Malawi

Question 1

What are the 4 types of aid?

Answer 1

• multilateral aid
• NGO aid
• bilateral aid
• emergency aid

Question 2

What is multilateral aid?

Answer 2

• more than 1 donating party
• usually involves IGOs
• includes grants and loans

Question 3

What is bilateral aid?

Answer 3

• aid as a product of an agreement between 2 parties
• between governments through government organisations eg. USAid or DFID (Department for International Development)

Question 4

How successful is multilateral aid?

Answer 4

• some success relating to achievement of SDGs has been seen (WHO immunisation drive against polio)
• has sometimes led to countries being in debt
• implementation of SAPs may have negative affect on quality of life (eg. Pakistan)
• projects can narrow gap depending on how suitable approach is (bottom up vs top down)

Question 5

What problems are there with bilateral aid?

Answer 5

• criticised for being politically motivated (used as leverage)
  
  • has resulted in support of corrupt regimes that are ideologically aligned with donors
• sometimes is unnecessary eg. UK to India, only used to maintain established relationships

Question 6

What is NGO aid?

Answer 6

• aid intended to address deficiencies in provision of basic needs eg. health, education, food, water supply
• done on a local scale

Question 7

How successful is NGO aid?

Answer 7

• is reliant on donations usually
  
  • can limit projects size and timescale wise
• bottom up approach used for majority of projects, projects are cheaper and better suited to local communities
• limited scale of projects means impacts are seen after a longer period of time
  
  • narrowing of development gap is not as evident, can make it harder to get people to donate

Question 8

What is emergency aid?

Answer 8

• short term aid in aftermath of emergency

Question 9

How successful is emergency aid?

Answer 9

• is critical to prevent loss of life and short term suffering
• is not sustainable, donors move onto next disaster
  
  • thus is not able to help long term development goals
• can breed dependency if not done properly eg. Food donations

Question 10

How much aid has Malawi received?

Answer 10

• $407.9m WB
• $390m Global Fund

Question 11

What sort of aid did Malawi receive?

Answer 11

• multilateral aid

Question 12

Why did Malawi receive aid in the first place?

Answer 12

• was ravaged by AIDS
  
  • 8.1% of population
• reduced life expectancy to 64 years

Question 13

What is Malawi’s economic state?

Answer 13

• very poor
• 161/189 in HDI index

Question 14

What was the aid given to Malawi meant to be used on?

Answer 14

• antiretroviral therapy for 300k people under WHO guidance
  
  • setup costs of hospitals
  • drugs sold by private companies at extremely high prices
• condoms
• door to door counselling
• HIV tests

Question 15

What is the Cashgate scandal?

Answer 15

• accounts assistant was found with $300k in boot of car outside environment ministry
• Minister for Finance shot dead outside home while investigating corruption
• German investigator investigating this was burgled

Question 16

What impact has aid had in Malawi?

Answer 16

• Cashgate scandal happened
• 17m people still in need of aid
• 71% of government development budget is from aid, signalling dependency
• country became more democratic with 2004 being first transfer of power between elected governments in Malawi’s history

Question 17

What happened in the aftermath of Cashgate?

Answer 17

• IMF delayed a $20m loan payment
• Britain and Norway froze their bilateral aid worth a combined $150m
• UK and German investigations into Malawi’s Public Financial Management programme that was supposed to prevent corruption

Question 18

What is the public perception of corruption in Malawi now?

Answer 18

• 2/3 feel it is getting worse (2022)

Question 19

What are the negatives of development aid?

Answer 19

• money can ‘leak away’ due to admin, corruption, consultant fees; does not reach people of the country
• money may return to donor countries÷
• skills and technical assistance may be more appropriate in some situations
• can be solely politically strategic and thus no plan in place as to how to use it, could result in dependence with no incentive to develop independently

Question 20

What are the positives of development aid?

Answer 20

• improves HR by supporting/focussing on minorities and marginalised groups
• helps provide basic human needs on short notice (emergency aid)
• can result in drastic improvement of healthcare and education through appropriate training and financial aid, eg. S Korea + Taiwan

Question 21

How can money return to donating countries?

Answer 21

• via salaries of highly paid NGO officials or government civil servants

Question 22

What threat does climate change pose Malawi?

Answer 22

• fewer rainy days, with more intense rainfall events
• 10* more days where temperatures exceed 30ºC
  
  • resulting in drought and floods to be more intense
• fall in maize and rice production, livestock die out
• lakes dry up
• farmers get reduced crop yield of 10-25%

Question 23

What solutions might there be to the threats posed by climate change in Malawi?

Answer 23

• NGOs help farmers create irrigation systems to irrigate land more effectively and increase effective area of fertile land
• WhatsApp groups organised by weather chasers to warn of storms
• University of Malawi developing seeds and soil improvement programmes in addition to tree planting

Question 24

Why might solutions to the threats posed by climate change in Malawi be undermined?

Answer 24

• irrigation is failing as HEP dams are taking away water
• maize imports have been banned by government
• voters are not putting pressure on government as are unaware of climate change
• Malawians who do know about climate change are angry at donor countries who continue to pollute