Malawi has been hosting refugees and asylum seekers in Dzaleka camp,Dowa district, since 1994. By 2016 the camp reached a population of 25,202 refugees, most of whomlive in the refugee camp (ProGres database). The refugees are mainly from the Great Lakes Regioncomprising of Democratic Republic of Congo (46%), Burundi (25%) and Rwanda (20%). About 8% of theremaining refugees come from Somalia, Ethiopia and other countries. Dzaleka camp is surrounded by12 villages, and UNHCR Malawi mapped 11 villages with a total population of 37,412 for programmingas host communities.
In March of 2016, the Government of Malawi opened Luwani Camp, Neno district, to primarily hostasylum seekers from Mozambique. With a growing population, the camp had nearly 2,200 persons ofconcern to UNHCR in 2016. The camp is surrounded by 6 villages with a total population of 4,614households.
UNHCR, the World Food Programme (WFP) and partners worked to ensure that food security andrelated needs of the refugees were adequately addressed in the two camps. The Government of Malawihas responsibility for the host communities through national plans, supported by a variety of NGOpartners. In 2016, there was a great need to monitor the nutrition situation of the refugees in the twocamps as well as the host communities serving the two camps in order inform appropriateinterventions. Thus, four Standardised Expanded Nutrition Survey (SENS) were conducted in the twocamps and their host communities from 7 to 8 November 2016. This was the fi rst SENS in Luwani campand the host communities. Previous SENS were conducted in Dzaleka camp in 2008, 2012 and 2014.
The SENS was based on the Standardised Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions(SMART) methodology and UNHCR SENS Guidelines for Refugee Populations (v 2, 2013). A two-stagecluster sampling was conducted in three of the survey areas (Dzaleka camp, two host communities) andan exhaustive method was used in Luwani camp as the total population was below 2,500. See moredetails in the report. The microdata are the anonymized version of the original data, and include a datafi le for the following modules:food security, mosquito net coverage, WASH, children under 5 years old,and women aged 15 to 49 years.
