Malawi’s Lake Chilwa could dry up completely by next year if the low rainfall in the area continued. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

By Claire Ngozo
LAKE CHILWA, Malawi, Aug 17 2012 (IPS)

Fisherfolk and farmers living near Malawi’s second-largest water body, Lake Chilwa, are relocating en masse and scrambling for space around its shores as the lake has dried to dangerously low levels.

Professor Sosten Chiotha, an expert with the Lake Chilwa Basin Climate Change Adaptation Programme (LCBCCAP), said that it could dry up completely by next year if the low rainfall in the area continued.

The lake dried up completely in 1995 following a drought, which saw a resultant rainfall of 775 mm and 748 mm over two consecutive years.

According to the Malawi Meteorological Services, for the past two years Lake Chilwa’s catchment area has recorded less than 1,000 millimetres of rain. In 2011 and 2012 the total annual rainfall was 1,048 mm and 655 mm respectively, said Chiotha.

And this is not sufficient to sustain the lake.

“In March it appeared as if the situation was not too bad, but gradually the water levels started falling rapidly, particularly by the Mposa and Namanja Beaches. In July, we were able to drive 10 kilometres into the lake from Namanja Beach to an area that had water in March, and we still did not reach open waters,” Chiotha told IPS.

People living on these main beaches have already started relocating to the Swangoma, Chisi and Kachulu beaches in search of new fishing grounds and good farmland, Chiotha told IPS. However, he was unable to estimate how many people have relocated to date.

Chiotha, who is also the regional director of the Leadership of Environment and Development in Southern and Eastern Africa, a global environmental and developmental think tank, cautioned that things could get worse if the lake continued to dry up.

“The movement is also causing congestion and potential conflict,” said Chiotha.

Up to 1.5 million inhabitants from southern Malawi’s Machinga, Phalombe and Zomba districts benefit directly from the 60 by 40 km lake through agriculture and natural resource goods and services, which generate an estimated 21 million dollars per year.

Of that, 18.7 million dollars is generated from fishing, with the remainder coming from farming, bird hunting, and the use of grasslands, vegetation and clay for producing building materials, stated a LCBCCAP brief released in August.

About 17,000 tonnes of fish, or 20 percent of all the fish caught in this southern African nation, comes from the lake.

Godwin Mussa, 41, who was born on Namanja Beach and lived there his entire life, was forced to move to Chisi Beach in July in search of fishing grounds.

“Fishing has been getting harder and harder as the water moved further away from my beach. I just had to move to Chisi so that I can take care of my wife and six children,” Mussa told IPS.

He said that his catch had dwindled to an average of 100 fish per week compared to 600 a week last year.

“Fishing is my only livelihood and that’s why I just had to relocate. I just hope we will get good rain this year so that I can go back home. The fishermen here are getting wary of those of us who are moving into their territory. We are scrambling for fishing grounds,” said Mussa.

Farmers around the lake are also struggling.

Debra Chalichi from Phalombe District has been practising irrigation farming within the lake basin since 2007. But this year she had to wait for the rains in order to irrigate her crop.

“Since last year, the lake has been moving away from where my garden is. I cannot direct the water channels for irrigating into my garden from the lake anymore because it keeps withdrawing,” Chalichi told IPS.

She said that she used to grow rice twice a year, but only managed to grow it once this year as she had to wait for the rainy season.

“Rice farming has been my livelihood and I am getting poorer now. I used to make up to 2,000 dollars in sales. But I have only been able to produce rice worth 800 dollars this year,” said Chalichi.

Rice is one of Malawi’s staple crops, and is second only to maize. Fifty percent of the estimated 100,000 tonnes of rice harvested in Malawi comes from the Lake Chilwa wetlands, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture. There are no estimates available on this year’s rice production.

Chiotha told IPS that the low rainfall was negatively affecting the livelihoods and nutrition of those living around the lake.

The situation could force some to leave the area.

John Kabango, 51, from Zomba District, has been fishing on Lake Chilwa since 1981.

He said that in 2005, the last time the water level in the lake started receding, he relocated to the country’s commercial capital, Blantyre. He worked there as a night guard at a factory until conditions around the lake improved and he returned home.

“I never liked the job in Blantyre. I grew up as a fisherman and that is the type of livelihood I am used to. I never managed to make as much money working as a guard anyway and I don’t want to go back to that life,” Kabango told IPS.

He said that he earned up to 800 dollars a week from fishing, but was only paid 100 dollars a week to work as a guard. “It was very difficult to take care of my family when I worked as a guard,” said Kabango, who has a wife and six children.

But his catch has been dwindling drastically since 2011 when the lake first began drying up.

“I used to catch up to 500 fish a night, but I am lucky if I catch 150 now. I am not making as much money and I don’t know if I will manage to take care of my family if the lake dries up,” Kabango told IPS.

So he is doing all he can to ensure that he does not have to leave the area. Kabango has joined a LCBCCAP community initiative that is implementing adaptation measures to help locals cope with the low rainfall and the drying lake.

“We are digging pools around the lake to allow fish to seek shelter and breed in there as the lake dries up,” said Kabango.

He said that farmers were adopting modern methods of irrigation and started using treadle pumps to source water from the lake. While it will not prevent the lake from drying up, it will conserve some of the much-needed water.

“My wife farms and she is now involved in a rainwater harvesting project so that the water collected is used for irrigation when it is the dry season and the lake has receded further,” said Kabango.

All Chinese-run businesses outside Malawi’s four major cities have to close down after a new law barring foreigners from trading in outlying and rural areas. This store, in Lilongwe, will have to apply for a new licence to trade. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

By Claire Ngozo
LILONGWE, Aug 4 2012 (IPS)

The move in Malawi to close down Chinese businesses outside of the four major cities has been condemned as xenophobic by rights organisations. A new law enforced Jul. 31 barred foreigners from carrying out trade in Malawi’s outlying and rural areas.

The Investment and Export Promotion Bill required traders to move to the southern African nation’s major cities Lilongwe, Blantyre, Mzuzu and Zomba. The law is an attempt to protect local small-scale businesses from competition from foreign traders.

Two prominent civil rights organisations, the Centre for Development of People and the Centre for Human Rights Rehabilitation (CHRR), have warned the Malawian government against encouraging the victimisation of foreign traders.

“We are worried about the increasing xenophobia sentiments and attacks on foreign nationals who are doing legal business across the country,” the executive director of CHRR, Undule Mwakasungula, told IPS. He argued that the way Chinese traders were being treated was in violation of their human rights.

“Malawi should not be perpetrating xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals under the pretext of protecting the interests of local businesses.”

The new legislation comes immediately after Malawian traders in some rural areas grouped together in May and convinced local government authorities to force out Chinese traders. The protests first began in Karonga, a bustling town in the north of Malawi, which borders Tanzania, and later spread to all 28 districts in the country.

While there are no official figures yet as to how many foreign traders have complied with the new law, IPS confirmed that in seven of the country’s 28 districts, Chinese traders closed down their businesses.

They now have to apply for new licences to trade in the specified four cities. But many may not qualify, as the new legislation requires investors to deposit a minimum of 250,000 dollars in Malawi’s central bank as start-up capital.

Malawi’s Minister of Trade John Bande said that the new legislation was intended to regulate foreign investment.

“The new law clearly outlines what kind of businesses foreign investors will be allowed to get involved in. We will not accept foreigners to come all the way from places like China and open small businesses and shops in the rural areas of this country and compete with local traders,” Bande told IPS.

But Mwakasungula said that the main challenge faced by local businesses was that they lacked the financial and technical muscle to compete favourably with the Chinese. He said that it was unreasonable for the government to resort to such a “drastic decision”.

“It is unrealistic for the government to think that stopping foreign traders from doing business will automatically boost businesses run by locals,” he said.

There are no official figures on the number of Chinese or foreign traders there are in Malawi. However, Chinese-run shops, restaurants and lodges have sprouted across the country since 2007, when Malawi established diplomatic relations with China. The country had just abandoned its 41-year-old ties with Taiwan in favour of the economic giant.

China has become Malawi’s major economic partner since then. According to statistics from Malawi’s Ministry of Trade, the country’s trade volumes jumped to a record high of 100 million dollars in 2011 – a 400 percent increase from 2010.

The two countries have a 2008 memorandum of understanding about issues of industry, trade and investment. It commits China to increasing Malawi’s productive capacity in tobacco, cotton, mining, forestry, and fertiliser production, among other things.

China has also given Malawi 260 million dollars in concessionary loans, grants and development support. This year, the country’s first five-star hotel opened. It includes 14 opulent presidential suites and a state-of-the-art conference centre, and was built by the Chinese government.

In April 2012, China’s direct investment in Africa surpassed 15.4 billion dollars, according to statistics from the Chinese embassy in Malawi.

But ordinary Malawians are not happy with the influence that the Chinese have on the country’s economy.

Ellen Mwagomba, who has been at the forefront of the protests against Chinese traders in Karonga, has had a grocery store there since 2003. She told IPS that sales in her shop plummeted in 2008 when the Chinese started trading in the area.

“This place is a hive of activity since it is a border area. Business used to be good until the Chinese invaded us, bringing cheap goods and taking away our customers,” Mwagomba said.

She said that her grocery store lost business to Chinese traders as they charged as little as a quarter of the price that local traders asked for their goods.

“The goods I stock are from the local industry and from South Africa and are of good quality, they are not very cheap. But people would rather go for the cheap Chinese goods, which are also of cheap quality,” said Mwagomba.

She said that consumers preferred to purchase Chinese goods, to maximise their spending power. Up to 74 percent of the population in Malawi lives on less than 1.25 dollars a day.

But Mwagomba and other like-minded locals convinced the local assembly to remove Chinese traders from their district.

“They started leaving in June and business is now picking up for us, even before the new law became effective. I am now making up to 500 dollars a day in sales. I could barely make 100 dollars a day when the Chinese traders were here in full force,” Mwagomba told IPS.

But many Chinese feel they have been treated unfairly. Fu-han Chao used to run a restaurant in Mzimba district, in northern Malawi. But he was forced to close it down on Jun. 30, before the new law came into effect, following an order by local government authorities after Malawian traders complained about the cheap goods sold at low prices by their Chinese counterparts.

