months period) will
coordinate programme activities and all relief operations in Nsanje
District.

One of the Relief Clerks will be responsible for warehousing for the whole
of the relief operation.  The other 3 staff will be responsible for the
actual distribution of the food aid.

Under the Feeding Programme component, 3 staff will be employed. One
Programme Supervisor, and 2 relief clerks responsible for distribution of
food for children.


Finance 

CARD will create a bank account with separate budget lines in accordance
to ACT-International guidelines and format.

All payments and expenditures will be backed by authenticated receipts and
vouchers.

The Programme Coordinator in collaboration with the Finance and
Administration Manager will produce monthly up-dates based on both field
operations and usage of funds.


 
BUDGET

INCOME					 USD 
Pledges - Christian Aid					 
        84,857 
Disciples of Christ					         
 1,000 
Total Income					          85,857


					
ESTIMATED EXPENDITURE					
	Type of 	No. of	 Unit Cost 	Budget	 Budget 
	Unit	Units	 MK 	MK	 USD 
DIRECT EXPENSES					
Maize for food	tonnes	2,550	12,000	30,600,000	288,679
Likuni Phala	tonnes	120	50,000	6,000,000	56,604
Sorghum seed	tonnes	10	60,000	 600,000	5,660
maize seed	tonnes	20	65,000	  1,300,000	  12,264
Sub Total				     38,500,000	363,207
					
MATERIAL TRANSPORT					
Truck rental and related
costs	Tonnes/KM	2,700	5,433	14,669,100	138,388
Handling and storage	Tonnes	2,700	380	  1,026,000	 
  9,679
Sub Total				15,695,100	148,067 
					
MONITORING AND SUPERVISION					
1 Program Coordinator	months	5	65,000	325,000	3,066
1 District Programme Supervisor
	months	5	25,000	125,000	1,179
1 Feeding Program
Supervisor	months	5	25,000	125,000	1,179
4 Relief clerks	months	5	80,000	400,000	3,774
2 Feeding Programme Relief
clerks	months	5	40,000	200,000	1,887
1 Driver	months	5	15,000	75,000	708
Coordination
meetings	meetings	7	41,000	287,000	2,708
Monitoring visits from head office	Visits	8	25,000	 
 200,000	  1,887
Sub Total				1,737,000	16,388
					
ADMINISTRATION COSTS					
Vehicle rentals and running
costs	KMs	18,000	50	900,000	8,491
Contribution to Programme Manager
costs	man-days	25	11,480	287,000	2,708
Contribution to support staff
costs	man-days	115	5,000	575,000	5,425
Contribution to stationery
costs	months	5	27,600	138,000	1,302
Contribution to telephone/faxes
costs	months	5	18,400	92,000	868
Contribution to office rent costs	months	5	41,400	 
 207,000	  1,953
Sub Total				2,199,000	20,747
					
Audit Fees				287,000	2,708

			
TOTAL ANTICIPATED
EXPENDITURE			58,418,100	551,117
Less Income					85,857
					
Balance Requested from the ACT
Alliance				465,260
					
Exchange Rate: MK 106 = 1USD




REVISED BUDGET FOR NCA/CHAM

The appeal proposal for NCA/CHAM forms part of the original appeal issued
on 29 September, 2003. However, the transport costs for food in the appeal
document were calculated over a distance of 1000 kilometres but now this
has been reduced to a distance of 250 kilometres, therefore, bringing the
costs of transport drastically down. The budget below is the revised
budget reflecting the changes in the transport budget figures. The revised
budget therefore, replaces the budget currently in the original appeal of
September, 2003.


REVISED BUDGET

DESCRIPTION	Type of	No. of	Unit Cost	 Budget	 Budget
	Unit 	Units	MK 	MK 	US$
EQUIPMENT					
Plates	Pieces	625	300 	187,500	1,769
Buckets	Pieces 	           625 	             120 	 
         75,000 	                708 
Cups	Pieces	625	100 	62,500 	590
Spoons	Pieces 	625 	50 	31,250 	295
Cooking sticks	Pieces 	625 	120 	75,000 	708
Maesurejugs1ltr	Pieces 	625 	400 	250,000
	2,358 
Baby weigh scales	Pieces 	25 	3,500 	87,500 	825
Height boards	Pieces 	25 	5,600 	140,000 	1,321
Sub Total				908,750 	8,573
					
FOOD ITEMS					
Likuni phala	50kg bags 	16,112 	900 	14,500,800
	136,800
Maize flour	50kg bags 	11,765 	850 	10,000,250
	94,342
Cooking oil	5lt container	5,589 	1,000 	5,589,000
	52,726
Beans	50kg bags 	1,250 	3,500 	4,375,000 	41,274
Milk powder	Lumpsum 			2,000,000
	18,868
Skimmed milk	Lumpsum 			2,000,000
	18,868
Iodised Salt	Kgs 	120 	35 	4,200 	40
Sugar	20kg bags 	60 	800 	48,000 	453
Transp 20Mk tonne/km 250 Km 	Tonne/km 	355,750
	20 	7,115,000 	67,123
Insurance (food stuffs)	Lumpsum 			 
   400,000 	    3,774
Sub Total				46,032,250 	434,267
					
