Private sector key to unlocking climate, development goals

Countries across the world are increasingly putting climate change at the center of their development plans to safeguard their futures. Malawi is no different. Last year, the country unveiled Malawi 2063 (MW2063), a development plan which aims to turn the country of 19 million into an upper-middle income country within four decades.

The blueprint rests on the growth of three sectors: commercial agriculture, manufacturing, and urban and tourism development. These industries share one problematic trait. They are all highly vulnerable to climate change, and the droughts, floods, and severe storms climate change may visit on the country.

In fact, left unchecked, climate change could push two million Malawians into poverty over the next 10 years alone.

A new report from my colleagues at IFC and the World Bank explores how Malawi can avoid that fate. The Malawi Country Climate and Development Report highlights how the nation would benefit from a surge in private investment to adapt to climate change and implement Vision 2063, if supported by a strong regulatory framework that enables private investment. The financing could be used to modernize Malawi’s infrastructure, including building new roads, bridges and renewable power stations, to withstand climate shocks.

According to government estimates, Malawi’s transport sector will need up to $1.75 billion to adjust to the new climate normal. Closing this gap, and climate-proofing designs for new roads and bridges, allowing them to withstand storms and floods, is key to meeting the country’s development goals.

The effects of climate change go far beyond public infrastructure.

Given that Malawi’s crop production is largely rain-fed, climate change poses major threats to agriculture, which could make it harder for the country to move from subsistence to more productive commercial agriculture, in line with the country’s Vision 2063.

Already, increased dry spells, as well as past floods, have decimated maize production, putting in jeopardy Malawi’s food security and threatening its top tourist attractions lakes, nature, and wildlife.

Here, Malawi should urgently put an end to widespread land degradation. Curbing deforestation and restoring degraded lands would more than halve current soil erosion rates, improve crop productivity, and boost water storage while reducing flood damage to critical infrastructure, the report points out.

Some glaring challenges notwithstanding, Malawi has an additional path to prosperity it can leverage.

Its rich endowments of minerals that supply low-carbon technologies, such as graphite, rare-earth elements, niobium, graphite, and titanium mineral concentrates, could support the country’s development goals, while advancing global decarbonisation efforts. Here too, the private sector, through its expertise and capital, can help advance extraction of these minerals if mining is done sustainably.

Commercial agriculture, manufacturing, and urban and tourism development and sustainable mining could all be pillars of growth. Malawi has no time to waste in readying its economy for the challenging days ahead.

The author: Minofu

*Madalo Minofu is IFC country manager for Malawi.