Malawi

Malawi, a small land-locked country in southern Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. An estimated 65% of the population live in poverty and lack access to basic necessities such as food, water and shelter.

With few employment opportunities, the majority of people living in Malawi are dependent on agriculture - both to provide food for their families to eat and, when they manage to grow a surplus, an income that pays for medicine, school books and clothes.

Malawi was largely self-sufficient in food until the 1970s when it felt the effects of the slump in world trade and escalating debt repayments.

Now, one of the biggest problems many Malawians face is food production. Degraded soils, erratic weather conditions, limited availability of land and a lack of resources to buy tools or seeds mean that many farmers struggle to grow enough food to sufficiently feed their families all year round.

Malawi suffers from a chronic lack of infrastructure:

• After heavy rains, roads in rural areas are often impassable.
• Whilst primary education is now free, people living in rural areas are often miles away from the nearest school and parents still cannot afford to send their children to school. Uniforms and books are beyond their means and children are often needed at home either to work on the land or to do household chores.
• Many Malawians lack access to quality, affordable healthcare. There are four districts in Malawi that do not have a doctor and there are just 4,000 nurses when the country should have 12,000. As a result, thousands of people die needlessly of treatable diseases every year.
• Malawi has an external debt of over $3 billion. Currently, Malawi is forced to spend more on repaying its debt than on healthcare despite 14.2% of the adult population being infected with HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is a growing concern. Malawi has the eighth highest rate of infection in the world and life expectancy has dropped to just 37 years. As in many countries around the world, HIV/AIDS is having a devastating effect on communities and the development of the country.

However, there are some positive developments occurring in Malawi:

• In the mid 1990s, Malawi experienced multi-party democracy for the first time. The 2004 elections brought a competent politician to power who is already making his mark. The elections demonstrated the public's increasing political awareness and interest in holding their representatives to account.
• Malawi has made progress on reducing child mortality and improving access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
• After years of silence, in 2004 the Government launched an official, comprehensive nationwide programme to tackle HIV/AIDS. The programme includes awareness-raising, training specialised health professionals, expanding HIV testing and improving access to treatments.

Malawi at a glance

• Life expectancy: 37.48 years
  
• Literacy rate: 76.1% (male) 49.8% (female)
  
• Child mortality rate: 18% of children will die before their fifth birthday
  
• Population living in rural areas: 90%