Introduction
Background
Being one of the least developed countries, Malawi, is characterised by widespread poverty. According to the 1998 nationwide Integrated Household Survey (IHS), 65.3% of Malawi’s population lives below the poverty line. But even before the actual extent of poverty was ascertained, the year 1994 marked a watershed in Malawi’s efforts to deal with poverty. During thepre-1994 era, poverty alleviation was not a central feature of the government’s economic policies, despite the existence of some programmes and initiatives aimed at tackling it. The then government’s message was that poverty was only endemic during the colonial era. But when the new government assumed office, it proclaimed that poverty alleviation was going to be its operative development philosophy. After launching the Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP) in August of 1994, the programme’s policy frameworkdocument was finalized in October 1995.
The main feature of the policy framework for the poverty alleviation programme was that it defined the various categories of the poor in Malawi, the constraints they face, and the strategies that government was going to adopt in order to alleviate their poverty. However, the document did not go far enough in articulating the various poverty alleviation strategies. It only
provided a general framework for implementing a poverty alleviation programme. That is why the Malawi Poverty Alleviation Strategy Paper (MPRSP) published in April of 2002 represented a major advance in efforts to reduce poverty in Malawi. Unlike the PAP Policy Framework Document, the MPRSP contains a detailed, prioritised and costed set of activities that stakeholders have agreed will maximise poverty reduction given the available resources. It also has an action plan that clearly allocates responsibility over
the undertaking of the various activities to lead institution as well as supporting institutions. And unlike its precursor, the MPRSP has a framework for monitoring and evaluation.
The MPRSP itself is organised into pillars, which represent a grouping of various goals, objectives, strategies and activities that represent a specific facet in efforts to reduce poverty. The central philosophy of the MPRSP is economic empowerment. And nowhere in the strategy paper is this better manifested than in pillar one, which focuses on pro-poor growth. The main
tenet of this pillar is that one sure way of reducing poverty is to stimulate growth in Malawi’s key productive sectors and ensuring that such growth takes place to the direct benefit of the poor. But although the MPRSP outlines the various activities and strategies for achieving pro-poor growth, it does not articulate in detail how this growth will be brought about. It is for this reason that the government recently developed a Growth Strategy Paper (GSP). The GSP identifies those sectors and sub-sectors with growth potential, and outlines the necessary actions that need to be undertaken in order to exploit this growth potential.
But unless there is a deliberate policy and action programme, Malawians may not be active participants and beneficiaries of this growth. Currently, despite the various initiatives by government, donors, and NGOs, most Malawians are still involved in low-return, small-scale enterprises. The large-scale, high-value businesses are owned by either foreigners or a minority of Malawians. It is for this reason that this proposed National Economic Empowerment Policy Statement (NEEPS) and Action Programme (AP) find their premise.
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