Did rapid smallholder-led agricultural growth fail to reduce rural poverty? Making sense of Malawi’s poverty puzzle

Abstract

Typescript prepared by Jenny Stanley Smith for UNU-WIDER. UNU-WIDER gratefully acknowledges the financial contributions to the research programme from the governments of Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) was established by the United Nations University (UNU) as its first research and training centre and started work in Helsinki, Finland in 1985. The Institute undertakes applied research and policy analysis on structural changes affecting the developing and transitional economies, provides a forum for the advocacy of policies leading to robust, equitable and environmentally sustainable growth, and promotes capacity strengthening and training in the field of economic and social policy-making. Work is carried out by staff researchers and visiting scholars in Helsinki and through networks of collaborating scholars and institutions around the world.

Evaluating irrigation investments in Malawi: economy‐wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints

“…Malawi is a small landlocked country in Sub‐Saharan Africa that is dominated by agriculture with an employment share of 80% and contributing a third to GDP. Despite economic growth averaging around 5% per annum for the past 10 years, Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world with a GDP per capita of 471 USD in 2010 and about half of the population still living below the national poverty line (Pauw et al., ; World Bank, ). This is because its population of around 15 million people in 2010 is one of the fastest growing in Sub‐Saharan Africa with a stable growth rate of about 3% per annum, quickly eating up any gain in total GDP.…”

On the poverty–growth elasticity

“…In contrast, semi-elasiticities reported in the final column are strictly rooted in level changes in the poverty rate. Stifel and Woldehanna (2016), and Pauw et al (2016) in deriving utility consistent consumption poverty lines. Poverty rates are reported in two time periods based on the associated food poverty lines and 125 per cent poverty lines.…”

The Effect of Farm Input Subsidy Program on Food Poverty Dynamics in Malawi

“…They claimed that basic problems such as illegal markets for coupons and fertilizers, leakage of coupons, failure to establish a system of beneficiary and targeting are a serious problem which makes the program ineffective. In line to this, Pauw et al (2016) used constructed regional poverty lines for Malawi and found that the program did not benefit those close enough to the poverty line to be lifted out of poverty. In addition, Mvula et al (2011) in their qualitative evaluation of the 2010/11 farm input subsidy program also found that there were several growing challenges which hinder the FISP from reaching out to most vulnerable poor targeted beneficiaries.…”