“The local traders don’t work as hard as we do. We open our shops much earlier and close them much later. We even open on Sundays when most businesses are closed, and we are hated for that. We have been treated very unfairly and I feel really angry about this. I felt threatened most times, and scared,” Chao told IPS.

He added that business was meant to be about competition. He said that until he was forced to close his restaurant, he had a number of customers and was making up to 800 dollars a day.

“We are contributing a lot to the economy of this country. I am yet to decide on what to do next. Maybe I will go back to China, but it is also tough to run a business back there because the population is high and the competition is also high,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has not supported its traders on this issue.

“It is up to the Malawi government to thoroughly screen the Chinese nationals willing to invest in the country. These are small vendors and why should the Malawi government allow them to do business? They are capitalising on government’s failure to screen foreign traders,” China’s Ambassador to Malawi Pan Hejun said at a press briefing on Jul. 23.

“Rules should be respected and we don’t encourage these traders to go into rural areas. We encourage real investors,” Hejun said.

Vice President Khumbo Kachale (r) announced on Jun. 8 that the cabinet decided against hosting the African Union Summit. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

By Claire Ngozo
LILONGWE, Jun 13 2012 (IPS)

Small and large businesses in Malawi are counting their losses following the cabinet’s decision not to host the African Union summit in July.

The decision is based on the government’s refusal to allow Sudanese President Omar Hassan al Bashir permission to enter the country.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has accused him of committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s Darfur region. As an ICC member state, Malawi would have been forced to arrest Bashir upon entry.

Vice President Khumbo Kachale announced on Jun. 8 that the cabinet decided against hosting the Jul. 15-16 summit, as it was not in Malawi’s best interests to have Bashir attend. The AU Commission had insisted that the southern African nation allow the Sudanese leader to enter the country.

“Cabinet took this position with the primary consideration of what is in the best interests of Malawians. While we have obligations to abide by the decisions of the African Union, we are also under obligation to other international agreements, including the Rome Statute (which established the ICC),” said Kachale.

However, the decision has had financial ramifications across Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, as it had been all but ready to host the AU.

“Cabinet noted that the state of preparedness of our country is beyond any doubt ready. This was confirmed by the evaluation mission from the African Union which was in the country last week, and left satisfied with the progress made in all aspects of our hosting obligations,” said Kachale.

A number of technical meetings in the days ahead of the summit were lined up to take place in Lilongwe from Jul. 9. The event had promised to turn the otherwise quiet city into a hive of business activity. Up to 35 heads of states and 4,000 delegates were expected to attend and boost the demand for hospitality services and local goods.

Sam Namathanga, president of the Travel Agents Association of Malawi (TAAM), a national grouping of air travel and tour operators, told IPS that the losses for the hospitality industry would be significant. This includes money invested in businesses in preparation for the summit, and estimated future earnings.

“We don’t know the magnitude of the losses yet, but they will be huge. We are talking about loss of business in air ticket sales; ground travel, which includes car hire services; and tour packages, which also includes accommodation,” said Namathanga.

He said that members of TAAM who had hoped to boost their revenue were disappointed.

“The tourism industry has lost a big opportunity. We would have greatly promoted the industry through the summit,” said Namathanga.

A quick informal survey by IPS showed that the average cost of hiring a vehicle in Lilongwe costs 85 dollars per day, while accommodation ranges from 60 to 400 dollars per night.

According to information released by the AU secretariat, all delegates were expected to pay their own costs with the exception of heads of states, heads of delegations and ministers of foreign affairs.

Many small local establishments had seen it as an opportunity to grow their businesses.

Christina Kajawo, who owns a bar and restaurant in the Lilongwe city centre, told IPS that six months ago she began preparing for the summit by renovating her premises. She said she obtained a bank loan of 3,000 dollars because she wanted to make her restaurant and bar look more presentable.

“I hoped that I would make a good profit from the patronage of the bar and restaurant during the AU summit and would be able to pay back the loan,” she said.

Now Kajawo fears that she may have to close down her business.

“I hope I will find a way to pay back the bank, otherwise I may eventually end up being declared bankrupt and lose my livelihood. I feel stranded right now because there isn’t much business from the locals since the Kwacha was devalued and prices of goods have risen,” said Kajawo.

In her quest to salvage the Malawian economy, President Joyce Banda devalued the Kwacha from K168 to K250 to the dollar. The price of commodities and imported goods has increased by an average of 50 percent since the May devaluation.

By devaluing the Kwacha, Banda was responding to requests that the International Monetary Fund and local economists had made to the country’s late President Bingu wa Mutharika. However, Mutharika had repeatedly refused to take the step that economists believed would have saved the country’s failing economy.

The decision to cancel the AU summit is seen as a direct move to appease Malawi’s Western donors, especially the United States and the United Kingdom. In the past, both nations have said that they would not provide aid to any country that hosts Bashir and fails to arrest him.

Malawi’s donor relations are only just being repaired.

In the past, international donors accused Mutharika’s government of failing to respect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and freedom of the press.

When Mutharika was in power, Bashir was allowed entry to Malawi in October 2011 to attend the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa summit. This prompted the U.S. government to put its foot down against providing aid to the poor southern African country.

International donors refused to release up to 400 million dollars and the U.S. suspended a 350-million-dollar grant. At the time, almost 40 percent of Malawi’s national budget was donor dependent.

Many donors have since pledged to help Banda restore the country’s economy following her rise to the presidency after Mutharika’s sudden death on Apr. 5.

It therefore came as no surprise when Kachale made his public address cancelling the AU summit.

Local human rights groups and political commentators have welcomed government’s decision to refuse Bashir entry.

“Malawi should put the interests of its nationals first and President Banda has done exactly that, and this is a great way forward,” Undule Mwakasungula, the head of the prominent Malawi Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, told IPS.

“We need donors more than anything,” he said.

The summit will now be hosted in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa at the organisation’s headquarters, the AU said on Monday Jun. 11.

A large number of people in Malawi rely on charcoal as a source of energy. / Travis Lupick/IPS

By Claire Ngozo
LILONGWE, Jun 6 2012 (IPS)

On-again, off-again… it’s the story of both Malawi’s power supply and the interconnection project that could end blackouts with power imported from neighbouring Mozambique.

Malawi’s total demand for power currently stands at 300 megawatts, but the country’s generation capacity is only 266 MW. The shortfall is projected to grow rapidly in a country where the World Bank says only eight percent of the population of 14 million has access to electricity. The Ministry of Energy estimates that the country will need 603 MW by 2015 and 829 MW by 2020.

Malawi’s hydro-electric station on the Shire, the country’s largest river, is hampered by siltation and outdated equipment, making the power supply in this Southern Africa country erratic.

Daily power cuts can last up to six hours and small and large companies alike struggle in the face of an uncertain power supply.

“I can’t wait to see the situation improve. I am putting my hope in this new deal with Mozambique,” said Judith Chilika, who runs a hair salon and a restaurant in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.

She told IPS her businesses have suffered greatly from frequent blackouts.

“I have had to close down both the restaurant and the salon many times due to the power blackouts. I can’t afford to run my stand-by generators for long, because fuel is expensive and there have also been shortages of diesel and petrol for some time now,” said Chilika.

Yet plenty of power is available from a dam just across the border in Mozambique. The giant Cahora-Bassa dam was constructed in 1974 and supplies electricity not just to Mozambique, but to neighbouring South Africa.

A 2008 proposal – backed by a 200 million dollar package from the World Bank – to buy power from Cahora-Bassa has faced numerous delays. Last year the plan seemed stillborn, when Malawi’s government canned it over cost concerns.

But Malawi’s new government, led by Joyce Banda – who assumed power three days after President Bingu wa Mutharika’s death from illness in April– has moved quickly to revive the project. On May 12, Banda’s government signed a memorandum of understanding with Mozambique to again move ahead with the power link.

The interconnection plan is directly in line with the Southern African Development Community’s emphasis on cooperation along shared watercourses – exemplifying cooperation for sustainable development, and advancing the SADC agenda of regional integration and poverty alleviation.

Energy-pooling is among the strategies employed in implementing the 2003 Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses, which supports joint development, transmission, and storage of energy to achieve greater reliability, economy and equitable sharing of costs and benefits among riparian states.

“The overall objective of the protocol is to foster close and coordinated cooperation in the management, protection and utilisation of shared watercourses and to advance the SADC agenda,” Lopi told IPS.

Malawians are cautiously optimistic about news the deal is back on. “We hope we will have a more reliable power supply which will boost our industrial work and help improve Malawi’s economy and alleviate poverty in the country,” said John Kapito, executive director of the Consumer Association of Malawi, the country’s most influential consumer rights body.

Kapito said the power outages must end if the country is ever to get back on its feet economically.

“This agreement is our biggest hope,” Kapito told IPS.

But hopeful consumers and business owners will have to wait for details of the agreement to be finalised, according to Cassim Chilumpha, the country’s energy minister.

Chilumpha told Parliament this week that a technical team is yet to go to Mozambique to finalise the process. “We will try as much as possible to speed up the process so that we start benefiting from the new agreement as soon as possible,” he said.

(END)

As she sits down to watch the 8pm news on TV, Mercy Kamphoni from Chamtulo Village in Malawi’s Mangochi lake district looks elated. She still cannot believe that she is the new proud owner of a television set, refrigerator and radio.

Mercy Kamphoni is able to send all her children to school and provide for her family’s needs – thanks to paprika. / Claire Ngozo/IPS

These electronic goods are seen as luxury items in this southern African nation where 74 percent of the population lives on less than 1.25 dollars a day. And they are just a few of the many “exclusive” things that Kamphoni owns.

For a woman living in rural Malawi, Kamphoni is considered to be well-off. She also owns a bicycle, a treadle pump – a suction pump that is positioned on top of a well – for irrigating her crop, and a silo for storing the harvest.

Kamphoni, 44, has managed to amass all these things over the last three years since she started commercial farming and abandoned subsistence farming, which she began when she married at 16.

Now divorced for four years, and with five children between the ages of six and 14, Kamphoni is able to send all her children to school and provide for her family’s needs – thanks to paprika.

“I only grew maize because that was the norm. Almost everyone in this country grows maize and that’s what my ex-husband and I did until he left my children and me. Afterwards I had to search for ways to survive and take care of the children,” Kamphoni told IPS. “I was introduced to a women farmers’ club and that’s where I learnt that one could make money from growing paprika.”

