Rex Chikoko
14 July 2011
The UK yesterday announced an immediate suspension of all general budgetary support to Malawi. The International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said the decision was based on concerns upon matters of governance and accountability such as suppression of freedom of expression, chronic fuel shortages and a deteriorated tobacco industry.
“General budget support, which is used to allow governments to deliver their own national strategies for poverty reduction against an agreed set of targets, has been suspended indefinitely,” reads a press release from the Department of International Development (DfID).
Relations between Malawi and UK soured in April this year when President Bingu wa Mutharika expelled British High Commissioner Fergus Cochrane Dyet.
Policies blamed
The UK said it was concerned that Malawi’s overvalued exchange rate has created chronic foreign exchange shortages, which are having a serious impact on the Malawian private sector’s ability to drive future growth.
The UK also cited daily fuel queues, dwindling tobacco exports and said Malawi is off-track with its IMF programme.
“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,” Mitchell said.
He added: “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.”
He said the UK will in the meantime use other means to ensure that programmes to protect poor Malawians and deliver basic services continue.
The UK has helped improve food security in Malawi for over seven million people a year by providing them with high yielding maize and legume seeds via the Farm Input Subsidy Programme.
The statement said UK support to strengthen health service has helped save the lives of 3,200 pregnant women and 40,000 children since 2004 and that UK funding has built over 3,200 primary school classrooms and 4,800 toilets since 2001, helping keep more girls in school.
The World Bank, EU, the African Development Bank, Germany and Norway have all suspended general budget support to Malawi.
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Britain Stops Aid