Poor rainfall in Malawi in the 2004/2005 growing season resulted in significantly reduced cereal and non-cereal food production in the country. Several agencies and institutions, including the government of Malawi and FEWSNET, warned that there would be significant shortfalls affecting many people’s food security. The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) studied the levels of vulnerability in the country to predict how many, and to what extent, people would be affected, and produced a report in June 2005 stating that well over four million people would be in need of assistance. In response, Oxfam planned a programme in southern Malawi, which included a ‘pilot’ cash-transfer project in Traditional Authority (TA) Kapichi, Thyolo District. The project was to support 4,000 households with monthly cash transfers to provide for their immediate food needs from November to March. After the first two months, coverage was increased to a total of 6,000 households.
