Rural majority most deprived

Nearly all major roads in Lilongwe have been under construction since 2020.

Travellers in the capital city endure traffic jams day and night, marvelling at the touted development.

As they slow down, the people on the move hope for a better travel experience when the work is over.

Expectedly, political elites and their praise singers cannot talk about development without mentioning these roads, especially a novel six-lane highway.

However, ‘development’ disappears fast as one exits the city where policymakers decide the country’s future.

Beyond the city lights and highways, battered earth roads and tarmacs are inescapable in the maze of cracked buildings and rusty rooftops that speak more of things falling apart than a nation rising. The roads that seemingly lead nowhere mask the communities’ struggles to access farm inputs, markets for their harvests, business commodities, quality healthcare, education and other basics.

Underdevelopment typifies rural areas, where 84 percent of the country’s population lives, according to the 2018 census.

However, the citizenry does not need to clap hands for projects politicians find easier to implement in urban settings.

The policymakers’ focus on urban development dumps the rural majority in poverty.

Meanwhile, the youth, another deprived majority, flee to cities and towns for better chances in life.

However, the Constitution requires policymakers to focus more on Malawians beyond the urban zones.

Section 13 requires the State to adopt laws and policies that actively promote the welfare and development of the people of Malawi.

This includes “to enhance the quality of life in rural communities and to recognise rural standards of living as key indicators of the success of government policy”.

The supreme law mentions no other yardstick of public policy, except where most Malawians live.

However, studies show that the rural majority is left behind in the national push to end poverty.

New insights from the latest Integrated Household Survey (IHS) shows rural Malawians are the worst-deprived.

This Multidimensional Poverty Index compiled with funding from the United Nations Development Programme looked at access to services one requires to shake off poverty.

The National Statistical Office crunched the figures from the IHS of 2019 to 2020 in partnership with the National Planning Commission (NPC) and the University of Malawi, says commissioner of statistics Shelton Kanyanda.

The findings show that all the four cities—Lilongwe, Blantyre, Mzuzu and Zomba—have leapfrogged the 28 districts in the race against poverty, as rural populations fall behind.

The report reads: “When the results were broken down by place of residence, the incidence of multidimensional poverty in rural areas was 65.7 percent, compared to 20.0 percent in urban areas.

 “According to these findings, more people in rural areas are multidimensional poor than in urban areas.  As a result, efforts to address rural-urban poverty disparities should be prioritised while promoting wealth creation initiatives.”

This serves policymakers with food for thought.

“Inequality in the distribution of wealth has been a global concern for governments and development partners,” says Kanyanda. “Tackling the deprivations is key to ending all poverty in all its forms everywhere.”

The deprivations present a litmus test for the government’s rhetoric and strides to achieve the global goals and Malawi 2063 agenda.

The index measured access to education, health and population services, sustainable environment and employment.

 “Instead of asking people how much they earn, the new approach looks at the things they miss, but are critical to their development and ability to earn money,” says NPC head of research Dr Andrew Jamali.

The second index breaks down education into school attendance, literacy and schooling levels—a deprivation which makes Mangochi and Machinga the districts with the highest poverty levels.

“Multidimensional deprivations indicate development levels,” says Jamali. “All the districts in the Southern Region are multidimensional-poor, so we need to address the factors that fuel the situation.”

Kate Langwe, director of poverty alleviation in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, says the index is “an essential tool for tackling poverty”.

Multidimensional poverty reflects lived realities and interconnected deprivations. This is crucial not only for benchmarking our current efforts but also future steps to end poverty and achieve Malawi 2063.

Human resource development and wealth creation are among the pillars of the national agenda to turn the country into a middle-income self-reliant economy by 2063, the centenary of its self-rule.

“These figures are not mere statistics, but a call to action. We have to think innovatively about how to close the gaps. The fight against poverty cannot be won unless we address these deprivations.”

However, the rural folk say making decentralisation work could accelerate the fight against poverty in areas where only votes arrive on time.

The policymakers marketed the shift as Mphamvu ku Anthu (power to the people), promising it would bring essential services to the citizenry as Capital Hill sheds some of its powers, functions and funding to local councils.

Walusungu Kayira, director of planning in the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture, concurs that decentralisation is pivotal to tackling deprivations and improving livelihoods.

“The councils are not just closer to the people at the grassroots. They are at the heart of planning and coordination of development nationwide,” he says, asking planners to incorporate the new findings in their councils’ development plans.

However, the planners say funding for councils remains scanty to transform the livelihoods of the rural poor.

“If the government cannot fund the councils to draw their development plans, can they adequately finance the plans to end poverty in rural areas?” asked a director of planning and development in an interview on the sidelines of a meeting in Blantyre