SEATTLE — Today’s world is made up of almost 200 nations. Waves of globalization have been in motion for decades, growing in height and impact, washing up winners and losers. Of the 196 countries, the disparity between the richest and poorest is greater than ever. Malawi, located in East Africa, is the poorest of the lot.
Though sometimes ranking in second, behind the Central African Republic, Malawi has, since 2015, repeatedly been acknowledged as the most underdeveloped nation on earth. Its GDP per capita sits below $300, compared to $57,467 in the U.S. More than half of the Malawi population live below the poverty line, which is less than $2 a day. The question is, why is Malawi poor?
Of course, the question “why is Malawi poor?” cannot be met with one definitive answer. There is a multitude of reasons for the extreme deprivation in Malawi, some being more significant than others.
Firstly, Malawi has faced and still does face one of the worst HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world. Toward the end of the ’90s and the early 2000s, around 70 percent of deaths in Malawi were AIDS-related and it was reported that up to 30 percent of women were HIV-positive. Today, around one million Malawians are living with HIV, almost ten percent of the adult population.
The number of adult AIDS victims in Malawi quickly results in children without providers. In many cases, grandparents are forced to take on the role of breadwinner, unable to adequately feed children and themselves. This lack of agricultural productivity was a chief contributing factor to another cause of poverty in Malawi.
The Malawi food crisis has plagued the country for more than a decade. Today, more than 6.5 million Malawians are going hungry. While the HIV/AIDS epidemic has played a part in the food crisis, droughts and floods have continued to destroy harvests across the nation. Crops which do survive are sold at markets for soaring prices.
Proponents of global free trade argue that underdeveloped countries have benefited and advanced through increased trade opportunities. Yet, for a landlocked country like Malawi, it is difficult to spot such benefits. Not only does Malawi lack trading partners, but it is without great energy sources that drive the economy.
Malawi’s economic productivity relies heavily on agriculture, which relies heavily on the weather. As mentioned above, the climate in Malawi has been anything but generous. To make matters worse, the exposure of the dangers of tobacco in the west and the subsequent decrease in usage has seen Malawi’s leading crop become less and less lucrative. In 2016, The Nyasa Times reported that Malawi was in possession of 45 million kilograms of unsold leaf.
Finally, like any other nation gripped by poverty, much of the blame lies with the government. Corruption in Malawi is rife and the people suffer as a result. In 2014, the Malawi “cashgate” scandal surfaced. The scandal was initiated when a government clerk was found driving with what equates to $300,000 in his car. Once this was investigated, it came to light that the state had lost $32 million, nearly 1 percent of Malawi’s annual GDP.
So, why is Malawi poor? Malawi is poor through no fault of the people. Stricken with disease, plagued by droughts and floods, doomed through geographical location and cheated by corrupt officials, Malawi has been given no opportunity to flourish and no chance to thrive. Hope cannot be lost, but help is desperately needed.
– Cornell Holland
Photo: Flickr