Malawi and the Millennium Development Goals

The 8 United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set minimum standards for promoting a global partnership for development, how is Malawi measuring up?

Published on 28 May 2010 in ISS Today

Marcel R.D. Chirwa, Senior Research Fellow and Head, Africa Peace Support Trainers` Association Secretariat (APSTA)

The 8 United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set minimum standards for reducing poverty and hunger; attaining universal primary education and gender equality; reducing child and maternal mortality, as well as the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other deadly diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and promoting a global partnership for development. The main policy frameworks through which Malawi is implementing measures for achieving the MDGs are the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which was launched in 2002, and the Malawi Economic Growth Strategy (MEGS), which was launched in 2004. This paper summarises key achievements and future needs in Malawi with regard to achieving the MDGs.

The UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-Moon is scheduled to arrive in Malawi on Saturday 29th May 2010 and will proceed to address the National Assembly, on the first day of his two-day official visit. The UN boss would confer with President Bingu wa Mutharika, the current chair of the African Union, and tour a Millennium Village showcasing the UN poverty-reduction MDGs. This will be the UN focus at its September meeting.

According to sources, Malawi, a small landlocked country with a population over 12 million, is on track to meet five out of the eight goals - no small achievement in a region where most countries appear off-track on most goals, and where many started from a very low base in 1990. According to government sources, the country has aligned the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) closely to the MDGs. The President of Malawi pointed out “The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) is the overarching operational medium-term strategy for Malawi designed to attain the nation’s Vision 2020.”

The MGDS represented a policy shift in Malawi from social consumption to sustainable economic growth and infrastructure development. To ascertain immediate economic benefits for the people of Malawi arising from this strategic shift, the MGDS has in the next five years placed emphasis and expected to accelerate the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the areas of health, education, gender, environment, and governance. These have informed the choice of MGDS interventions, the key priority areas, and the other important MDGs related social focus areas. The government official said “Papers signed in 2000 showed us goals and targets, but what we did in Malawi was to contextualize them in our own poverty reduction strategy.” Perhaps one of the most famous steps that Malawi took to cut poverty and hunger was a targeted subsidy which allowed poor farmers to afford fertilizer and hybrid seeds. This has resulted in enhancing food security. Food is available to all Malawians in sufficient quantities and qualities at affordable prices. Key strategies include: -

With these, the country has moved from being a net food importer to a net exporter. Over the past few years, people in rural areas have reported that food is available, despite the crisis.
Malawi is also doing well with promoting child health, despite being a poor country. Such developments have all gone a long way to keep more people and especially children alive and healthy. Pragmatic steps were taken; introducing an essential health package to deal with common diseases, training and retaining medical staff, The medical staff in Malawi used to go to work overseas, but this trend has significantly been reduced for three reasons: -

Africa is unlikely to meet the MDGs, but that was no reason to either give up hope or forget promises made in 2000. Sering Falu Njie, Director Policy at the UN’s Millennium Campaign said, “It is not rocket science to prevent women from dying in childbirth,” “we need political commitment and we need resources.” These are all available in Malawi. According to the UNDP report, immunisation services are highly successful in Malawi compared to other countries in the region with similar social and economic conditions. Due to the high immunisation coverage, the incidence of immunisation preventable diseases has reduced considerably.

Malawi has pursued to protect the most vulnerable people who may not benefit from the process of economic development with vigour thereby achieving socio-economic development but also attaining the MDGs. The five thematic areas are: -

However, Malawi’s development partners need to do more to integrate their programming into the national development strategies and associated development operational frameworks required for the achievement of the MDGs. The World Bank’s chief economist for Africa has lauded Malawi’s progress “it was important to surface the success stories, to understand what went right in places like Malawi, and to bring these to the table at the UN MDGs Summit in September”. No wonder the UN Boss wants to see the success story in this landlocked country. The UN Secretary General is visiting Malawi not only because Malawi chairs the rotating African Union Chairmanship but to experience the political will and efforts demonstrated by the people and government of Malawi. Malawi is increasingly taking on the effective leadership of all development processes.