Malawi

A picture of lake Malawi

A picture of a Malawi road

The meaning of the Malawi flag

Black represents the people of the Continent of AfricaThe Rising Sun represents the dawn of hope and freedom for the whole Continent of AfricaRed represents the blood of the martyrs of African freedomGreen represents the ever green nature of Malawi.

A snapshot of the country…

• Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa• It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast,

and Mozambique on the east, south and west. • The lake Malawi separates the country from Tanzania and

Mozambique• Its capital is Lilongwe, which is also Malawi's largest city, followed by

Blantyre and Mzuzu.

One of the Lilongwe roads

A snapshot of the country…• Amongst the smallest country in Africa with a surface of 118,404 km2

• The official language is English even though most of the people speak a national language called Chichewa• It is a Presidential Republic with Peter Mutharika as the President• The currency is Kwacha and $1 is equal to approximately 600 Kwacha• It is largely an agricultural country• The majors plague are HIV and Malaria.

An aid worker in Malawi

Economic data• In 2014 the World Bank recorded a GDP of $4.258 billion and a

population of 16,695,253 people• The GDP per capita (PPP1) is just $821.6 • The GDP (PPP) in 2014 of Bangladesh (another deprived country) was

$3,124.4, almost four times.

1Purchasing Power Poverty

One of the poorest village in Malawi

The last 5 years’ international help • The graph represents the ODA2 received by

the country from 2010 to 2014• There is the evidence of a drop of the ODA

in 2014• Had the donors thought about the

consequences on the country of such an inconstant help?

2Oda stands for Official development assistance and the figures here are from the OECD website

Figures in million of $

2010 2011 2012 2013 20140

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

The last 5 years’ international helpAlthough the health sector has a big slice of the pie, the in 2012 UNICEF recorded that:• 10.8% of adults were affected

by HIV • 28% of adults were affected by

malaria.

Health and popu-lation29%

Economic infrastruc-ture15%

Program assistance11%

Production sector13%

Other social sector17%

Human-itarian

aid3%

Edu-cation

6% Others6%

Oda Breakdown for the 2010-2014 average

What to do? Investing in education According to the UNICEF the adult literacy rate recorded in 2012 was just 61.3% The pie showed that only 6% of the ODA goes to the education sectorIn 2014 the country has received $3.17 million on education, not enough to make an impact on this sectorI believe that the implementation of appropriate educational policies will raise the literacy level so that people will understand the importance of the health messages they receiveTo achieve this Malawi need $70 million every year until 2025.

What to do? Malawi creditworthinessThe country was hit by the Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal in 2013.It was a financial scandal involving looting, theft and corruption that happened at the seat of Government of MalawiUp to $250m have been lost through allegedly fraudulent payments to businessmen for services that were not rendered

The government has already implemented the ETF, or Electronic Fund Transfer, in order to pay salaries of all civil servants….

What to do? Malawi creditworthiness …but this is not enough. We need to improve the DRM3 and PFL4 to ensure the sustainability of development gains, as highlighted in the second week’s lecture: “Domestic Resource Mobilization”The El Salvador’s case shows how $5 million invested to reform the tax system have paid off many times over. From the increased revenue it was possible to double the expenditure on health and education and reduce extreme poverty by 25%.

3Domestic Resource Mobilization is the process in which countries transparently raise and spend their own funds to provide for their people – is the long-term path to sustainable development finance.4Public Financial Management

Improving the Public Financial ManagementApart from the Electronic Fund Transfer, to improve the PFM it would be useful to:1. Employ ad hoc internal and external auditor to supervise the tax

income and public expenditure 2. Increasing civil society’s knowledge about public finance issues 3. Introduce the IAS/IFRS so that international company can better

understand the financial statements of the country.The public sector play a key role to encourage the investments of the private sector.

The futureAs the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Science Amarya Sen explained in his book “Development as Freedom” growth and sustainable development come together with freedom.

Only through the implementation of the Education sector and its creditworthiness Malawi can start climbing the ledger of sustained development and really live the colours of his flag and its motto “Unity and Freedom”

Sources• http://www.africaw.com• http://www.who.int• http://data.un.org• http://www.worldflags101.com• http://www.unicef.org.