(Golden Peacock Hotel, 6th June, 2016)

Ms. Mia Seppo, United Nations Resident Representative,

Mr. Ben Botolo, Secretary to the Vice President and Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

　　Good afternoon. It’s a great pleasure for me to attend this official launch event of the programme.

　　Being prone to climate-related disasters, the population of Malawi has been effected by droughts and floods. About 3 million people in different parts in Malawi are grappling hunger, due to poor harvest caused by the El Nino weather pattern this year. Humanitarian and development efforts have been undertaken, but the problems seem to recur yearly. Against this background, China supported Malawi with US$500,000 under the China-Malawi-UNDP Cooperation Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Project. The assistance was channeled to support the poor and vulnerable communities located within Malawi's 15 identified disaster prone districts. With support from UNDP through the Disaster Risk Management Support Programme, the Department of Disaster Management Affairs is piloting implementation of a community based disaster risk reduction small grants scheme. We are pleased to know that this programme has started very well and the call for proposals attracted more than 200 applications at concept stage.

　　Ladies and Gentlemen,

　　In the same context of geographical diversity, challenges posed by the global economic downturn, pressure from a rising population and increasing public expectation of government action to mitigate risk and provide post-disaster support, China is affected by almost all types of natural disaster and its experience has great relevance to Malawi. Through the cooperation with UNDP, we would like to strengthen cooperation and exchange on community based disaster management among communities affected by disasters in Malawi.

　　Actually, it is not the first time for China to give a helping hand during dire times of Malawi. The Chinese Government provided the Malawian government with an emergency fund of 600 thousand US Dollars to help the Malawian side rehabilitate the flood-stricken areas last year. Apart from the official donation, the Chinese business people were quick to respond to the call of the Chinese Embassy. They have donated disaster relief materials including Nsima, sugar, blankets with the total amount of tens of millions of Kwacha. In addition, China pledged to provide 6 500 tons of rice to Malawi valued at a cost of 60 million yuan (equivalent to about K7 billion) when H.E. Mr. Wang Yi, Chinese Foreign Minister visited Malawi several months ago.

　　Ladies and Gentlemen,

　　Since 2010, China has established a wide variety of trilateral cooperation initiatives with UNDP, focusing on poverty reduction in sectors such as agriculture (Cambodia), renewable energies (Ghana, Zambia, Burundi), and disaster management (Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi). Overall, trilateral cooperation projects with UNDP are shaping a distinctive approach for sharing ideas, resources, and knowledge, drawing from China’s unique development path and valuable experience in lifting its own people out of extreme poverty.

　　China appreciates the commitment of UNDP on its work in developing proposals, overseeing the project implementation, and monitoring and evaluating the project. We also appreciate the proposals from the successful organizations to be awarded among others. In the future, the Chinese Government will continue to focus on disaster relief and preventive strategy with the joint efforts of UNDP and the Malawian Government. I am convinced that under the leadership of H.E. President Authur Peter Mutharika, and with the help of development partners as China and UNDP, Malawian people will definitely be able to overcome the disaster.

　　Thank you!