In fact she earns roughly three times more than she did when she farmed maize. A kilogramme of maize sells for 35 cents while a kg of paprika earns Kamphoni one dollar.

“Paprika is the best option for Malawi. It provides me with a profit four times the amount I invest in growing it,” said Kamphoni.

The Farmers’ Union of Malawi (FUM) is encouraging smallholder farmers to diversify to commercial farming, which it says is more sustainable.

“We agree that growing maize is good for people’s daily livelihoods as they’re assured of an availability of it in their households. But cash crops such as paprika are even more viable and sustainable as they allow farmers to make money with which they can buy a diverse range of products,” FUM president Felix Jumbe told IPS.

In addition to promoting paprika, FUM is also urging farmers to start growing mushrooms and soy beans, which are also in demand. However, not many farmers are aware that paprika has the potential to be a significant foreign exchange earner here.

Tobacco is Malawi’s main revenue earner, accounting for up to 60 percent – or 950 million dollars – of foreign exchange. The country’s tobacco accounts for five percent of the world’s total exports, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

However, Jumbe said that tobacco sales have not been doing well, as a result of the successful efforts of international anti-smoking lobbies. In 2011 the tobacco exported by Malawi amounted to 210 million kgs, but sales for 2012 are only projected to be 151.5 million kgs.

“We have seen dwindling sales of tobacco year in, year out and we need to be looking at something else for sustainability. That something else is paprika,” he said.

According to a 2011 report by the Ministry of Agriculture on the potential earnings paprika could generate, there is a market for 10,000 metric tonnes. Sales could amount to 9.4 million dollars. Currently the country’s farmers only export 500 metric tonnes of the capsicum fruit, which brings in 470,000 dollars in foreign exchange.

Gladwell Kwapata, a 51-year-old farmer from the central district of Mchinji, is one of the few farmers who have chosen to abandon tobacco for paprika.

Prior to this Kwapata was a tobacco farmer for 21 years.

“But over the past five years, tobacco sales have been dwindling, with the average price dropping from 2.5 dollars to less than a dollar a kg. This was threatening my family’s livelihood, hence I switched to paprika,” he told IPS.

Malawi’s new President Joyce Banda seems to realise the important role that paprika could play in the country’s economy.

She told parliament on May 18 during her state of the nation address that she would like to see a sustainable paprika industry in the country.

“Agriculture plays a vital role in the socio-economic development of the country. Government is determined to eliminate hunger and to ensure that no child in Malawi goes to bed on an empty stomach, let alone dies of starvation,” Banda said. Nearly one in 10 children in this country die before their fifth birthday.

She said that her administration’s overall goal for the agricultural sector was to generate growth and wealth creation through commercialising farming, the promotion of regional markets, and crop diversification. Banda said this would require the introduction of new policies and institutional changes.

Meanwhile, Kwapata is reaping the benefits from switching crops.

“I have been growing paprika for the past two years and I am already enjoying the fruits of my labour. I was able to make a profit of over 1,500 dollars just in the last year,” he told IPS.

As Malawi’s poor struggle to afford food and other staple items since the 48 percent devaluation of the local currency against the dollar, economic commentators are optimistic that the move will provide an opportunity to boost the country’s export market.

A group of farmers queuing to buy fertiliser outside a shop in Bvumbwe, southern Malawi after the local currency was devalued. / Credit:Claire Ngozo A group of farmers queuing to buy fertiliser outside a shop in Bvumbwe, southern Malawi after the local currency was devalued. Credit: Claire Ngozo

On May 7, Malawi’s President Joyce Banda made a decision to devalue the Kwacha from K168 to K250 to the dollar.

The lowering of the currency against the dollar has hit locals hard. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world: 74 percent of the population of this southern African nation lives on less than 1.25 dollars a day, and nearly one in 10 children die before their fifth birthday.

The devaluation of the Kwacha created panic among consumers who rushed to stock up on basic food items such as maize flour, cooking oil and rice as the price of products increased by an average of 50 percent.

Consumers suffered a further blow on May 11 as the prices of fuel and electricity also rose by 30 and 63 percent respectively.

“The devaluation has made us poorer than before. Our salaries remain the same, so how can we afford to pay twice as much on basic necessities such as maize flour?” asked Mada Mayuni, a civil servant who works as a copy typist in the capital, Lilongwe.

Consumers suffered a further blow on May 11 as the prices of fuel and electricity also rose by 30 and 63 percent respectively.

“The devaluation has made us poorer than before. Our salaries remain the same, so how can we afford to pay twice as much on basic necessities such as maize flour?” asked Mada Mayuni, a civil servant who works as a copy typist in the capital, Lilongwe.

Mayuni is a widow and looks after seven children aged between four and 16.

“I don’t know how we will survive because my salary is only enough for transportation to and from work. Maybe I should move to the village and try subsistence farming,” she told IPS.

Matthews Chikankheni, the president of the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, a partnership of enterprises and associations representing all sectors of Malawi’s economy, told IPS that although the average person was suffering, the devaluation of the Kwacha was a necessary adjustment that should be welcomed as it would boost the country’s export trade.

“This is a chance for export traders to improve their earnings. The devaluation means that exports will be cheaper and imports more expensive, and as a country we need to take advantage of this situation and export more,” said Chikankheni.

By devaluing the Kwacha, Banda was responding to requests that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and local economists had made to the country’s late President Bingu wa Mutharika. However Mutharika had repeatedly refused to take the step that economists believed would have saved the country’s failing economy.

Malawi’s donor relations suffered greatly following accusations that Mutharika’s government failed to respect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and the right to freedom of the press.

Donors refused to release up to 400 million dollars and the United States suspended a 350-million- dollar grant. At the time, almost 40 percent of Malawi’s national budget was donor-dependent. Many donors have since pledged to help Banda restore the country’s economy.

The devaluation of the Kwacha and the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market are expected to contribute to the government’s attempts to reach an early agreement with the IMF in order to unlock donor funds.

Chikankheni said that the devaluation would boost demand for domestically-produced goods and discourage the current dependency on imported consumer goods, which have now automatically risen in price.

He added that the increase in exports would mean that foreign exchange would be easily available in the country and would result in an eventual improvement in the economy, which would trickle down to the people.

Currently Malawi’s annual imports, which are estimated to be two billion dollars worth of goods such as electronic items, groceries and furniture, exceed its exports. The country exports 1.2 billion dollars of agricultural products like tobacco, tea, sugar and groundnuts, according to the National Statistical Office.

Chikankheni is optimistic that the devaluation will aid the growth of the tobacco industry.

Tobacco is the country’s main revenue earner, accounting for up to 60 percent – or 950 million dollars – of foreign exchange. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Malawi’s tobacco accounts for five percent of the world’s total exports.

Dalitso Kubalasa, the executive director of the Malawi Economic Justice Network, a coalition of more than 100 civil society organisations that promotes economic governance, told IPS that the devaluation would make Malawi’s export products more competitive on the international market.

“On the export front, the devaluation will lead to increased demand for Malawi’s exports in the short run. In the long run, this is expected to stimulate production and thus lead to increased production of exportable goods … thereby generating foreign currency,” said Kubalasa.

He added that because the prices of imports had automatically risen and become unaffordable for some, the situation would motivate locals to substitute these goods with commodities that can be produced locally. It would provide an incentive to local industry, he said.

But he admitted that the devaluation would affect the country’s middle class and poor.

“We all have been through desperate times…perhaps we might have to even brace ourselves for more,” said Kubalasa. “But on the brighter side, we still need to understand that something needed to be done fast to put a stop to the downward trend of the economy before it got to a point of no return.”

He said he was hopeful that the devaluation was not the only solution to Malawi’s economic woes.

“For the devaluation to be effective, it needs to be done alongside strategic and well-focused supporting intervention measures,” said Kubalasa. (END)

She has been in office for less than a week but Malawi’s, and the region’s, first female president, Joyce Banda, has given many people in this poor southern African country hope that its social and economic woes will soon end.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world: 74 percent of the population here lives on less than 1.25 dollars a day. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

The former vice president, who took over the presidency on Apr. 7 following the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika two days earlier, has already axed key people who held influential positions in the previous government. Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhitho and Secretary to the Treasury Joseph Mwanamvekha, under whose reign the country suffered severe fuel and foreign exchange shortages, are some of those who have been fired.

Minister of Information Patricia Kaliati was also fired. Kaliati was the leader of attempts to bar Banda from taking over the presidency after Mutharika’s death, in favour of his brother, Peter. She is a fierce critic of Banda who, she frequently has said, is incapable of leading the country.

But Louda Kamwendo, a small-scale trader in Lilongwe, is hopeful about the changes. Kamwendo told IPS that just last week she was on the verge of closing down her business of importing furniture and building materials from China.

Since September 2010, Malawi has had erratic availability of both fuel and forex, and the impact on Kamwendo’s business had reached crisis point. But the news of Banda’s appointment as president has convinced her to wait in the hope that the economic situation improves.

“I have been waiting for two months now for forex from the bank and this made me miss my scheduled trip to China. I was contemplating closing down my business but I have decided to wait and see what President Banda will do to rescue the situation,” Kamwendo told IPS. She said this was the longest she has ever had to wait to access foreign exchange.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world: 74 percent of the population here lives on less than 1.25 dollars a day, and nearly one in 10 children die before their fifth birthday. The rising cost of basic commodities has added to these woes and the country is also experiencing shortages of necessities such as sugar and bread.

Under Mutharika, the country’s donor relations suffered greatly following accusations that Malawi failed to respect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and the right to freedom of the press. Donors had refused to release up to 400 million dollars and the United States suspended a 350 million dollar grant.

Unprecedented nationwide protests broke out Jul. 20-21, 2011 against Mutharika, who they blamed for the failing economy. Banda had been a vocal supporter of the protests.

On Apr. 10 Banda announced that donors had expressed a willingness to assist Malawi in its economic recovery efforts.

The new president said that she had already been in talks with the United Kingdom and the U.S. over the resumption of aid.

“I am personally committed to ensuring that the government of Malawi addresses issues that negatively affected our relations with donors,” Banda said. “My government is committed to restoring the rule of law, respect for human rights and freedoms and demonstrating good economic governance, starting with making sure Malawi has a programme with the International Monetary Fund.”

Banda’s political changes are given Malawi a new lease on life, according to Dalitso Kubalasa, the executive director of the Malawi Economic Justice Network, a coalition of more than 100 civil society organisations that promotes economic governance.

