North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources are conducting this study to address questions related to natural resource reliance and household well-being in rural Malawi. Specifically we are interested in how rural households use natural resources to cope with shocks, and how reliance on natural resources influences the well-being of people living in poverty. Our study contributes to the literature on poverty and environment dynamics by adding a new round of data collection to a panel study of 900 rural households in Mulanje, Thyolo and Chiradzulu Districts in Southern, Malawi. The study includes households from 16 villages. The first three rounds of data were collected in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Five years elapsed between the first round of data collection and follow-up data collection in 2022, allowing us to examine changes in natural resource use and well-being over a relatively long period of time. During the period the panel covers (2017-2022), households have faced several weather and macroeconomic shocks.
In July-August of 2022, EPPSA team members collected household survey data for over 850 households in this study. Check back soon for reports and findings.
Check back soon for more updates!