Policy Documents

This paper is based on a study undertaken to critically understand the dynamics of policy-making and processes under the auspices of the Future Agricultures Consortium‟s (FAC) sub-theme on politics and policy processes hosted by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the United Kingdom. FAC‟s operative philosophy is that contrary to the traditional and highly stylized perspective, policy-making does not happen in neat distinct stages except perhaps in the minimal sense that policies are proposed, legislated and implemented.

The Government of the Republic of Malawi is still increasingly concerned about the deterioration of the country's natural resources and the environment. The biggest environmental and developmental challenge is how to narrow the gap between the degradation of the natural resources and the environment on one hand and sustainable production and economic growth on the other. The Government of Malawi adopted a National Environmental Policy in 1996 to provide guidance and set standards for development of sector policies in environment and natural resources.

The Government of the Republic of Malawi, realizing the dependency of the economy on water resources and its impact on poverty reduction, considers the conservation, management, development and utilization of water resources as one of the priorities on its national development agenda which require supportive policies and legislation.

Nutrition disorders continue to be a silent crisis in Malawi despite efforts by government and partners to improve the situation. This poses a serious challenge to the attainment of the national growth and development goals as set in the MGDS.

The Policy on Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Malawi has been developed in response to the plight of the Malawian children who live and grow up in high risk environments, plagued by HIV/AIDs, poverty, ignorance, malnutrition and high rates of communicable diseases. This situation renders Malawian children vulnerable to poor health and/or pre-mature death. Malawian children experience multiple problems of social adjustment because of their difficult start in life.

An analysis of the situation of poverty in 1993 revealed that 60% and 65% of Malawi's population in urban and rural areas, respectively, lives below the poverty line. This situation of poverty has been confirmed by various other studies including the 1998 UNDP Human Development Report. There is great need, therefore, to put into place action that can reduce or even eradicate poverty in the country. One way of doing this is to promote income generation and employment creation among the poor.

This National Youth Policy is a result of broad consultations with all those concerned with youth development and the youth themselves. Although this policy defines ‘YOUTH’ as those falling between fourteen and twenty five years of age, the definition is quite flexible bearing in mind the variety of parameters that could be used in categorising the youth. The youth represent a vast human resource potential, which, if properly prepared and tapped can contribute to positively to national development. If neglected however, the youth can spell disaster for the nation.

The development process in Malawi is empowering individual citizens and communities to take active interest in their own affairs. Land policy serves as a powerful symbol and focus for that local development effort. It provides a mechanism for recociling widely differing attitudes towards Malawi's development challenges.

The goal of the Malawi National Land Policy is to ensure tenure security and equitable access to land, and the attainment of social harmony and broad-based economic development through optimum and ecologically balanced use of land and land-based resources.

The Constitution of Malawi recognises that access to and utilisation of nutritionally adequate and safe food in the right quantities is a right of each individual. This will enable them to lead an active and healthy life.

The Malawi Government has several policies and strategies aimed at stimulating economic growth and development as articulated in vision 2020, Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (MPRSP) and Malawi Economic Growth Strategy (MEGS). This will be done through reducing poverty, ensuring food security, wealth creation and sustainable utilization of the natural resource base.