Mandate

To coordinate and provide policy guidance on social support and poverty reduction programmes to achieve sustainable national development.

Objective

To ensure poverty is reduced and the poor are able to move out of poverty and vulnerability through:

• Strengthened policy guidance and implementation standards and guidelines for poverty reduction and social support programmes;
• Enhanced capacity development in poverty reduction and social protection;
• Establishment of Social Support Fund (SSF) from the Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF);
• Institutionalisation of the Unified Beneficiary Registry (UBR) for all Social Support Programmes.

Functions

The overall key responsibility of the division is to coordinate the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of social support programs, policies, and poverty reduction interventions.

Poverty Reduction Functions

• Facilitate the process of mobilizing resources for poverty reduction programmes;
• Coordinate the implementation and management of the Unified Beneficiary Registry;
• Coordinate poverty-related activities with other stakeholders;
• Facilitate Poverty and Social Impact Assessments on key reforms affecting poor and vulnerable populations;
• Conduct Social Impact Assessments on reforms affecting poor and vulnerable groups;
• Conduct poverty analysis in relation to prevailing development and economic policies;
• Disseminate poverty analysis results to relevant stakeholders;
• Facilitate and advocate for the incorporation of poverty and inequality measures in program design.

Social Protection Functions

• Facilitate the process of mobilizing resources for social protection programmes;Coordinate the design, implementation, review, and analysis of social protection programmes and policies;
• Ensure stakeholders adhere to the National Social Support Policy;
• Participate in the formulation of medium- and long-term national development policies and strategies;
• Facilitate the integration of cross-cutting issues like gender, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, and disaster risk management in social protection;
• Collaborate with the Monitoring and Evaluation Division to monitor and evaluate social protection programmes;
• Develop, review, and disseminate Social Protection Guidelines;Raise awareness of Social Protection efforts in Malawi;
• Identify synergies and linkages within social protection initiatives;
• Coordinate the design, implementation, review, and analysis of social protection programmes and policies.