By: Agnes Dumisani Mizere
Who can ever forget trumpets being blown loudly by Malawi government officials and excitement in the air in 2009 when we were told that the economy grew by 9 percent and that the Economist Intelligence Unit reportedly named Malawi as the second fastest growing economy in the world after Qatar?
Yes second after oil rich Qatar and at the time it was one of the best stories to have ever come out of Malawi although many on the ground questioned how.
You see, Qatar is usually described as a high income economy backed by the world’s third largest natural gas reserves and oil reserves.
It also has the “highest per capita income in the world” so the news of Malawi’s economic successes gave many in government a reason to celebrate President Dr Bingu wa Mutharika and see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Did Malawi known as one of the poorest countries in the world really suddenly develop rapidly in 2009?
Well The Economist described Malawi with large uranium deposits which mainly exports tobacco, coffee, sugar and tea as having a fertilizer programme which “radically improved agriculture and allowed the export of more goods.”
Besides declaring that hunger had ended as a result of food security and donors praising the distribution exercise for the fertilizer subsidy programme , Malawians back then also heard about the Greenbelt Initiative to kick start major irrigation projects and the Nsanje Inland Port to ease transportation of goods.
Both are yet to take off at a larger scale.
Malawians were also told that the Kwacha had stabilized despite the world facing a financial crisis but not much was said about a mushrooming black market.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) three years later reportedly advised Malawi “to devalue the official exchange rate to address a foreign exchange shortage and stem a thriving black market”.
When did Malawi become stagnant?
History then saw the Kwacha being devalued during President Joyce Banda’s regime and panic-buying as some feared the price of goods would soar.
The kwacha was devalued as part of moves by that government to restore donor funding as the previous Bingu administration had rejected IMF calls to devalue the currency fearing it would increase inflation according to a Nation report.
And in 2013 the EU Ambassador and Norwegian one in the same newspaper were quoted as backing President Joyce Banda on donor driven reforms including the devaluation and floatation of the Kwacha.
They also blamed the Bingu Mutharika administration for the economic challenges the country was facing.
Now with that background and Malawi making the 5 fastest growing economies in 2009 as predicted by the Economist one can only wonder what happened between 2009 and 2015 for Malawi to be stagnant today and no longer be a quickly developing economy second to Qatar?
Is it alleged gross mismanagement between 2009 and 2011, coupled with poor governance which sent the country into a crisis or are minority governments or us the people of Malawi to blame?
Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation, Lluis Navaro speaking at the opening of a National Planning and Training Workshop for the National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust officers in Lilongwe was baffled with “Malawi’s continued poverty levels and lack of visible development”.
The EU also said “all neighboring countries are developing much faster except this country which is not only the least developed but also stagnant.”
Navaro said even the countries that have no natural resources such as Rwanda are moving forward and that “it is difficult to understand how Malawi is trapped in poverty despite massive external support through different programmes and projects.”
“It’s difficult to understand. We’ve been discussing this as development partners. You have a lot of resources like the fresh water, how is it possible that the country cannot move forward?” wondered Navaro in The Daily Times of September 14, 2015.
“If you look around in the other countries things are moving forward except Malawi. You’re not addressing the real issues,” he said, adding that the GDP per capita captured by different reports shows how poor Malawi is.”
This is also reflected in border towns such as Chipata at the Mchinji border, Milange near Mulanje, Zobue near Mwanza and Songwe border post near Tanzania with neighboring countries being more developed.
Could it be that the political landscape is not favorable for development and the fact that “no president has been elected in Malawi after winning the majority of the vote as in more than 50% of the total?
“Multiparty Malawi presidents have been minority presidents who have only secured an average of 30% of the total vote. Meaning that only 3 out of every 10 people in Malawi approve of a sitting head of state and 7 out of ten Malawians do not approve,” argues Kaira on http://jeffkaira.blogspot.com/2015/09/why-is-malawi-not-moving-forward.html?spref=fb
He writes about an invisible political stale mate with prolonged bickering between those in high places in government and outside who “use disgruntled majority of citizens to disrupt government agenda whether it’s good or not.”
In other words Malawi is not united as a country with partisan politics being the order of the day on top of the jealousy and diseases as captured in our national anthem.
Does our society have a pull him or down system or do we work together?
Should Malawi also consider conducting a complete overhaul of its electoral system to clean up the mess or should we the citizens also do soul-searching as far as literacy levels and the education of the girl-child and boys among other things are concerned to increase human resources in this global village of Science and Technology and manufacturing and exporting?
In a democracy people are also the government and it takes one person to make a difference as in not only asking what your country can do for you but asking “what you can do for your country” as said by US President John F Kennedy.
What say thee for Malawi to move forward?
