{"id":49937,"date":"2026-11-04T10:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T08:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=49937"},"modified":"2026-11-04T10:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T08:54:09","slug":"unicef-malawi-warns-of-5-million-funding-gap-ahead-of-el-nino","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/unicef-malawi-warns-of-5-million-funding-gap-ahead-of-el-nino\/","title":{"rendered":"UNICEF Malawi warns of $5 million funding gap ahead of El Ni\u00f1o"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The United Nations Children&#8217;s Fund (UNICEF) in Malawi says a funding gap of more than $5 million is threatening its preparedness plan to protect children from the strongest El Ni\u00f1o on record.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In a statement, the organisation has appealed for urgent and flexible funding to ensure supplies and services are in place before drought, flooding and disease affect children.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The warning comes as weather forecasters expect erratic rainfall, prolonged dry spells and localised flooding between October 2026 and March 2027.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This is happening at a time when 2.6 million people in Malawi already face crisis levels of hunger, amid fears that cholera could return.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>UNICEF Country Representative Doctor Penelope Campbell says the organisation needs $7.61 million for its preparedness and response plan, covering the period from August 2026 to March 2027.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Campbell also indicated that UNICEF has secured only $2.07 million, leaving a 73% funding shortfall.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;ThamoHlengiwe\/ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33291,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-49937","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Campbell also indicated that UNICEF has secured only $2.07 million, leaving a 73% funding shortfall.","published_date":"","news_description":"Campbell also indicated that UNICEF has secured only $2.07 million, leaving a 73% funding shortfall.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49939,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49937\/revisions\/49939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}