Millennium Development Goals

water source, Ntcheu, Malawi © Aditya Jha

Malawi's progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been limited by the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the failure of structural adjustment programmes implemented in the 1980's and 1990's. In 2006 45% of the population lived below the poverty line which for Malawi is assessed by reference to the household cost of basic food and essential non-food requirements. While this figure is down from 54% in 1998, the government admits that it is unlikely that the poverty target of 32.7% will be achieved by 2015.

Treatment for malnutrition, Malawi © United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network

UNICEF estimates that 22% of under-5 children are underweight and 53% suffer from stunting. Up to 35% of the total population does not have an adequate calorific intake in their diet and the maternal mortality rate of 1100 per 100,000 live births is one of the highest in the world and a massive increase over the MDG baseline 1992 figure of 620. The 2015 target is a 75% reduction. However, the under-5 mortality rate has fallen in recent years and life expectancy has risen sharply, reversing some of the declines brought by the AIDS pandemic. Another success is in the field of education, with substantial progress towards achieving universal access and removing gender imbalances, albeit at some cost to quality with class sizes approaching an average of 100 children.

To learn from past mistakes and achieve meaningful poverty reduction, the government launched the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) covering the period 2006-2011. Although Malawi enjoys the support of international donors, the poor capacity of government departments to deliver development programmes is one of the key issues to be addressed.

Health and HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is undermining Malawi’s prospects for economic growth and poverty reduction. Valuable resources are being directed from productive uses to the care of the sick, irreplaceable human capital is being lost, and hundreds of thousands of children and adults are being left destitute. However, in spite of the catastrophic scale of the crisis, there are a few encouraging signs. According to UNAIDS, there is strong evidence that HIV prevalence for adults has stabilised over the past 5-7 years at about 14% and Malawi has recently been awarded a US$196 million grant from the Global Fund. The government has established a National AIDS Commission to serve as the focal point in the fight against AIDS, and was able to increase the number of patients receiving anti-retroviral treatment from 6,000 in 2004 to 110,000 by July 2007 which represents about 55% of those in need and is in line with national targets.

While funding is becoming more readily available, Malawi's battle against HIV/AIDS is severely compromised by acute shortages of medical personnel. Malawi has less than two doctors per 100,000 people, the lowest figure for any country covered by the UNDP's Human Development Report. The problem is made worse by migration. At the turn of the millennium, the country was training about 60 nurses each year, but losing at least 100 others who were leaving to work abroad, more than half going to Britain. With the help of the UK Department for International Development, the Malawi government in 2005 launched a six-year UK£100 million programme to improve health services, with UK£55 million earmarked for attracting, retaining and training health workers. There is some evidence that this programme is already making an impact. According to one report the migration of nurses to the UK has slowed from 88 nurses in 2005 to 23 in 2006. At the same time 450 new health care workers had been employed in the first nine months of the programme.
Food Security

Distribution of maize seeds in Malawi

Maize is the staple of the Malawian diet. Good rains and generous government subsidies for agricultural inputs led to bumper harvests in the late 1990s. However, delayed rains, cutbacks in government subsidies and the prior sale of the country's strategic grain reserves resulted in a huge shortfall in the 2000-01 growing season, creating famine conditions by early 2002. The price of maize increased four-fold over a few months, leaving millions hungry and possibly causing several thousand deaths. The country faced a potentially even more serious food shortfall in 2005, when the lowest maize harvest in a decade left nearly 5 million people in need of food assistance. However, prompt government action to import 300,000 tonnes of maize from South Africa, coupled with a large-scale emergency feeding programme undertaken by the World Food Programme, prevented a humanitarian disaster.

Farming in Malawi © United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network

Perhaps creating the foundation for a longer-term solution to recurring food crises, the 2005-06 Budget incorporated reforms exempting small-holder farmers from taxation and reinstating subsidies for agricultural inputs, while the 2006-07 Budget further increased development expenditures for agriculture and irrigation. Good rains in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 growing seasons, coupled with the effective distribution of subsidised seed and fertilizer have led to two years of bumper harvests, and early in 2007 Malawi commenced exporting large volumes of surplus grain to hungry Zimbabwe. However, malnutrition remains a significant problem for vulnerable sections of society.
Politics

Formerly the British colony of Nyasaland, Malawi became independent in 1964, with Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the leader of the Malawi Congress Party, appointed Prime Minister. Banda instituted an authoritarian one-party state, becoming president for life in 1971. Dissent was stifled, voluntary associations suppressed, the media strictly controlled, and political opponents banished, imprisoned and even tortured. Growing protests against the government in the early 1990s and his own ill-health, finally forced Banda to announce a referendum to choose between retaining the one-party system and allowing multi-party politics. The referendum was held in June 1993, and 63.5% of voters chose multi-party democracy. In the general elections the following year, Banda was defeated by Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF), and democratic Malawi emerged.

The UDF government acted immediately to release political prisoners, re-establish freedom of speech, increase government spending on health and education, and adopt a new constitution enshrining multi-party democracy and limiting presidents to two terms in office. Muluzi was duly re-elected in 1999, but after the successes of the first term, the second was marred by high inflation, low growth and widespread allegations of government corruption which led many donors to withhold promised funds, thereby worsening the economic crisis. When Muluzi failed in his attempt to amend the constitution to allow him to serve a third term, he picked economist Bingu Wa Mutharika as his successor, and although a relative outsider, Mutharika won the general elections held in May 2004.

