Livelihoods and rural poverty reduction in Malawi
Ellis, F.; Kutengule, M.; Nyasulu, A.
World Development Oxford 31(9): 1495-1510
2003
DOI: 10.1016/s0305-750x(03)00111-6Document Number: 262755
Poverty reduction efforts in Malawi are currently based on the twin strategies of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and decentralization of government. This paper seeks to provide a critical viewpoint on these macrolevel processes based in microlevel investigations of rural livelihoods. The 'desperate' livelihood circumstances of most rural Malawians are emphasized by qualitative and quantitative information on assets, activities and outcomes in 8 villages in Dedza and Zomba districts, obtained through a survey conducted among 280 households in June-October 2001. Poor rural Malawians confront multiple severe constraints that can only be addressed by some combination of raising agricultural productivity, diversifying farm output to reduce risk and shift toward higher value outputs, and diversifying livelihoods toward nonfarm enterprises. The paper pays particular attention to the public sector institutional environment required to facilitate and encourage the latter option, and finds that the PRSP offers little guidance in this regard. There are existing tendencies for monetized farm and nonfarm activities to be seen more as sources of potential revenue than as engines of growth and poverty reduction. It is suggested that there is a real threat that fiscal decentralization to 27 new rural district assemblies will create new barriers to trade and enterprise by multiplying business licences and commodity taxes. The contradiction between the objectives of the PRSP and the funding needs of local government is also discussed.
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