Kubalasa told IPS that the country has every reason to do better economically and socially if the political will shown by Banda is sustained.

“There has been a general acceptance of the new leadership by almost all stakeholders including the private sector, citizens and international donors. This is really a good sign,” said Kubalasa.

He said that expectations are high and Banda should accelerate her efforts.

“Actions speak louder. She should now put words into action. We are all turning over a new leaf and starting a new chapter,” said Kubalasa.

Prominent political analyst Mustapha Hussein told IPS that Malawians are hopeful they will no longer have to face human rights abuses as they did under Mutharika.

“The police, in the previous government, were being used as an organ of Mutharika’s political party,” the analyst said. “The police were used as an instrument of instilling fear in the citizens, and Banda’s move to dismiss the inspector general of police has given hope to many that this country has indeed changed for the better.”

Hussein told IPS that the initial steps taken by Banda suggest that her People’s Party has social democracy as its ideological base.

“The new government has demonstrated that it wants to move very fast in sorting out problems facing the people of Malawi. I think we have started on the right footing,” said Hussein.

On Apr. 12, Banda swore into office Moses Kunkuyu as the new minister of information.

“Government’s integrity is measured by what its minister of information says. Every government is judged by what comes out of its mouth,” Banda said at the ceremony.

Kaliati had lied on national radio about Mutharika’s death, claiming he was alive long after he had passed away.

Although Kunkuyu, a member of parliament, belongs to Mutharika’s Democratic People’s Party, he and five other MPs in the party openly opposed the late former president’s policies.

Banda also said at a press briefing on Apr. 11 that she would be firing and reshuffling a number of government officials.

“This is normal in a new government. I have to appoint the right people to befitting positions,” said Banda.

It would be too simplistic to think that Malawi’s problems have ended with the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. But it is an opportunity for newly appointed President Joyce Banda, who is also leader of the opposition People’s Party, to step up and offer a new and more responsive style of leadership.

Malawi’s Army Commander General Henry Odillo hands over the presidential sword to President Joyce Banda at her swearing in ceremony. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

Mutharika, who assumed leadership in 2004 and was serving his second term of office, suffered a heart attack on Apr. 5 at his palace in Lilongwe. According to reports he was rushed to the country’s main referral medical facility, Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe. He was later airlifted to South Africa, the government said. Throughout Apr. 6 there had been unconfirmed rumours that he had died. But state radio only confirmed the following day that the 78-year-old president had died and declared 10 days of mourning.

Malawians danced in the streets and in marketplaces as a sense of jubilation swept across the country when the Office of the President and Cabinet finally confirmed the death. Hours later, Banda was sworn into office. She is southern Africa’s first female head of state and will fill the post until the country’s general elections in 2014.

She has dedicated much of her life to the economic empowerment of women and women’s rights. Banda, the daughter of a policeman, told IPS in an interview in December 2011 that women were significantly under represented in areas of economic decision making and the key to addressing the situation was to put more of the country’s money in the hands of its mothers.

Nelia Kagwa, the chairperson of the Women Traders Association in Lilongwe, told IPS that she hoped Banda would mend the country’s failing economy.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world as 74 percent of the population here lives on less than 1.25 dollars a day, and nearly one in 10 children die before their fifth birthday. The rising cost of basic commodities has added to these woes and the country is also experiencing shortages of necessities such as sugar and bread. The items have become even more difficult to afford since the government introduced a value-added tax of up to 16.5 percent on products such as bread, meat, milk and dairy in June 2011.

“Maize prices have almost doubled in the past year and many families can no longer afford a basic meal,” Kagwa said.

“She won a prestigious award on ending hunger in her community. She could end hunger for many Malawians if she is given chance.”

Banda was awarded the joint Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger in 1997, together with Mozambique’s former President Joaquim Chissano.

James Kaliwo, a street vendor in Lilongwe, told IPS that “a new dawn has risen over Malawi” following Mutharika’s death.

“Things have been getting worse economically and socially. God has answered our prayers. Mutharika caused problems for all of us by failing to improve the economy,” said Kaliwo.

Prominent local political analyst Boniface Dulani told IPS that while it would be too simplistic to assume that Malawi’s problems have ended with Mutharika’s death, there is no doubt that it offers the country an opportunity for a fresh start.

Dulani told IPS that Banda should make the most of her appointment until the country’s general elections in 2014.

“Whilst previously Banda would have had to count on the sympathy vote of Malawians, she could earn the confidence of voters by demonstrating that she has the ability to take Malawi in a new and truly progressive direction. She could seize the opportunity and win over the trust of Malawians who have grown increasingly suspect of those in the corridors of power,” said Dulani.

He said that it is not certain whether ruling party legislators would try to frustrate her agenda as they hold a commanding parliamentary majority.

However, many are hopeful that the country’s economic woes will ease. Dulani said that with the appointment of a new administration, donor support to Malawi would resume.

“Most of Malawi’s recent challenges, including those rooted in a myopic foreign exchange policy and the loss of donor support because of poor governance, can be easily and quickly reversed,” said Dulani.

Malawi’s donor relations suffered greatly following accusations that the southern African country has failed to respect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and the right to freedom of the press. Donors had refused to release up to 400 million dollars and the United States suspended a 350 million dollar grant.

The country’s failing economy, and the fuel and foreign exchange shortages, saw unprecedented nationwide protests against Mutharika from Jul. 20 to 21, 2011. Twenty-one people were killed by the police and 275 were arrested. Banda was a vocal supporter of the protests.

Dorothy Ngoma, a prominent civil society leader who was among those leading the protests against Mutharika, said she has faith that Banda will rescue the country from its economic crisis.

“She is very capable. She is so reliable. I am so sure we will see change in this country very soon,” Ngoma told IPS.

Civil society leaders and some government officials also expressed their joy and support for Banda, who is also leader of the opposition People’s Party, as she addressed supporters and the media outside her home in Lilongwe hours before her inauguration.

“Malawi should adhere to the Constitution of the Republic in moving forward,” she said. At her swearing in ceremony she added: “this is no time for revenge; we need to move forward as country.”

Almost all the country’s cabinet ministers attended the signing in ceremony. One noticable exception was Peter Mutharika, the late president’s brother.

The two-day delay in the announcement of the presdient’s passing led to concerns that there would be a power struggle between Banda and the ruling party. Malawi’s Deputy Minister of Transport Catherine Gotani-Hara told IPS that Mutharika’s allies wanted his younger brother, Peter, to assume office.

It is an issue that Banda and Mutharika clashed on in the past. Mutharika expelled Banda, a former ally, from his Democratic People’s Party for insubordination when she refused to endorse Peter Mutharika as the ruling party’s candidate for the 2014 presidential elections.

Mutharika then excluded Banda from working as a part of his government. She launched the opposition People’s Party in September 2011 but remained vice president, as it is an elected and constitutional office.

They survived floods and witnessed the horrific scenes of their houses, livestock, household items and gardens being swept away at the end of January. Now, the people of the Nsanje and Chikhwawa districts on Malawi’s southern border with Mozambique are facing another menace; a cholera outbreak, which has already killed one child and infected up to 103 people.

Sewage from the latrines has contaminated water sources in Nsjane, including boreholes and dug-out wells thereby escalating the cholera incidents. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

Government officials have attributed the outbreak to the declining sanitation conditions compounded by the floods; up to 550 pit latrines were washed away in Nsanje alone; a district hardest hit by the floods.

Sewage from the latrines has contaminated water sources in the district including boreholes and dug- out wells thereby escalating the cholera incidents, according to the assistant Disaster Management Officer for Nsanje, Humphrey Magalasi.

“Almost every household in the rural parts of the district only uses a pit latrine. Everything that was in the latrines in the flooded areas has gone into the water sources,” Magalasi told IPS.

Boreholes, dug-out wells, rivers and streams are the main water-sources in the rural parts of Malawi and people use them for all household chores. There are no taps in many villages.

Lucy Mateyu, 46, a single mother of seven children from Mulolo village in Nsanje, told IPS that the floods hit her village as she was preparing lunch for her family on Jan. 23, 2012.

“It had been raining hard and continuously for three days and I was alerted by my eldest child that he had just seen our toilet tumbling down. Before I even went to inspect, the main part of our house crashed. I think we were saved just because all of us were sitting in the kitchen as I was cooking while the other six kids were huddled around the fire to keep warm,” said Mateyu.

She said the family scampered uphill and they watched a raging waterway forming across their homestead washing away everything in its wake. The family ended up at a camp for flood victims set up by the government.

Up to 6,000 people experienced a similar ordeal like Mateyu’s family. In some instances, the Malawi Army had to intervene and airlifted many villagers who were trapped in their flooded homesteads. They were whisked ofg them to the camps.

But the camps are now congested and the survivors are living in unhygienic conditions. Now school classrooms and government offices are being used as rooms to accommodate the flood victims.

“There are 21 of us staying in one small room and we have to share one toilet, which is rarely cleaned,” said James Masitala, 51, who is at the same camp as Mateyu and her children.

“Some people are resorting to defecating in bushes near the camp and this is compounding the problem of lack of cleanliness,” Masitala told IPS. Records at the Ministry of Health indicate that up to 103 people from in Nsanje and the neighbouring Chikhwawa district have been infected with cholera since the beginning of the rainy season in November.

“There are so many other diarrhoeal diseases that are being reported from the camps,” said Magalasi.

He said government is now distributing chlorine to the flood victims, to villages hit by the floods and to neighbouring villages around the camps.

“We want the people to drink treated water since most of the water sources are contaminated. We are also carrying out sensitisation campaigns on the importance of hygiene and working on improving the sanitation situation in the camps by constructing more temporary toilets,” said Magalasi.

There were a few incidents of flooding in Nsanje and Chikhwawa during the rainy season last year and the entire country recorded 76 cholera cases only.

District Commissioner for Nsanje Rodney Simwaka told IPS that government has been building the capacity of villagers in flood preparedness for the past three years since the area is flood prone.

Nsanje and Chikhwawa lie in the lowest part of Malawi and the Ruo River, which comes from Malawi’s highest point, Mulanje Mountain, usually brings with it raging water that flood the two districts. The Ruo flows into Malawi’s largest river, the Shire, a tributary to the Zambezi River in Mozambique.