President Mutharika of Malawi © United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network

Upon taking office, Mutharika launched a crackdown on corruption and also took steps to improve fiscal discipline, actions which restored the confidence and support of international donors, but which were perceived by many in the UDF as a direct attack on Muluzi who remains party chairman. Worsening relations with Muluzi led the President to launch the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2005, but he is unable to command a parliamentary majority and much of the business of parliament has remained deadlocked since. The president's opponents have tried to impeach him, he in turn has tried to sack the Vice President. New allegations of corruption have emerged from both sides, and a recent Supreme Court ruling that defectors could be expelled from parliament has compromised Mutharika's position and raised fears in civil society that development would take a backseat to renewed political bickering. These concerns have been reinforced by a four-month delay in passing the budget for 2007/08 and a worsening of Malawi's position in the Corruption Perceptions Index.
Human Rights

After the repression of the Banda period, Malawi's human rights record is much improved under multi-party democracy. In addition to institutions such as the Human Rights Commission, Office of the Ombudsman and the Anti-Corruption Bureau which were established under the 1994 constitution, a number of additional institutions have emerged to further democratisation, the rule of law and human rights. These include the Civil Liberties Committee, the Malawi Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs, the Malawi Economic Justice Network, as well as numerous church organisations, local and international NGOs, professional bodies and trade unions. Despite these advances, there are reasons for concern. The government's arrest of Vice President Cassim Chilumpha in 2006 on charges of treason is seen by many as reminiscent of the repression of the Banda years - an impression strengthened by Mutharika's professed admiration for the former dictator.
Information and Media

Radio plays a key role in informing the Malawi people. While the state-owned Malawi Broadcasting Corporation has tended to ignore certain issues, a number of privately owned, civil society-run radio channels allow debate on controversial topics. There are two daily newspapers, The Daily Times and The Nation, and three regular weeklies. While the majority of newspapers are owned by politicians, they do offer a multiplicity of views.
Economy

tea plantation, Mulanje, Malawi © Aditya Jha

Malawi's economy is largely based on agriculture which contributes about 40% of GDP but accounts for an estimated 85% of total employment and 90% of export earnings. Most farmers are subsistence smallholders who grow maize as their main crop. Malawi has some of the most fertile land in Southern Africa, but high population density, small size of farms, inadequate access to credit and high dependence on rainfall all act to constrain production. Tobacco, tea, coffee, and sugar are the leading export crops grown primarily on large commercial estates, with tobacco alone representing about 60% of the country's total exports. The government recognises that future prospects for tobacco exports are constrained by growing anti-smoking sentiment worldwide and world prices which have fallen sharply. However, efforts to date for diversifying into other cash crops have met with limited success. At the same time, industrial growth remains constrained by inadequate raw materials and poor transport infrastructure, as well as limited engineering skills, marketing capabilities and access to capital. A significant new development is the recent approval by the government for a $185 million investment by an Australian firm for uranium mining, which could lead to $220 million in annual export earnings, representing 10% of current GNP. However, civil society organizations have alleged that an appropriate environmental impact assessment for the project has not yet been carried out.

With donor assistance contributing 30%-40% of the budget, Malawi's external debt rose to about 150% of GDP by 2000. The government was also forced to borrow heavily in the domestic market in the 1990s leading to a high debt service burden, high interest rates and the crowding out of private investment in the economy. Debt relief packages were agreed by the World Bank, IMF and bilateral donors in December 2000 and again at the Edinburgh G8 summit in July 2005, but these were delayed because Malawi was deemed to not have reached the completion point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. However, President Mutharika's government is seen as having largely overcome the alleged fiscal profligacy and corruption that were the stumbling blocks in the past. The HIPC completion point was finally achieved in September 2006, opening a new chapter for the Malawi economy. Approximately 90% of external debt has been cancelled, leading to an anticipated reduction in annual debt-service payments from $75 million to $5 million between 2006 and 2025.
Environment

Drinking water in Malawi © United Nations Development Programme

High population density, population growth and poverty have all placed immense demands on Malawi's natural resources. Soil erosion and degradation, deforestation, depletion of water resources, depletion of fish stocks, declining bio-diversity and the degradation of human habitat are all serious concerns. Priority is attached to access to safe water and sanitation which is very poor even for this region - 25% of schools have no water supply at all. The government has set a target, independent of the MDGs, to provide access to safe water within 500 metres for 80% of the population by 2011 and improved sanitation for 70%.

The government launched the National Environmental Policy in 1996 to increase awareness of environmental issues and establish community-based natural resource management. However, environmental degradation continues, with an estimated 3% of forest cover disappearing each year as 93% of the population remains dependent on wood fuel. At the same time, the over-exploitation of fisheries in Lake Malawi has led to a decline in fish production of nearly 40%, which is particularly significant since fish contributes 60-70% of the total animal protein consumption.

Floods in Malawi © United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network

The impact of climate change on the fragile interplay between environment and poverty is causing great concern. A 2006 ActionAid report observed that "smallholder farmers in Malawi have been exposed to increased droughts and floods, tremendously affecting food security". Most of the poorest people depend on rain-fed agriculture whilst richer urban communities are themselves dependent on hydro-electric power which dominates Malawi's energy supplies. The country's National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) identifies 5 priority projects valued at a mere $22.4 million, a tiny fraction of adaptation budgets currently emerging in rich countries.



Aditya Jha worked as a lecturer in Computer Science at Chancellor College, University of Malawi from 2001-2002. He is currently studying Development Management at the London School of Economics.

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