Written evidence submitted by Gilbert
Chilinde, Physical Planner—Policy Monitoring and Evaluation,
Malawi
URBANIZATION AND
URBAN POVERTY
IN MALAWI
Introduction
1. This paper gives a brief overview of
the current status of Malawi's urbanization challenges in line
with the commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
BASIC INFORMATION ON MALAWI
|
| Area | | 118,000 sq km
|
|
| Population | 2008
| 13,066,320 |
| Population over 18 | 2008
| 6,216,432 |
| Population density | 2008
| 139 persons per sq Km
|
| Percentage under 15s | 2007
| 47%[4]
|
| Life expectancy at birth | 2006
| Male, 47: Female, 48[5]
|
| Number of households | 2008
| 2,957,693 |
| Mean household size | 2008
| 4.4 persons |
| Intercensal growth rate | 1998-2008
| 2.8% pa |
| Gross Domestic Product[6]
| 2007 | US$10.59billion
|
GDP per capita (US$, PPP)
and ranking[7]
| 2007 | $800
9211/225)
|
| Annual economic growth rate | 2006
| 8.5% |
| Prevalence of HIV/AIDS (aged 15-49) | 2008
| 12% |
| Under-5s mortality rate per thousand | 2005
| 120 |
| Consumer Price Inflation rates | May 2008
| |
| National | | 7.9%
|
| Urban | | 10.3
|
| Composite Consumer Price index (2000 = 100)
| Feb 2008 |
|
| National | | 276.4
|
| Urban | | 308.7
|
Human Development Index
and ranking[8]
| 2007-08 | 0.437
(164/177)
|
| Percentage below poverty line | 2004
| 52.4% |
| Urban Gini Co-efficient | 1997-98
| 0.52 |
| Percentage urban population | 2008
| 44% |
|
| Source: Quarterly Statistical Bulletin, June 2008, NSO, Zomba.
|
BACKGROUND
2. Malawi has four major urban centres with city status
namely; Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba. There are also eight
secondary towns namely; Karonga, Kasungu, Salima, Dedza, Mangochi,
Balaka, Liwonde and Luchenza. In addition, there are twenty three
district centres and more than seventy nine market centres spread
across the country. These cities, towns and centres are all growing
rapidly and at unprecedented rates.
3. The natural urban population growth is attributed
to high fertility rate at 4.2 (Population and Housing Census,
National Statistics Office, 2008) alongside rapid rural-urban
migration. The harsh rural environment, decreasing rural land
holdings, inadequate off farm economic activities, environmental
degradation due to wood fuel harvesting are all influencing decisions
for the exodus to new urbanizing centres, towns and cities on
promise of better life opportunities for formal employment and
better education (Englund 2001, Kayuni and Tambulasi, 2005, Chilinde,
2008). The resulting effect is the urbanization of poverty due
to the growing number of the rural poor who are moving to the
urbanizing centres, towns and cities.
4. In 2007, the United Nations Population Fund reported
that Malawi has been urbanizing at the rate of 6.3% per annum
between 2000 and 2015, or at an average rate of 4.7% from
2005-10 making Malawi one of the fastest urbanizing countries
in Africa and the world. It further estimated that Malawi's urban
population as a percentage of the total population will have doubled
from 16.3% in 2003 to 32% in 2030.
5. According to the World Urbanization Prospects of 2001,
the absolute urban population growth in Malawi will overtake rural
growth before 2025 with an urban population increase of 214,000 per
annum during 2020-25 compared to 193,000 in the rural
areas. The outlook further revealed that from 2025-30 the
annual urban population increase will be 225,000 compared
to 187,000 for the rural areas. It is clear therefore that
achieving sustainable urbanization is one of the most pressing
challenges facing Malawi.
MANAGING URBANIZATION
CHALLENGES
6. Malawi is a signatory to the Millennium Declaration
of the United Nations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
and the Government's challenge is to ensure that Malawi meets
the MDG targets on improving the lives of people living in slums
by among other things spearheading a two pronged approach that
addresses slum upgrading and slum prevention. This will also impact
on such indicators like health, water and sanitation, and reduction
of urban poverty among others.