“We have water level monitoring gadgets and have involved village committees in working with these but the floods took us by surprise this year,” Simwaka told IPS.

He said government also advises people living in flood-prone areas to move to higher ground just before the rains commence but that many resist the move.

“The people are usually reluctant to live their homes and fields and they are only forced to move when the floods come. This makes the situation difficult to handle,” said Simwaka.

Meanwhile there is a massive tree planting campaign going on in the area as one of the flood mitigation measures. There has been a lot of deforestation in the two districts since one of the major livelihoods for the people is the production of charcoal, which they sell to neighbouring Blantyre, Malawi’s main commercial capital.

The country’s rainy season usually ends in April and the risk for more floods is still there for Chikhwawa and Nsanje, according to forecasts from the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services, which has warned of tropical cyclones that will bring more heavy rains this month.

The black market for foreign exchange and fuel is booming in the midst of an acute scarcity in Malawi. The shortage is so severe that even the Consumer Association of Malawi, an influential consumer rights body, has come out in support of the black market.

The queue outside a petrol station. Because of the fuel shortage people have to wait in long queues and endure sleepless nights at petrol stations. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

Since September 2010, there has been an erratic availability of both fuel and forex here. But the shortages grew worse in 2011 when people started spending nights at service stations, queuing to buy fuel. Those seeking to purchase foreign exchange have had to wait for up to two months after applying to banks for the money.

The shortages lead to violent nationwide protests last July. At the time, President Bingu wa Mutharika blamed the shortage partly on International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies, while IMF and local economic experts repeatedly called on the government to devalue the Malawi kwacha to generate forex. The government has refused to do so.

John Kapito, the consumer association’s executive director, told IPS that that in light of the situation consumers still have a right to fuel and forex and that an alternative has to be allowed if the normal market cannot keep up with people’s needs.

“Actually what has been created is a parallel market. It’s not a black market because it is not bad; it is doing consumers a lot of good and we should accept it as such,” said Kapito.

He, however, bemoaned the exorbitant prices being charged on the parallel market.

Illegal foreign exchange dealer Goodson Kamowa is becoming a wealthy man selling dollars at double the exchange rate on the flourishing black market.

“I am really making a killing,” said Kamowa. He charges up to 325 Malawian kwacha for a dollar, when the official rate is 167 kwacha to the dollar. It is indeed a rip-off, but Malawians have no option but to pay the exorbitant rates if they want the foreign currency.

Malawi continues to reel under severe economic problems after the country’s major donors cut aid to the country last year. Up to 40 percent of Malawi’s national budget has been dependent on donors and donors funded 80 percent of the country’s development budget.

While the situation has progressed from bad to worse, there are many who have seen a business opportunity in the crisis. Kamowa plies his trade in Old Town, one of the country’s busiest trading areas in the capital, Lilongwe. He told IPS that his business is thriving by the day.

Since he started selling foreign exchange on the black market he has bought a new car and a plot of land to build a house on. “It’s really becoming lucrative,” said Kamowa.

Consumers, Kamowa said, do not have a choice and have to buy from the black market because banks cannot easily provide them with foreign currency.

“Demand is very high and people are ending up paying a lot of money to access foreign exchange,” Kamowa said.

While the banks are having a difficult time obtaining the currency, Kamuzu is a little more innovative in his methods of buying dollars.

He explained that he hangs about at Malawi’s main airport, Kamuzu International, and at international bus depots where he buys dollars from people coming into the country. He offers a higher rate than what the banks and foreign exchange bureaus, so people sell him their dollars.

“I also buy forex from people who work in international organisations. They always have foreign currency,” Kamowa said. As the country’s administrative capital, Lilongwe has a high population of expatriates.

The black market for diesel and petrol is also booming. Many small-scale vendors have abandoned their usual trade in clothing, electronics and food items and have begun selling fuel.

The fuel traders brave long queues and sleepless nights long after many other consumers have given up. Then they sell it for 4.5 dollars a litre, almost twice the regular price of 2.3 dollars a litre.

“Diesel and petrol are selling like hot cakes on the black market because people still want to be able to go about their business without being disrupted by the fuel shortages at the pumps,” said Chimwemwe Kasupe, a vendor in the populous Biwi Township, in Lilongwe. He has stopped selling electronics and now trades in fuel.

“I have spent so many nights on fuel queues. I fill up my two cars with diesel and petrol and siphon it into jerry cans, which I sell off to customers,” Kasupe told IPS.

But the government needs to resolve the problems soon, Kapito said. “Our government is failing us. It must resolve these economic problems so that people do not spend so much on such basic needs such as fuel,” said Kapito.

While the government is working on a solution, they are also attempting to shut down the black market.

Malawi’s Minister of Information Patricia Kaliati told IPS that the government will not tolerate the mushrooming of parallel markets and will ensure that they are closed down.

“We are working very hard to see that fuel and forex are available. We are really getting frustrated by the traders on the black market as they are stocking up on fuel and forex while the majority is failing to access the same,” said Kaliati.

Last week, 21 people were arrested for selling fuel illegally and 10,000 litres of fuel was confiscated from vendors, according to national police spokesperson Dave Chingwalu.

On Jan. 15, the police arrested two Asian nationals who operate businesses in Lilongwe at the airport as they attempted to externalise 185,000 dollars to Dubai.

“The two businessmen were charged with attempting to transfer foreign currency illegally,” said Chingwalu.

Meanwhile, Mutharika continues to blame the business community for the shortage, especially foreign investors, who he accused of externalising foreign currency.

The most recent accusation was at a news conference on Jan. 31. Mutharika said he would eventually catch up with the culprits. “I know where the forex is going. You will not beat the system forever, no matter how smart you are,” he threatened.

Meanwhile, the country continues to face the effects of the economic problems hitting the country.

Prices for basic necessities such as the staple maize flour, bread and sugar have doubled due to the fuel and forex shortages.

A report by the Employers Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAM), a body of employers, indicated that up to 12,000 people would lose their jobs by June if the current economic crisis were not checked.

ECAM said that production in many organisations and companies has declined by at least 50 percent due to the scarcity of fuel and foreign currency.

A campaign to stop people buying merchandise from street vendors is gaining momentum in Malawi’s main cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu after the small-scale traders went on a rampage undressing women and girls wearing trousers, leggings, shorts and mini-skirts.

Vice President Joyce Banda (r) and Minister of Gender Reen Kachere (l) at a meeting to condemn the abuse of women by the vendors. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

Street vendors occupy the pavements and street corners in the busiest parts of the country’s major cities and towns. Here they sell everything from clothing to electronic items to food and groceries. But when the vendors in Lilongwe began rioting last week in protest against their forced removal by the local city council, things took a turn for the worse as vendors began stripping women and physically assaulting them.

Dubbed “lero nkugule, mawa undivule,” which is vernacular Chichewa and translates into “today I buy from you, tomorrow you undress me”, the campaign was initiated on Jan. 18, the day after the assaults. Women activists want to use the campaign to teach the vendors a lesson on respecting women, according to Seodi White, executive director of the influential women rights organisation, Women in Law in Southern Africa-Malawi.

White told IPS that the call to boycott the vendors is also being extended to men who also want to protest against their conduct.

“We want to send a clear message that we don’t want to go back to the past when we did not have freedom of dressing,” said White.

Malawi was under a dictatorship until 1994 when it adopted democratic rule. During that time, however, women were banned from wearing shorts, mini-skirts and trousers. But the vendors now claim that they want to reinstitute this dress code and “bring back sanity among women.”

Recently, the street vendors have become a powerful force politically; in August last year the country’s President Bingu wa Mutharika provided them with an undisclosed sum of money to use as a revolving loan fund.

Mutharika also wined and dined up to 2,000 vendors at his flamboyant palace soon after the Jul. 20 to 21 nationwide protests against bad governance and the declining economic situation in the country. Up to 21 people were killed by police and 275 were arrested during the protests and looting, in which the vendors actively participated.

During the dinner, Mutharika rallied support from the merchants and asked them not to participate in any demonstrations again. He promised that he would never remove them from the streets.

But on Jan. 5, the Lilongwe City Assembly, the capital city council, attempted to remove the vendors from the streets into existing designated areas. The traders rioted and overwhelmed the police who tried to quell the fracas, which saw businesses closing down for a day. The Malawi Army had to be called in to disperse the vendors who went back to trading on the streets the next day.

Tensions continued to run high and on Jan. 17 the vendors turned against women and girls claiming that Mutharika had sent them to “clean the streets of women dressed inappropriately.”

Joyce Ngwira, one of the many women who were stripped naked as she walked in Lilongwe Old Town, told IPS that she is still traumatised following the ordeal.

“I was wearing my decent pair of trousers only to see a group of vendors pouncing on me. They pulled me in different directions and tore off my clothes. It took a group of other passers-by to rescue me,” she said.

The conduct of the vendors quickly spread to the country’s other main cities of Blantyre and Mzuzu. Since then many women have changed their way of dressing and have begun wearing conservative long skirts and dresses when going to work and to the shops.

Since last Wednesday, armed police have been patrolling the streets to protect the women and girls and 15 people have since been arrested, according to police spokesperson Dave Chingwalu.

“The men found causing trouble for women have been charged with violence and malicious damage” said Chingwalu. “We will not just watch women being harassed; there’s freedom of dressing in this country and no one has a right to dictate how women dress.”

Meanwhile, women activists and human rights defenders held a protest meeting in Blantyre on Jan. 20 where a cross section of people, including the country’s female Vice President Joyce Banda, the Minister of Gender Reen Kachere and other politicians, gathered to condemn the abuse of women by the vendors.

When the attacks started Banda had told the local media that economic frustrations should be blamed for the ill conduct of the vendors. “There is so much suffering that people have decided to vent their frustrations on each other,” she said.

Malawi continues to reel under severe economic problems after the country’s major donors cut aid to the country last year. Up to 40 percent of Malawi’s national budget has been dependent on donors and 80 percent of the country’s development budget was being provided under the Common Approach to Budget Support, which includes Britain, Germany, the African Development Bank, Norway, the European Union and the World Bank. The British and German governments are already refusing to release up to 400 million dollars.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a United States government foreign aid agency leading the fight against global poverty, also announced last year that it was putting on hold 350.7 million dollars meant to improve Malawi’s energy sector.

