During 1990s, disaster risk reduction emerged as a novel, proactive approach to
managing risks from natural hazards. The World Bank, USAlD, and other international
donor agencies began making efforts to mainstream disaster risk reduction in countries
whose population and economies were heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture. This
approach has more significance in light of the increasing climatic hazard patterns and the
climate scenarios projected for different hazard prone countries in the world. The Famine
Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) has been monitoring the food security issues
in the sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and in Haiti. FEWS NET monitors the rainfall and moisture
availability conditions with the help of NOAA RFE2 data for deriving food security status
in Africa. This paper highlights the efforts in using satellite estimated rainfall inputs to
develop drought vulnerability models in the drought prone areas in Malawi. The satellite
RFE2 based SPI corresponding to the critical tasseling and silking phases (in the months
of January, February, and March) were statistically regressed with drought-induced yield
losses at the district level. The analysis has shown that the drought conditions in
February and early March lead to most damage to maize yields in this region. The
district-wise vulnerabilities to drought were up scaled to obtain a regional maize
vulnerability model for southern Malawi. The results would help in establishing an early
monitoring mechanism for drought impact assessment, give the decision makers
additional time to assess seasonal outcomes, and identify potential food-related hazards
in Malawi.