7. The critical factor to note about the rapid urbanization
in Malawi is that although the economy has been registering substantive
average growth above 6% per annum between 2004 and 2009,
the majority of the urban residents particularly those who live
in informal settlements are yet to realize the benefits of this
growth. This is attributed to inadequate participation by the
urban poor and National budgetary constraints to deliver adequate
community infrastructure and services. The result is the increasing
urban poverty manifested by the highest incidence of communicable
diseases such as cholera in urban poor areas in the cities with
Lilongwe being highly affected in 2008 (Ministry of Health,
Official Statement aired on Malawi Broadcasting Corporation).
8. The Welfare Monitoring Survey of 2005 by the
Malawi National Statistics Office reported that about 24% of the
urban population was living in poverty representing 5.5% of the
poor in Malawi and 11% of the total population. However, quoting
an economic paper from the Ministry of Finance, the Daily Times
business page of Monday 25 May 2009 reported that urban
poverty has been reduced from 24% in 2005 to 11% in 2009 (where
poverty meant earning less than MK16165 per person per year
about US$130 at 2005 Exchange rates).
9. However, most of the informal settlements where 66%
(1.468 million) of the urban population lives in Malawi (State
of the World Cities Report 2008-09, Moyo, 2008) are still characterized
by slum conditions such as poor access and/or dusty roads and
no electricity, absent or inadequate social services like health,
education, water and sanitation. In addition, insecure tenure
due to squatting and poor housing conditions are mutually related
and reinforcing in these settlements. The problem of squatting
is due to the poor being priced out of the legal housing and land
markets because of high demand against supply side constraints
that increase land and house prices to the disadvantage of the
low income groups.
10. The housing shortage in Malawi's cities is further
attributed to inadequate capacity of the financial sector to support
housing supply on a significant scale. The NBS Bank is the only
institution providing long-term mortgage financing. Although reduced
government borrowing from 2004 and competition has forced
other commercial banks to embark on three year term lending, the
amortization period is perceived as too short for home financing
(Kaluwa, 2008). The result is that low income people are not able
to access loans for housing finance due to high pricing that make
many people unable to afford high monthly installments.
11. The Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC), a government
institution has built conventional housing in low, medium and
high density areas but has never been able to meet the demand.
Its current housing stock stands at 6,000 located throughout
Malawi with the majority in the four cities. Despite budgetary
constraints, MHC has plans to construct 5,000 houses and
service 5,000 plots between 2008 and 2012. It is also
planning to construct 32 student hostels for the University
of Malawi in Zomba, Blantyre and Lilongwe as well as the University
of Mzuzu. However, this is still inadequate in view of the current
demand which stands at 100,000 applicants waiting for house
allocation (Malawi Housing Profile, 2009 UN-Habitat-Malawi,
Unpublished).
12. Some low income urban poor community saving groups
have been accessing housing funds from the Mchenga Fund through
the Malawi Homeless Peoples Federation (MPHF) and the Centre for
Community Organization and Development (CCODE), a non governmental
organization. According to Manda, (2007), the fund stood at MK120 million
(US$850,000) in 2007. Between 2003 and 2009, the Mchenga
Fund provided loans to over 1,500 people, 80% of whom are
women from urban poor communities. The loans have resulted in
the construction of 768 new dwellings in three projects,
100 new sanitation facilities, 200 home improvement
projects and 300 loans were given for small businesses. Due
to declining donor funding amidst high demand for service from
the Mchenga Fund, CCODE is looking for other sources of financing
to enable it reach out to more urban poor community groups.
13. The rate of unemployment in urban areas is very high
such that Blantyre City reported a rate of 57% in its Structure
Plan of 2000. The most important feature to note is that some
of the unemployed engage in petty trading whose visible manifestation
is street vending. This has created running fiascos between urban
authorities and Vendors in an attempt to control vending which
contributes to littering in the Cities. The City Assemblies with
the help of the Police cleared the illegal stalls which the vendors
erected along the city streets and pavements in an exercise dubbed
"Operation Dongosolo" in 2004. Much as this was welcomed
by the public, analysts said the operation destroyed livelihoods
for the unemployed urban poor (Kayuni and Tambulasi, 2005).
