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Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. The lack of a seaport, the traditional focus on the cultivation of tea and tobacco on plantations, together with the low level of education of the population make the economic situation dramatic. The country needs help to develop.
Many people in Malawi live very primitively. They have no running water, no electricity, no transport of their own. The roads are bad and everything is on foot.
Malawi emerged as an independent state from the British protectorate of Nyasaland on July 6, 1964.
The absence of minerals (although a number of mining companies have now discovered rare earth metals and are in the process of obtaining mining rights), the lack of a seaport, the traditional focus on growing tea and tobacco on plantations, together with the low level of education of the population make the economic situation dramatic.
However, there are also modest bright spots. For example, progress has been made with regard to the distribution of anti-AIDS drugs, attempts are being made with some success to put Malawi on the map as a tourist destination - in which the exceptional bird population, Lake Malawi and the pristine safari areas are used in particular - and aid workers are increasingly more concerned with sustainable aid: not (only) food, but also education of the local population regarding food supply and disease prevention.
Malawi – 'the warm heart of Africa' – has an area of 118,484 km². This makes the country almost three times the size of the Netherlands. Nevertheless, it is one of the smallest countries in southern Africa. Malawi has about 19 million inhabitants.
Malawi has been named Country of the Year 2020 by the Economist Magazine for "reviving democracy in an authoritarian region"