Malawi: UK Suspends Budget Support to Malawi

Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (Johannesburg)

14 July 2011

press release

The UK government has announced that it has suspended general budget support to Malawi indefinitely – a few months after the British High Commissioner was expelled from Lilongwe. However, the British International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell said that the decision was taken after the Malawi government repeatedly failed to address UK concerns over economic management and governance.

The British government pointed to concerns over governance – demonstrations have been suppressed, civil society organisations intimidated, and an Injunctions Bill passed that would make it easier for the Government to place restrictions on opponents without legal challenge. And to worries over the direction of the economy – along with chronic foreign exchange shortage that are having a serious impact on the Malawian private sector’s ability to drive future growth, there are daily fuel queues, tobacco exports have deteriorated and Malawi is off-track with its IMF programme.

The World Bank, the European Union, the African Development Bank, Germany and Norway have all suspended or ended general budget support to Malawi.

In a press release, Andrew Mitchell said:

“The UK provides development assistance in order to help communities lift themselves out of grinding poverty, whether that’s through getting children into school, ensuring women survive childbirth or helping farmers grow enough food to feed their families and communities.

But poor people in Malawi and British taxpayers alike have been let down. In these circumstances I cannot justify the provision of general budget support for Malawi.

In the meantime we will use other means to ensure that programmes to protect poor Malawians, amongst the poorest people in the world, and deliver basic services like health and education are able to continue.

The UK has a long and deep commitment to the people of Malawi and we are keen to see the country resume the good progress it has made in recent years. I remain willing to reconsider our approach as and when our concerns are addressed.”

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