FOREIGN
RELATIONS
Malawi
has continued the pro-Western foreign policy established by former
President Banda. It maintains excellent diplomatic relations with
principal Western countries. Malawi's close relations with South
Africa throughout the apartheid era strained its relations with
other African nations. Following the collapse of apartheid in
1994, Malawi developed, and currently maintains, strong diplomatic
relations with all African countries.
Between
1985 and 1995, Malawi accommodated more than a million refugees
from Mozambique. The refugee crisis placed a substantial strain
on Malawi's economy but also drew significant inflows of international
assistance. The accommodation and eventual repatriation of the
Mozambicans is considered a major success by international organizations.
In 1996, Malawi received a number of Rwandan and Congolese refugees
seeking asylum. The government did not turn away refugees, but
it did invoke the principle of "first country of asylum."
Under this principle, refugees who requested asylum in another
country first, or who had the opportunity to do so, would not
subsequently be granted asylum in Malawi. There were no reports
of the forcible repatriation of refugees.
Important
bilateral donors, in addition to the U.S., include Canada, Libya,
Germany, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan,
and the United Kingdom. Multilateral donors include the World
Bank, the IMF, the European Union, the African Development Bank,
and the United Nations organizations.
Malawi
is a member of the following international organizations: UN and
some of its specialized and related agencies (i.e. UNCTAD, UNESCO,
UNIDO), IMF, World Bank, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
(MIGA), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Berne
Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, African Union, Lome
Convention, African Development Bank (AFDB), Southern African
Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for East and Southern
Africa (COMESA), Nonaligned Movement, G-77, and the World Health
Organization (WHO).
U.S.-MALAWIAN
RELATIONS
The transition from a one-party state to a multi-party democracy significantly strengthened the already cordial U.S. relationship with Malawi. Significant numbers of Malawians study in the United States. The United States has an active Peace Corps program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, and an Agency for International Development (USAID) mission in Malawi.
U.S. and
Malawian views on the necessity of economic and political stability
in southern Africa generally coincide. Through a pragmatic assessment
of its own national interests and foreign policy objectives, Malawi
advocates peaceful solutions to the region's problems through
negotiation. Malawi works to achieve these objectives in the United
Nations, COMESA, and SADC. Malawi is the first southern African
country to receive peacekeeping training under the U.S.-sponsored
African Crisis Response Force Initiative (ACRI) and has joined
the successor program, African Contingency Operations Training
Assistance (ACOTA). It has an active slate of peacetime engagement
military-to-military programs. The two countries maintain a continuing
dialogue through diplomatic representatives and periodic visits
by senior officials.
U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID)
The United States has a substantial foreign assistance program in Malawi. The U.S. Government has provided approximately $70 million annually in development assistance to Malawi under USAID's Country Strategic Plan (CSP). The primary goal of USAID assistance is poverty reduction and increased food security through broad-based, market-led economic growth, focusing on four areas: sustainable increases in rural incomes, increased civic involvement in the rule of law, improved access to and quality of health services, and improved access to quality basic education. The USAID program is implemented in partnership with the Government of Malawi, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), other U.S. Government agencies, U.S. private voluntary organizations, contractors, and other partners, including the private sector through public-private partnerships.
USAID's program to increase rural incomes includes training and technical assistance to increase smallholder (crop, dairy, forest, and fishery) productivity; foster additional trade linkages among small farmer producer associations, larger commodity-specific industry clusters, and export markets (e.g. cassava, chilies, ground nuts, cotton, coffee, etc.); improve access to demand-driven financial services for micro, small and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs); increase rural households' revenues from sustainable natural resource management; and improve food security for vulnerable families in Malawi's rural areas. USAID is also encouraging smallholders to diversify into dairy production, a very lucrative business in Malawi and well-suited to Malawi's limited land area. USAID grantee Land O' Lakes (LOL), partnering with World Wide Sires, continues to promote the growth of the dairy industry in Malawi through 55 dairy associations with over 6,376 members (46% of which are women). USAID, through the Presidential Initiative to End Hunger in Africa, improved output markets for a total of 177,468 rural households. USAID-supported microfinance institutions provided financial services to 189,782 clients and disbursed 351,319 loans valued at $35,876,401. U.S. Government funding totaling $700,000 was leveraged to provide up to $13 million in agricultural financing through Malawi's first Development Credit Authority (DCA).
The Democracy and Governance portfolio continued to evolve in 2007, which proved to be an important transition year for the MCC Threshold Country Program (TCP). Activities under the TCP reaped positive results in fighting corruption, improving fiscal responsibility, and establishing a more transparent and effective judiciary. Partly as a result of successes gained under the TCP, the Government of Malawi was the only country in the world selected by MCC in December 2007 for Compact eligibility. Several other Democracy and Governance activities continued to fight corruption in the private sector, educate at-risk youth of their civic responsibilities, and nurture Christian/Muslim dialogue and relationships. The Democracy and Governance office also initiated a public-private partnership with the Financial Services Volunteer Corps to assist the Reserve Bank of Malawi and private banks to further develop risk-based banking supervision capacity. Chancellor College and a U.S.-based Historically Based College/University (HBCU) also entered into a partnership to strengthen the government's legal aid programs.
