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The Malawi Situation |
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Malawi - the
poorest country in the world that is not either involved in, or recovering
from, civil war - one
of the most unequal income distributions: the richest 20% of the
population consumes 46.3% of goods and services, compared to the poorest 20%
that consumes only 6.3% of them. - 60%
live under the poverty line - 49% are stunted because of long-term
mal-nourishment - GNP per capita is
US$210. - Life expectancy is 39 years old
- HIV/AIDs
is
affecting up to 25% of the population in urban areas, and 13% in rural areas - Malawi is divided into
3 key regions - Blantyre
is situated in the South and is the largest city. The capital city, Lilongwe,
is in the Central region while Mzuzu is the main city in the North. - Chichewa
and English are joint official national languages. -
population: 11 million people - 11.2% of adults over 25 years of age have completed primary
school - 58% of the population is literate, while the female literacy
rate is 44%women. |
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Food security Malawi’s economic base is agriculture in which up to 85% of the
population are engaged and which generates up to 95% of foreign exchange
earnings. - three
quarters of the population go hungry for a quarter of the year. - Malawi
is over-dependent on the very drought sensitive maize crop - In
early 2002, Malawi suffered the worst recorded famine. - Currently,
Malawi is already experiencing an even worse food crisis than early in 2002 - production
forecasts predict a further 5% decline in the maize harvest and a deficit of
650,000MT |
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- 2
million orphans out of a total population - despite
the introduction of free primary education, the net enrolment rate has
remained at 78%. - Infant
mortality is at a rate of 104 deaths and under-5 mortality at 189 deaths per
1000 live births. - more and more children are coming on the streets - 80% of them have lost one or both parents through AIDS - numbers of newcomers on the streets went up by 200% between 2001 and
2002 |
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Children |