MICRONUTRIENTS/FOOD SUPPLEMENTS				
Vitamin A	Unit 	870 	2,231 	1,940,970 	18,311
Multivitamin syrup	Unit 	870 	172 	149,640
	1,412
Iron/ferous/folic	Unit 	870 	219 	190,530
	1,797
Home gardens (fruits and vegetables)	Unit 	18 	360,934
	6,496,812 	61,291
Sub Total				8,777,952 	82,811
					
MEDICINES					
Albendazole 200mg	Unit 	870 	987 	858,690
	8,101
ORS sachets	Unit 	870	7 	6,090 	57
Contrimoxaz 480mg	Unit 	870 	695 	604,650
	5,704
Amoxycilin 250mg	Unit 	870 	1,272 	1,106,640
	10,440
Metronidazole 200mg	Unit 	870 	95 	     82,650 	 
   780
Sub Total				2,658,720 	25,082
					
 DESCRIPTION	Type of 	No. of	Unit Cost 	Budget
	Budget
	Unit 	Units	MK 	MK	US$

PERSONNEL COSTS					
Recruitment expenses	Lumpsum 			150,000
	1,415
Distribution coord. salary+benefits	Month 	12 	71,000
	852,000	8,038
Store keeper salary+benefits	Month	12	51,000	612,000
	5,774
Driver salary+benefits	Month	12 	37,500 	   450,000	 
4,245
Sub Total				      2,064,000 	 
         19,472 
					
TRAINING 					
Propriators orientation	Lumpsum
			800,000	7,547
Nutrition training of trainers	Workshop 	14
	40,000	560,000 	5,283
Nutrition refresher course HCW's	Workshop 	7
	3,300 	23,100 	218
TOT triage assessment of 
malnourished children	Assessment	4	100,000	   
400,000 	  3,774
Sub Total				1,783,100 	16,822
					
TRANSPORT 					
Vehicle Service	Lumpsum
			133,500	1,259
Fuel	Liters 	4,000 	80 	320,000 	3,019
Lubricants	Liters 	50 	200	  10,000 	     94
Sub - Total				         463,500 	 
           4,373 
					
MONITORING & SUPERVISION					
Field costs officer (subsistence)	Days 	144 	2,600
	374,400 	3,532
Field costs officer (subsistence)	Days 	144 	1,700
	244,800 	2,309
Sub Total				619,200 	5,842
					
WAREHOUSING					
Rent	Months 	12 	80,000 	960,000 	9,057
Loading / offloading	Months 	12 	40,000 	480,000
	4,528
Pest control	Lumpsum 			50,000 	472 
Security	Months 	12 	32,000 	   384,000 	  3,623
Sub Total				1,874,000 	17,679
					
CHAM  Units overheads					
Stationery	Lumpsum 			1,740,000
	16,415
Tel., e-mail, postage, etc	Lumpsum
			319,000 	3,009
Loading / offloading	Tonne 	1,423 	200 	   284,600 	 
2,685
Sub Total				2,343,600	22,109
					
CHAM  Secretariat  overheads					
Stationery				      1,000,000 	 
           9,434 
Tel, e-mail, postage, etc	Lumpsum
			600,000 	5,660
Bank charges	Lumpsum 			50,000 	472
Procurement Committee meetings	Lumpsum
			500,000 	4,717
Procurement Advertising	Lumpsum
			250,000 	2,358
Finance & Administration staff time	Lumpsum
			2,500,000 	23,585
Sub Total				4,900,000 	46,226
					
Evaluation	Lumpsum 			1,600,000
	15,094
Audit	Lumpsum 			700,000 	6,604
					
TOTAL ESTIMATED EXPENDITURE			74,725,072
	704,954
Exchange Rate: MK 106 = 1 USD				



Notes to Budget				
					
Transportation is based on average of 250 km to move the food items at a
cost of MK20 per tonne per km.

Stationery is made up of printing data recording sheets to be used by all
the units for data capture and reporting.
					
Printing & stationery includes cost of printing stock control
documents,waybills and relevant accounting documents e.g cash receipt
books, files, etc
					
Procurement committee looks at issues of procurement to ensure
transparency and cost effective supplies.
					
CHAM does not employ additional Finance & Administration staff to take
care of such additional work therefore a need to cost this additional
staff time


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Action by Churches Together (ACT) is a worldwide alliance of churches and
their related agencies, meeting human need through co-ordinated emergency
response.  The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of 
Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


   Ecumenical Centre                          Phone: ++41-22-791.60.33
   150, route de Ferney                         Fax: ++41-22-791.65.06
   P.O. Box 2100                             E-Mail: act@wcc-coe.org
   1211 Geneva 2                              Telex: 415 730 OIK CH
   Switzerland                                 http://www.act-intl.org


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
    Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
comments/suggestions/requests to incident@cidi.org