14. In the period 2006 to 2011, Government's Malawi
Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) prioritized infrastructure
development one of which were urban roads. A number of roads have
been constructed and/or improved in the cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe,
Mzuzu and Zomba. However, it is expected that the programme will
be extended to bituminize access roads to low income areas particularly
in High Density Traditional Housing Areas (THAs) and other settlements
to the standard currently available in Low Density Housing Areas.
15. Solid Waste Management is a problem in Malawi's Urban
Centres because disposal is mainly through sanitary landfill and
open dump methods and few are incinerated, and recycled In many
smaller urban centres the major method of solid waste management
is open dumping and is obviously more harmful and leads to many
environmental and health hazards (Kayuni and Tambulasi, 2005).
Currently, the Lilongwe City Assembly is about to pilot a participatory
solid waste management project dubbed, "Waste for Wealth:
Promoting a Zero Waste Environment" in partnership with the
private sector, two non-governmental organizations and the community.
Support to upscale such a project to other urban centres once
the pilot is successful will be of paramount importance to ensure
a cleaner urban environment.
16. Promoting Building Technology and Research Development
to identify, evaluate and test appropriate technologies related
to shelter is also important. Such a programme could spearhead
access to low cost technologies for shelter that will improve
access to affordable and quality housing, water and sanitation
technologies. This Programme could be tasked with learning about
novel technologies and best practices from other countries and
testing them for use in Malawi. Availability of this type of information
would ensure that decisions on optimal technologies for use in
Malawi are evidenced based. The programme could also facilitate
use of these technologies if government is supported to establish
operational building technology regulations. In addition, support
to existing institutions like the Commission for the Establishment
of the University of Science and Technology, the Technical Entrepreneurship
and Vocational Training Authority (TEVETA) and National Construction
Industry Council could create a linkage between these new technologies
and the workers, so as not only to have abundant skilled labour
but a workforce that understands and can implement the new building
technologies.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Englund H. (2002) "The Village in the City, the City in the
Village: Migrants in Lilongwe" in Journal of Southern African
Studies. 28 (1) 137-154
Chilinde G.P. Ntata P. and Chipeta L. "Participation in Community
Driven Development among the Urban Poor: The Case of Lilongwe
City" Kamlongera C (ed) Challenges in Promoting Community
Driven Development: Some Learning Experiences from the Malawi
Social Action Fund, Jhango Heinemann Publishers 180-216
Kaluwa B. (2008) Urban Dynamics and Poverty: Policy Dilemmas and
Paradoxes in Service Provision. Paper presented at the First Malawi
Urban Forum, 8-9 December 2008, Unpublished.
Kayuni H and Tambulasi R, (2005). What does Commitment to Environment
and Development Imply for Urban Centres in Malawi? Paper presented
at the Urbanization, Environment and Development in Africa seminar
25-28 February 2005 Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Manda, M A.Z. (2007) "Mchenga—Urban Poor Housing Fund
in Malawi" in Environment and Urbanization, 2007 19:337.
Moyo M. (2008) Urban Planning for Harmonious Urbanization in Malawi:
Challenges and Perspectives. Paper presented at the First Malawi
Urban Forum, 8-9 December 2008, Lilongwe, Unpublished.
National Statistical Office (2008) Malawi Housing and Population
Census Preliminary Report, Zomba
UN-Habitat (2009) Harmonious Cities: State of the World Cities
Report 2008-09, Earthscan.
UN-Habitat-Malawi (2009) Malawi Housing Profile, Understanding
how the housing sector works, Unpublished Draft.
4
World Bank,(2009: 352). Back
5
World Bank,(2009: 352). Back
6
IndexMundi. Back
7
IndexMundi. Back
8
"The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions
of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured
by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy
and enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level) and
having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power
parity, PPP, income)" (UNDP, 2008). Back
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