2
World Bank Working Paper
of around US$300 million in 2008. In comparison to the entire SADC region, Malawi still has the third lowest GDP per capita and one of the five lowest in all of Africa. However, with the government’s increased emphasis on value addition on domestic products, coupled with the discovery and mining of uranium, there is the prospect of improved GDP levels. Compared to countries with a comparable level of economic development, Malawi’s performance is very satisfactory for mobilization of public revenue. The rate of domestic revenue as a proportion of GDP is higher in Malawi than the average observed in low income, non oil producing African countries (19 compared to 17 percent). Thus, while reducing the budget deficit at around 1 percent of GDP, the government has increased the volume of its expenditures up to more than 33 percent of GDP. This creates a good opportunity to increase spending for the education sector. Development partners provided US$53.8 million in support of the education sector in 2007/08. On average, between 2004 and 2006, education in Malawi benefited from aid equivalent to 1.9 percent of GDP (compared to 1.1 percent of the average GDP in Sub Saharan Africa). Direct support to education accounted for 1.2 percent of GDP, and 0.7 percent of GDP was the estimated education share from global budget support.2 * * * An education system develops within a national context, which is largely determined by the socio demographic characteristics of the population, the strength and size of the economy (the macroeconomic conditions), and by decisions about expenditure on education versus other sectors. Chapter 1 is a discussion of the demographic makeup, social context, and macroeconomic environment affecting the education sector in Malawi. This chapter is divided in three parts: i) the demographic trends (with a particular focus on the school age population), ii) the social development context (including the prevalence of HIV/AIDS), and iii) the macroeconomic conditions.
Demographics General Information
Located in southeast Africa, Malawi is a land locked country of 118,484 square kilometers—20 percent of which is water. Eighty two percent of the population lives in rural areas where the main means of subsistence is smallholder, rain fed agriculture. From 1987 to 2008, the population of Malawi grew at an average annual rate of 2.4 percent. The 2008 Population and Housing Census conducted by the Malawi National Statistics Office estimated the country’s population to be slightly greater than 13 million—a 39 percent increase from 1987’s estimate of 8 million inhabitants. In 2008, 49 percent of the population was male and 51 percent was female. Population Density across Regions and Districts
The Southern region of Malawi is the most densely populated, with 5.9 million people (45 percent of the total population). The Central region has 5.5 million people (42 percent). The Northern region is the least urbanized and has the lowest share of the population with only 1.7 million people (13 percent).