OP-ED: Mutharika gets re-elected in Malawi’s Tipp-Ex election By Greg Mills BrenthurstF
Malawians survive today on an average per capita income of just US$420, just twice that at independence in 1964. It was then among the five poorest countries worldwide. It is now the sixth-poorest.
The elites, as ever, suffer less, cocooned from the harsh realities of rural poverty by access to government contracts and largesse, and by a steady trickle of aid money. The first is that between policies, which sound about right, and implementation, which is routinely as weak as the institutions which are supposed to execute them. There has, moreover, been little serious debate in Malawi about the centrality of productivity and growth to underpin development. There is much talk about distribution, but not on how to ensure the surplus necessary for this to occur, at least sustainably.Donors give almost as much money annually as the budget .
The third and most critical disjuncture is between elite attitudes and mindset in government and the core problems of poverty, corruption, monopolies and a lack of diversification which lies behind joblessness. The incentives for control and privilege trump those for change and growth. Malawi is a country where monopolies and vested interests rule.
At another, it clarifies why as much as 80% of export and import traffic is carried by road, despite the comparatively high costs, and why the railway system remains precarious and irregular, yet so critical in this landlocked nation.
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