Meanwhile, the vendors have already noted a decline in sales following the boycott, according to Ganizo Makupa, general secretary for vendors in Blantyre.

“There are just a few unruly people who are undressing women and denting the name of vendors. We are very sorry about this behaviour and we are looking at ways of instilling discipline among our group,” said Makupa.

Malawi is experiencing a drug shortage as the country’s international donors remain reluctant to release aid meant for the health sector.

Malawi is experiencing a drug shortage. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

About 60 million dollars in funding has been withheld amid allegations of pilfering and corruption in the procurement of drugs at the government’s Central Medical Stores. The Central Medical Stores procures and distributes drugs to government health facilities.

The lack of aid has had a significant impact on the country’s health sector as international donors fund up to 90 percent of Malawi’s medical budget.

While some donors are supplying key medical facilities with life-saving drugs, this is not sufficient to meet the widespread demand as the supplies are mainly for the country’s three main referral hospitals located in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.

Throughout the country, patients seeking medical treatment at government-run medical facilities are unable to access medication such as anti-retrovirals (ARVs), anti-malarial drugs and even painkillers.

Health facilities are also experiencing a shortage of medical equipment such as gloves, and malaria and HIV/AIDS testing kits.

Agnes Makwasa, a 45-year-old HIV-positive patient from the country’s commercial capital, Blantyre, is struggling to obtain free ARVs. For five years, she received a free one-month supply from her local government clinic, until recently.

“They told me that they could not give me my whole dosage because the clinic had limited stock. I had to return for more drugs after a week, but by then the clinic had run out,” Makwasa told IPS. She said she ended up paying 50 dollars for the medication at a private pharmacy.

“I am a widow with five young children, and I am not employed. I make a living selling doughnuts and only make about 90 dollars a month. This means that my family is living on a very tight budget. This is also a threat to my health now that I cannot afford a balanced diet, which HIV patients are advised to be on while on treatment,” said Makwasa. Up to 60 percent of Malawi’s 13.1 million people live below the poverty line.

The situation has also caused concern in rural Malawi as some health facilities have run out of basic painkillers like aspirin.

Malita Nalikata from Mulanje, southern Malawi, told IPS that medical staff at her local hospital told her that they and the other medical facilities in her district did not have anti-malarial drugs to treat her malaria. They advised her to buy painkillers for treatment, as they did not even have that in stock.

“I don’t have money, so I ended up going to see a traditional healer who gave me some herbs to eat with porridge,” said Nalikata. She gave the medicine man a chicken as payment.

“That is all I could afford and traditional healers accept such kind of payment,” Nalikata said. ? It is common practice in rural areas for poor people to patronise traditional healers when they cannot access medical care from government health centres.

About 80 percent of Malawians use public health facilities, according to the Malawi Health Equity Network, a group of civil society organisations in the health sector.

The Malawi Health Donor Group, a network of international donors including Britain, the United States, Germany and United Nations agencies, have refused to release assistance until the government cleans up the health sector.

Chairperson of the Health Donor Group Athanase Nzokirishaka told IPS that the international donors want the government to work on the shortcomings facing the health sector, especially the way medical drugs and supplies are managed by the Central Medical Stores.

The donors, according to Nzokirishaka, are also concerned with poor record management for the country’s drugs and delays in auditing the process of drug procurement.

“Government has a long way to go towards restoring the trust of the international community, and of Malawians, in the national drug system,” said Nzokirishaka.

“Malawi will need to demonstrate that it can fully resolve issues to do with inefficiency, leakage and corruption at all levels of the system. Indeed weaknesses in the supply chain have already been a major factor in reduced or delayed funding for some donors in the past,” said Nzokirishaka.

For the past year, the donors have left the government to procure drugs for the country’s health facilities, a situation which has led to the critical drug shortage.

For many years, up to 40 percent of Malawi’s national budget has been dependent on donors and 80 percent of the country’s development budget was provided under the Common Approach to Budget Support.

This included contributions from Britain, Germany, the African Development Bank, Norway, the European Union and the World Bank. However, the British and German governments have refused to release up to 400 million dollars this year accusing the Malawian government of bad governance.

The government of Malawi has acknowledged the shortcomings in the health system.

Responding to the concerns by the Health Donor Group, Minister of Health Jean Kalirani admitted to IPS that the lingering weaknesses in the Central Medical Stores and the supply chain of drugs have affected the supply of medicines in health centres and hospitals across the country.

“Government is addressing the drug crisis by strengthening the capacity of the Central Medical Stores as a long term solution. In the short term, we are procuring drugs through an emergency tender while resolving issues that have been raised by the donors,” said Kalirani.

She explained that the government is working on establishing a viable financial model, which will be used to track the flow of drugs efficiently.

“The future for least developed countries lies in trade, productive capacity and governance more than in aid,” said Cheick Sidi Diarra, United Nations High representative for the Least Developed Countries, responding to criticism of the plan of action put forward as the U.N. conference on the world’s poorest nations drew to a close in Istanbul.

Future hanging in balance: the health, education and livelihoods of millions depend on successful implementation of development programme. Credit: Jessie Boylan

Representatives of governments said they were optimistic that the Istanbul Programme of Action for the decade 2011 to 2020 will prove instrumental in seeing at least half of the 48 countries now classed as least developed leave that category in the next ten years.

The new plan, formally adopted by delegates on May 13, stresses the need for the poor countries to modernise and diversify their economies. It also calls for job creation to eventually eradicate poverty.

The civil society forum swiftly rejected the plan of action as inadequate. The NGO group said donors and development partners had avoided committing themselves to delivering on long-standing pledges to provide substantial financial support for LDCs.

But Diarra said the role of development partners is clearly articulated in the Istanbul Plan of Action. Developed countries committed to achieving a target of delivering 0.15 to 0.20 percent of national income as official development assistance (ODA) to poor countries.

“This will entail a significant increase in ODA to LDCs, since aid levels remain a slightly less than 0.1 percent of donor’s gross national income,” states a U.N. press release.

Familiar pledges

Still, Upendra Yadav, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Nepal expressed his satisfaction with the programme of action. Nepal chairs the Global LDCs Coordination Bureau and Yadav was speaking for all LDCs at the conference.

“The programme of action provides a clear strategy for development in LDCs. During the negotiations, everyone tried to find a common middle ground and the strategy reflects that,” said Yadav.

He said the plan also defines visions and pathways for development. “It is comprehensive and realistic,” said the minister.

Turkey, which hosted the conference, also came out smiling. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the conference was a success as it is expected that through the programme of action, foreign investment in LDCs will reach a cumulative $10 billion by 2020.

“Turkey has assumed the responsibility of putting LDC-related topics on the agenda of international community and contributing to efforts for finding solutions to the problems of the LDCs until 2020. In a way, Turkey has been the voice of the LDCs,” he said.

High expectations

The U.N. has announced that several countries will graduate from the LDC category within the next two years. Angola, Bangladesh, Equatorial Guinea, Nepal and Timor Leste are all being considered for graduation, according to Diarra.

“We are still working on the assessment process because some of the countries are still weak in human capital development,” said the U.N. High Representative.

During the opening of the civil society forum on May 8, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he believed LDCs are poised to ride the next wave of development. He told participants that the world needs to work together to improve the situation for all, and that the Istanbul conference should reflect the voices of civil society.

The next decade’s programme of action has now been set out; regardless of its merits and flaws, the future of 800 million citizens of the world’s poorest countries will hinge on its implementation in good faith by the governments of developed and developing countries alike, as well as development agencies, international finance institutions and corporations.

Civil society’s role in engaging with the programme and holding role players accountable will also be crucial.

The dominant approaches to development have failed the world’s poorest citizens and now the paradigm must change. This is the strong message coming from over 2,000 non-governmental organisations gathered at the civil society forum for the Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) in Istanbul, Turkey.

Panel at the civil society forum. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

Arjun Karki, spokesperson for the forum, told the gathering that the failure to see more LDC countries graduate from this most vulnerable classification reflects a serious failure of the model of development aid advanced by leading players in the international community.

NGOs charge that an approach privileging economic liberalisation and free trade has been unevenly applied in practice, with developed countries maintaining key measures to protect their own interests while pressing poorer countries to abandon them.

LDCs, they continue, have been obliged to follow the demands of international financial institutions rather than implement their own alternative policies and programmes for sustainable and broad-based development.

To move up from an LDC classification to the next rung – lower income country status – an economy must exceed LDC standards in two of the three categories for at least six years. Since the category of LDCs was created in 1971, only three countries have succeeded: Botswana, Cape Verde and Maldives.

He said it is a bitter reality that poor and marginalised people in LDCs have gained little over the past decade. Instead they are having to bear the brunt of new crises of food, water, climate change and global finance, even though these are global problems created by others.

“We cannot keep witnessing the number of LDCs grow, as has been the case since 1971 – from 24 to 48 today. We must do better here in Istanbul,” he said.

A world without LDCs

Civil society groups are recommending solutions that put people before profits. The recommendations are contained in a report titled “A World without LDCs”, which was launched at the civil society forum on May 8.

The report reflects peoples’ perspectives and alternatives to poverty eradication and sustainable development that should shape the LDC agenda.

The new paradigm being put forward by civil society includes a demand for the immediate and unconditional cancellation of all debts owed by LDCs and a review of the mandate and operations of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Another demand is for the formulation of agricultural reform policies and their implementation in favour of smallholder farmers and providing for the regulation of food speculation, land grabs, genetically- modified seeds and large-scale biofuel production.

The chairperson of the Turkish section of medical charity Doctors Worldwide, Dr Ihsan Karaman, agreed with Karki. He said that despite many LDCs being endowed with rich natural resources, they have not been able to achieve self-sufficiency and prosperity for more than a century.

“This situation stands before us as a shame of the international community. In the globalising world, it is self-evident that no matter how far they are from each other, countries and societies interact with each other, and when the resources are not shared and used in an equal and healthy way, humanity as a whole will suffer from it,” said Karaman.

He said it is not possible to talk about a global conscience or global justice, when the development partners – who he described as the “Northern elite” – can sleep comfortably even though they know that the flip side of the wealth of the developed world is that 12 percent of the planet’s people go to bed with an empty stomach every night. Karaman condemned the spending of vast sums on military technology and wars, without honouring much smaller commitments to development aid that could quickly eliminate underdevelopment.

