Poor economic management is undermining Malawi’s fight against extreme poverty, with the country ranked among 43 nations where poverty levels are expected to stagnate or worsen in the coming decades, a World Bank analysis has shown.
According to World Bank’s The Atlas of Global Development 2026 analysis, Malawi is listed alongside countries such as Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sudan, among economies considered to be on a worrying trajectory of persistent extreme poverty.
While conflict and corruption are cited among the key drivers of poverty persistence globally, the report places particular emphasis on poor economic management as one of the major barriers trapping countries like Malawi in long-term poverty cycles.
Reads the analysis in part: “If current trends continue, in 43 countries with their current speed of progress, or lack of it, they will continue to suffer from high levels of poverty in the coming decades.”
Following the upward revision of the international poverty line (IPL) for low-income countries, including Malawi, to $3 (about K5 253) per person per day, Malawi’s poverty rate stood at 75.4 percent from 70.1 percent under the previous IPL of $2.15 (about K3 764) per person per day.
The development raises fresh concerns over Malawi’s ability to attain the aspirations of Malawi 2063, the country’s long-term development blueprint that seeks to transform the economy through industrialisation, urbanisation and agricultural productivity.
The slowdown in poverty reduction also threatens progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, goal number one, which seeks to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.
Malawi is aspiring to transform into a lower middle-income economy by 2030 and an upper middle-income economy by 2063. However, the economic growth rate averaging 1.8 percent is not sufficient to foster development in a country with an annual population growth rate of 2.7 percent.
Mzuzu University economics lecturer Chistopher Mbukwa earlier observed that the rising poverty levels is an indication that all efforts in the form of development strategies, programmes and projects that the country has been implementing have not succeeded.
National Planning Commission (NPC) also conceded that Malawi’s ambition to become a middle-income economy by 2063 is being undermined by a widening mismatch between economic growth and rapid population expansion.
NPC director general Frederick Changaya said while the easiest route is to curb population growth, the most economical way as an agro-based economy is to focus on high-end value-chains with land and human capital as key productive sectors.
“While we are targeting an average growth of between 12 and 15 percent to make this vision a reality, the current structure where the majority are in the agriculture sector is not helping the economy,” said Changaya.