As was the case in previous years, USAID continued to support the Sector Wide Approach to Health (SWAP) in 2007 through discrete initiatives aimed at "increased use of improved health behaviors and services" for maternal, child, and reproductive health, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. These sustained efforts over the last 7 years have had substantial impact on health indicators in the country. In the area of HIV prevention, for example, the number of USAID-assisted counseling and testing centers increased from 3 in 2000 to 276 in 2007, while the number of clients assisted at these sites per year increased from about 22,000 in 2000 to more than 192,000 in 2007. In addition, according to a national Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) completed in 2005 with support from USAID, USAID's Presidential Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief activities reached 1,351,404 people through ABC messages (abstinence from sexual activity, being faithful to a single partner, and correct and consistent condom use) and provided care to 57,356 HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children. Under-five mortality rates declined from a high of 189 per thousand live births in 2000 to 133 per thousand live births in 2004; the total fertility rate (TFR) declined to 6 children per woman; and the proportion of Malawian children sleeping under an insecticide-treated bednets (ITN) (26% in 2004) was more than three times the proportion (8%) sleeping under an ITN in 2000. Key achievements in 2007 under the Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI) included: distribution of 185,400 long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets and 2,607,480 doses of a new life-saving drug delivered nationwide.
Improving the quality and efficiency of basic education remain the major development challenges in the Malawi education system. USAID continues to fund activities that target quality of and access to the primary education sub-sector level, which is having a positive effect at both the local and national levels. At the local level, USAID-funded activities are helping communities and parents make more informed decisions to improve the quality of primary schooling. In 2007, USAID continued its efforts in the education sector through: (1) development of teachers' professional skills through long-term undergraduate and graduate training in Malawi and the U.S.; (2) reinforcement of innovative classroom practices through pre-service and in-service teacher training; (3) participation of communities and teacher training colleges in HIV/AIDS outreach activities; (4) support of Government of Malawi adoption of key policy reforms in teacher education and HIV/AIDS; and (5) improving the quality and quantity of data available for policymaking. In 2007, USAID, through the African Education Initiative (AEI) and congressionally-mandated School Fees Initiative (SFI), improved the quality of and access to primary education for 624,032 children and enhanced the pedagogical skills of 10,355 teachers.
The United States is the largest contributor to the World Food Program (WFP) in Malawi, providing over $100 million in food and other emergency assistance through WFP since early 2002. USAID will coordinate requests to the U.S. Government for humanitarian assistance, and WFP will handle the logistics of import and distribution.
Peace
Corps
The first Peace Corps volunteers arrived in Malawi in 1963. Under
the conservative Banda regime, the program was suspended for several
years due to the "nonconformist" role of some volunteers
but was restored in 1978. Since that time, the program has developed
a close working relationship with the Government of Malawi. In
total, over 2,200 Americans have served as Peace Corps volunteers
in Malawi.
The change
of government in 1994 allowed the placement of volunteers at the
community level for the first time. With the increased flexibility
in programming, the Peace Corps began working to refocus programming
and identify more appropriate areas for Peace Corps intervention
at the community level. Currently, there are about 100 volunteers
working in health, education, and environment.
Health
volunteers work in areas of AIDS education, orphan care, home-based
care, youth and at-risk groups, child survival activities, nutrition,
disease prevention, environmental health, and women's health issues.
For many years, Peace Corps/Malawi had the only stand-alone HIV/AIDS
project in the Peace Corps, and HIV/AIDS continues to be the cornerstone
for health activities.
Education
volunteers teach in the fields of physical science, mathematics,
biology, and English at Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSs),
generally community-started and -supported entities.
Environment
volunteers focus on community-based management of natural resources
with border communities near national parks and forest reserves
that want to utilize their resources in a more sustainable manner.
This includes the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices,
income-generating activities, and agroforestry interventions.
The Crisis
Corps program utilizes returned volunteers in short-term assignments
for specific projects related to HIV/AIDS and food security. Crisis
Corps volunteers are generally assigned with a local NGO to assist
with activities that build capacity and develop materials within
the organizations.
Principal U.S. Officials
Ambassador--Alan Eastham
Deputy Chief of Mission--Kevin Sullivan
USAID Mission Director--Curt Reintsma
Peace Corps Director--Dale Mosier
Centers for Disease Control Director--Austin Demby
The U.S. Embassy in Malawi is situated in the diplomatic enclave adjacent to Lilongwe's City Center section. The address is American Embassy, P.O. Box 30016, Lilongwe 3, Malawi (tel. +265- (0)1 773 166/342/367; fax +265- (0)1 772-471).