“Let us make decisions together to change this brutal order of the world, which makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer. As parliaments, governments, the private sector, intelligentsia, umbrella organizations and the civil society, let us all renew our oath and join forces for a world without LDCs,” said Karaman.

Civil society is hoping that the Istanbul conference will raise the voice of the global conscience, and give precedence to the shared values of humanity over political and economic goals.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who attended the civil society forum, told participants that there is indeed a need for the world to work together to make the world a better place for all and that the Istanbul conference should reflect the voices of the civil society for progress. He said he believed LDCs are poised to ride the next wave of development.

Malawi’s gross domestic product has grown by more than six percent in each year since 2005. The country’s most recent Welfare Monitoring Survey finds unemployment stands at just one percent. At a glance, Malawi makes being a landlocked, least developed country almost desirable.

Tobacco leaves drying - Malawi, like other LDCs, is exposed to volatile prices of commodity exports. Credit: Pappahase/Wikicommons

There are plenty of reasons for optimism over the economic performance of Africa’s poorest countries since 2000. Many developing economies did well on the back of a booming global economy that drove up prices for the primary commodities they export.

But the 2007 food crisis and the 2008 financial crisis, which ushered in a global recession, have exposed the vulnerability of least-developed countries (LDCs) to external shocks – and in some cases a lack of essential domestic economic data to guide policy.

Even before the global slowdown, civil society and other observers warned that GDP growth was not being effectively translated into improvements in the lives of the most vulnerable. The numerous Millennium Development Goal targets that are unlikely to be met by 2015 substantiate these fears.

The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which opens in Istanbul on May 9, will be an occasion to review progress under the decade-old Brussels Programme of Action and set out fresh guiding principles for improving lives and livelihoods in 48 of the world’s poorest countries.

Only a small fraction – perhaps 500,000 – of Malawi’s work force of more than six million actually enjoys formal employment.

Accurate, detailed information about employment is hard to come by in African LDCs – in part a measure of inadequate capacity, in part a reflection of the highly informal nature of work.

Employment figures from Malawi’s 2008 census are not yet available; the one percent unemployment figure comes from Malawi’s National Statistics Office, which conducts annual surveys meant to identify vulnerable households. The survey definition of “employed” covers anyone who has done even one hour of work within the past week, and doesn’t discriminate between formal or informal employment, or even paid and unpaid work.

The reality is that half of Malawian adults earn less than 36 dollars a month in cash, though they may grow most of their own food; 30 percent earn less than 50 cents a day. The minimum wage (92 cents/day in urban areas, 75 cents/day in rural areas) is not enough to keep an average family of five above the poverty line.

Sustainable jobs and improved livelihoods are among the priorities that the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions has stressed at a meeting of civil society preceding the U.N. conference.

“How will the country make progress in development if its people remain unemployed?” said MCTU Secretary-General Robert Mkwezalamba.

“How can we get decent jobs for our people? These are the prerequisite questions we are bringing to the LDC conference. We want to get answers from our peers in the LDCs, developed nations and donors on this and find solutions.”

An International Labour Organization analysis of employment carried out for the government of Malawi in 2010 found 80 percent of the labour force is employed in agriculture, overwhelmingly involved in subsistence farming. Strong maize harvests by smallholder farmers since the introduction of the Agriculture Input Subsidy Programme in 2004 have improved food security and produced signs of prosperity such as livestock and other assets in the countryside, but debate about the efficiency and sustainability of this subsidy is growing ever louder.

Vulnerable actor on a global stage

Malawi derives 60 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from production of tobacco, produced both on large commercial estates as well as by smallholders who grow it as a cash crop alongside the staple maize. Over the past three years, the auction prices for tobacco in Malawi have plummeted from three dollars a kilogramme to just 55 cents a kilo this year. The falling price, according to Mkwezalamba, is linked to to the fast-gaining momentum of the World Health Organization’s anti-tobacco efforts.

Malawi – already experiencing a foreign exchange shortage – is keen to find alternative exports. The shortage of hard currency has led to the rationing of forex for the private sector, been blamed for shortages of fuel in the country, and come up as an issue in the delayed implementation of an electricity interconnection scheme that would bring in badly-needed power from Mozambique.

“As a country, we are planning to diversify to other economic activities such as mining,” Mkwezalamba told IPS. “But do we have the right capacity and technological know-how?”

He said donors and developed nations have to help countries like Malawi with increased support for skills development and technology if decent work is to be created.

The Istanbul conference will be considering a plan of action for LDCs with priorities including access to technology, the promotion of agriculture to strengthen food security, good governance, and adapting to climate change and securing a fair deal at the U.N. climate conference.

In the ILO report, co-authors Dick Durevall and Richard Mussa agree that agriculture is a vital starting point for Malawi, because of the large numbers whose livelihoods are presently dependent on farms, but a shift from subsistence to market-oriented farming is needed. Plans for job-rich growth will also have to recognise the low levels of education of the 400,000 people who enter the new labour market each year.

Their broad recommendations – for thoughtful investment in post-primary school education, diversification of production, and the design and implementation of subsidies that will support entrepreneurs in rural areas with electricity, roads, and water – could apply to any of the 33 least developed countries in Africa.

Carrying any of them out will likely require internal and external support. More than one participant at the civil society forum in Istanbul, held under the title “Towards a World Without LDCs”, said it was important for the world’s least developed countries to stand up for one another and assist each other in solving their development challenges.

“In today’s world, one society affects another and the practices of one country affect other countries,” said Dr Ihsan Karaman, chair of the NGO Doctors Worldwide, which is lobbying to build up public support for equitable and sustainable development.

He said LDCs cannot be left to solve their problems alone.”Their problems are the problems of the world,” said Karaman.

Malawi is bracing itself for difficult economic times following a decision by the country’s main donors to withhold financial aid amounting to $400 million. Donors say they are responding to a range of governance and human rights issues in the country.

Almost exactly a year ago, the donor group that operates under the Common Approach to Budget Support (CABS) – which includes the UK government, Germany, the African Development Bank (AfDB), Norway, the European Union and the World Bank, warned Malawi’s government over its handling of prosecution of a homosexual couple who were arrested following their traditional marriage ceremony.

CABS, which provides as much as 80 percent of Malawi’s development budget, has now acted on the issue of minority rights, as well as the continued postponement of local elections and the passing of a law that empowers the government to ban newspapers that publish materials that may not be palatable to the Minister of Information.

“When we talk about human rights, we do not only talk about the majority but also minority groups like the on-going issue of homosexuals which needs to be looked into thoroughly,” Frank Kufwakwandi, head of AfDB in Malawi and chair of CABS said in a statement at the time.

Budget crisis

The U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation is withholding a 350 million dollar grant to rehabilitate Malawi’s distressed energy sector, demanding that government respects the rights of minorities and that the media law be repealed.

In addition, Malawi has been refused 561 million dollars which it had asked for from the Round 10 of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The country’s Minister of Finance, Ken Kandodo, told local media recently that any further funding suspensions by donors may hurt the developmental achievements the country has made.

Serious impacts

Donor aid accounts for 40 percent of Malawi’s national budget and the country could be forced to borrow money to make up the shortfall.

Health rights activists in Malawi have expressed concern over the rejection of the country’s proposal to the Global Fund for the 2011-2016 period, which they say will have a detrimental effect on prevention and treatment programmes.

Malawi has been enjoying a relative economic boom in the last five years with the economy expanding at an average of seven percent, inflation reduced to single digits and interest rates cut from 25 to 13 percent in the last two years.

But now this growth is in jeopardy and Malawi’s relationship with donors is strained. The government, however, does not intend to change course. The Minister of Justice, George Chaponda, told local media that Malawi is a sovereign state and vowed that the country will not bow to pressure from donors.

“We will not change our laws just to please donors. We have our own principles as a country and we will stick to them,” said Chaponda.

Gay marriage immoral

On the subject of gay rights, the government’s sentiments have been echoed by the Malawi Council of Churches (MCC), a grouping of 22 Protestant churches.

Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe, spokesman for MCC, told IPS that the donors’ demands in defence of gay marriages were immoral and that the government should not bow down to such “deceitful and misguided” demands.

“As a church we are on government’s side in saying no to foreign influences which disagree with the country’s culture. We are a God-fearing nation,” said Bvumbwe.

The donor group is equally firm: “As partners and friends, we would like to recall that good governance and respect for human rights – including freedom of expression, observance of democratic principles, and freedom from discrimination – are the foundation upon which our partnership is built,” CABS said in a February statement.

An hour and fifteen minutes each day: Melina Kalunga has plenty of time to measure how long it takes to resolve a legal battle over Malawi’s Electoral Commission.

Local govt previously provided space to advocate for the basic needs of women like these. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

It takes Kalunga 30 minutes to walk to the nearest borehole to fetch water for drinking and cooking; and 45 minutes to make her way back with a heavy bucket balanced on her head.

“We had a number of boreholes which came up in the ward when Mrs Johnstone was our councillor. They have all stopped working and we now have to walk long distances to fetch clean water,” said Kalunga.

She is recalling the accomplishments of Ward Councillor Olive Johnstone, when she represented Mchinji District’s Mwenda Ward. Elected to the local council in 2000, Johnstone exemplified what local government is all about.

Pursuing a women’s agenda

During her term of office, the former councillor mobilised her community and used funds from the local development fund at the assembly to build three new school blocks and toilets at Buwa Secondary School.

In person, Johnstone radiates confidence. The successful farmer – she grows tobacco and rears livestock – says she stood as a councillor in the first place to make a difference in people’s lives.

“As a community, we managed to get more girls back to school, since we were able to provide them with shelter and sanitation facilities,” Johnstone said. “The girls in secondary schools are adolescents and they need good sanitation facilities if they have to stay in school.”

Malawi has only voted for local government representatives once since 1994 when democracy was ushered in. The country’s constitution demands that local elections be held in the year following the national general election. Malawi has had general elections every five years since 1994, but local elections supposed to be held in 1995 and 2005 never took place. The government has never explained why.

Johnstone condemns the absence of the local government set-up. “Women are being short-changed because they have no representation at local level and they have no proper channel for demanding developmental needs. They suffer more than men.”

She worries that the toilets at Buwa Secondary School now need maintenance, but there are no funds available since there is no councillor to lobby for them.

“Now a lot of girls are not willing to go to school because there are no good sanitation facilities for them. They need privacy to be able to maintain themselves within the schools,” she told IPS.

The local development fund also catered for orphans who needed to go to school, but this programme has also fallen by the wayside in the absence of local representatives to secure an annual budget allocation for it.

“There was a bursary which allowed many disadvantaged children to go to school. This bursary is no longer available,” said Johnstone.

Nor has money been found to maintain boreholes or drill new ones.

And so the site of women balancing buckets of water as they walk between their homes and a water point has again become a familiar sight. Most households must rely on untreated water from streams and rivers for many domestic chores such as washing and bathing.

2011 election in doubt

Johnstone had begun preparing to stand for election in local elections scheduled for Apr. 20, 2011, when her plans were derailed. First the elections were postponed from their original November date by the Malawi Electoral Commission.

Then in December, President Bingu wa Mutharika dissolved the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), accusing the members of having misused $9.2 million meant for the elections. His right to dissolve the Commission has been challenged by the Malawi Law Society (MLS), a group of lawyers standing in for the legal profession as a whole.

While the battle for the control of MEC goes on, the tier of government closest to the people remains unoccupied.

The main opposition parties; the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) have said they do not feel confident the elections will take place this year and have scaled back campaigning and civic education exercises.

“I have stopped campaigning for now because I am not sure if the elections will now be held given the dissolution of the electoral body,” said Johnstone.

Many Malawians are keen to see the dispute resolved regardless of whether government or lawyers prevail.

Johnstone is ready to represent her community again. “I would like to see women having better lives and this is why I want to contest again.”

Malawi has directed local government officials to develop local response strategies to the effects of climate change.

Granary in Mchinji: in the face of declining harvests, farmers are adopting adaptation strategies within their limited means. Credit: FISD/IPS

In September, the country’s Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Anna Kachikho, called on district commissioners, who are the chief executives in charge of district assemblies, to develop local response strategies against climate change.

“Rural communities feel the effects of climate change more than anyone else and we need to assist them to adapt,” said Kachikho. She cited drought, erratic rains and floods as some of the effects of climate change that are on the increase in the Southern African country.

The Mchinji district, on the border with Zambia, has long been thought of as the country’s breadbasket. Smallholder farmers in this area have for many years produced bumper yields of maize, the country’s staple food, making a decent living from sales of their surplus across the country.

Almost every household in Mchinji has a field and the district still managed to produce a good yield while other areas in this southern African country were suffering drought conditions in the 1990s.

But in recent times, Mchinji’s yields have started declining even as a government agriculture subsidy programme has boosted overall maize production in the country.

Lizbet Chagunda from Kochilira Village says the district is losing its stance as a major provider of maize.

“We have noticed a decline in the soil fertility and also erratic rainfall patterns which are not very conducive to maize production,” the farmer told IPS. “Many of us are failing to produce enough last the whole year for our own families and we are no longer able to sell the grain to people from other districts.”

Chagunda, 37, who is married with five children and has been farming since she was 17, said the decline in yields has been noticeable over the past six years.

“My family has been cultivating on the same plot for a very long time. In 2004, I harvested up to 120 bags of maize but the yield has been reducing since. I managed to cultivate just 79 bags in the last growing season. The harvest keeps reducing every passing year,” worried Chagunda.

The decline is all the more worrying in light of increased access to quality seed and fertiliser under Malawi’s input subsidy programme.

The fertiliser and seed subsidy programme, introduced in Malawi in 2004, is targeted towards small-holder farmers who cannot afford to buy farm inputs at the normal market price. The beneficiaries receive two coupons – one for improved seed and the other for fertiliser at a subsidised rate.

But not everyone in Mchinji qualifies to benefit from the subsidy programme which is targeted towards poor farmers. Most farmers in the district are perceived to be well-off because they have been able to have surplus yield.

With guidance from government extension workers, Mchinji’s farmers have adopted a range of strategies to adapt to the situation, including irrigation and boosting soil fertility with compost instead of chemical fertiliser.

Soil degradation accelerated by an increase in average temperatures and frequent floods is an important part of the problem, according to the Foundation for Irrigation for Sustainable Development (FISD), a non-governmental organisation working with small-holder farmers.

“We are promoting the use of compost among farmers as one of the adaptation methods against the effects of climate change,” FISD director Moses Chirambo told IPS. His organisation is working alongside agricultural extension workers across the country to support the rural population which depends on agriculture for a livelihood.

Up to 60 percent of Malawi’s 13.1 million population live below the poverty line of $1 per day, according to the United Nations. Sixty-five percent of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Chirambo explained that compost does not cost much as it is made cheaply from what could “ordinarily be seen as rubbish” such as grass, dry leaves, plant stalks, animal waste, soil and water.

“All these things are left to decompose for a number of months and farmers use the mixture to boost the fertility of the soil in their fields. If at all, it is only time that is consumed in the production of compost but even then the farmers are able to do some other chores such as clearing their fields while waiting for the manure to be ready,” said Chirambo.

He said compost is more useful than chemical fertiliser now that the rains are becoming more erratic, also due to climate change, because the manure helps the soil to preserve water. “Compost has water in it and it transfers that water into the soil once it is applied,” explained Chirambo.

Water harvesting and irrigation also form part of the strategy being promoted by FISD as an adaptation method against climate change, local farmers in many districts have since benefited from FISD’s initiatives.

The farmers, according to Chirambo, are encouraged to store water in dams for use during drought and the water. When the streams are running, the farmers are encouraged to use stream water.

FISD is also teaching farmers to use spiral pumps, which harness the energy in a stream or canal’s flow to pump water. “These pumps are cheaper as they do not require energy from humans or machines,” explained Chirambo.

Ben Chilanga, a farmer with seven children who also from Kochilira in Mchinji uses compost in his field where, apart from growing maize and beans, he also grows tobacco, Malawi’s main foreign exchange earner.

Chilanga’s eight-hectare farm puts him in an awkward position; the size of his plot disqualifies him for the national input subsidy programme, but he cannot afford to buy fertiliser at market prices.

“Fertiliser is very expensive. I cannot afford it but I am still able to produce bumper yields because I use manure which does not cost me anything,” said Chilanga.

At the United Nations climate change conference in Denmark in December 2009, Africa’s demands for significant funding to counter the effects of global warming were not met. The Copenhagen Accord included a fast-track adaptation fund far smaller than set out by the unified African position.

Regardless of what comes out of the next round of negotiations in Mexico, adaptation strategies that rely on local resources will be an important part of safeguarding the livelihoods of African farmers.

* This IPS story is part of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network http://www.cdkn.org

Due to the global economic and financial crisis, growth on the African continent dropped to an average of 1.6 percent in 2009, compared to 4.5 percent in 2008.

Malawi

These figures were announced by Abdoulie Janneh, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), at a joint annual conference of the African Union and UNECA in Malawi’s capital of Lilongwe.

Africa’s continent-wide unemployment rate was at 8.2 percent in 2009, slightly better than the 8.5 percent recorded in 2004 before the global economic boom and bust, according to an economic report launched by the African Union (AU) at the conference which runs from Mar 29 to Apr 1.

“Clearly, in Africa, due to the fall in economic growth, the recent economic and financial crisis has caused a return to below the level of unemployment recorded in 2004,” states the report.

The conference, with the theme “promoting high-level sustainable growth to reduce unemployment in Africa”, brings together African ministers of economy, finance and economic development.

“The challenge that we have now has a continent is to attain high and sustainable levels of growth which would enable us to reduce poverty and unemployment,” Janneh told IPS.

Janet Mgwadira, 51, from Mtandile, a township on the outskirts of Malawi’s capital of Lilongwe, attended the opening ceremony of the conference. The woman has been unemployed for 12 years; she trained as a secretary. Her husband, an agriculturalist, is also unemployed. The family survives on subsistence farming.

Mgwadira has three grown children aged between 25 and 21 who have finished secondary school but only one is employed. “I heard on the radio that the ministers from all over Africa will be coming here discuss ways of creating employment. I came to listen to the speeches so that I know what will happen to my children,” Mgwadira told IPS.

She is waiting for the day when government officials’ plans bear fruit. “I wish my government could find a way of creating employment. I am always concerned about my children. I would want them to have better lives than what we have had so far,” worried Mgwadira.

Up to 65 percent of Malawi’s 13.1 million people live on less than a dollar per day, according Malawian government statistics.

The AU’s current figures indicate that the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, using the new 1.25 dollars per day poverty line, is 51 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and three percent in North Africa.

“Although a gender breakdown is not provided, it is generally agreed that women and children are more likely to be poor than men. The current economic crisis is likely to exacerbate the incidence and severity of poverty in Africa, and again women and children are likely to be the most affected by the crisis,” states the report.

The report says frustration caused by persistent unemployment and lack of opportunities is likely to prompt young people to gravitate towards charismatic and opportunistic social revolutionaries who blame the current structure of society for their problems.

This, the report says, is another reason why African countries should pay serious attention to unemployment.

Malawi’s president Bingu wa Mutharika, who is also the AU chairperson, said in his speech at the opening ceremony that Africa is not a poor continent but that it is the people of Africa that are poor.

“This is premised on the realisation that Africa has huge and unexploited wealth consisting of natural and mineral resources, wildlife, fish, river basins, lakes and huge arable land. These are not being exploited or utilised by Africans,” stated Mutharika.

African governments should implement home-grown policies which are conceptualised, designed and owned by African people. “Such policies must be implemented, monitored and evaluated by our own experts,” argued Mutharika.

Africa’s population grew by 2.3 percent between 2008 and 2009, reaching about one billion people, according to the report. Some 70 percent of the population is aged 30 or younger.

This population provides Africa with a large pool of labour upon which it could draw for rapid economic growth. But the rapid population increase, together with increased rural-urban migration, creates many problems, including inadequate provision of sanitation and social services, housing and employment.

To create employment, the Lilongwe meeting has agreed that African countries should pursue fiscal and monetary policies to finance investment in infrastructure, education and health-care. The ministers also agreed to focus on labour-intensive projects, such as rural roads and water projects.

Investments that will transform the structure of African economies from reliance on low-employment natural resource extraction to high-employment labour-intensive manufacturing, agro-industry and service provision have also been identified as a solution to unemployment.

Global unemployment jumped from 5.9 percent in 2008 to 6.9 percent under the best case scenario in 2009, or 7.4 percent under the worst case scenario, according to the International Labour Organisation.