Urbanisation Efforts 'stall'

Kingsley Jassi: Malawi is struggling to make traction in urbanization, a key pillar in the Malawi 2063 development blueprint as the rural population is swelling in poverty, signalling policy failure to utilize the rural resources for transformation. The National Statistical Office (NSO's) Integrated Household Income Survey report for 2026 shows the rural population, as a section of the whole population, has expanded to 83 percent from 81.5 percent in 2024. Experts have warned that this could be the driving force of inequality that sees poverty rising in the rural areas amid economic growth that only results in wealth concentration in the urban areas. The survey further found that the population is youth dominated at 61 percent aged 24 years or below and more than half within the working age demographic. While poverty is endemic in the rural and the youth, the NSO report has challenged policy makers to devise policies that utilize the labour resource these sections present to the country in order to fuel growth and transformation and not nurture poverty. "To effectively leverage this potential, policy initiatives must be designed to accelerate employment opportunities across all sectors of the economy, with particular focus on labour intensive growth sectors capable of absorbing large numbers of young workers," the NSO report reads. Agriculture expert, Tamani Nkhono Mvula, echoes the NSO recommenda t ion, urging policy makers to focus on investing in the rural agriculture productivity to trigger the needed rural transformation and overall growth. He argued that any 1 percent increase of GDP as a result of any production increase or investment in the agriculture sector results in 6 percent increase in the consumption pattern of the lowest 10 percent of the poorest in an agrarian society. "Any change in the GDP that is coming from the agriculture sector indicates that rural poverty is transforming. In other words the growth in the GDP is coming directly as a result of an investment in the sector that holds the majority of the poor," he explains. Nkhono-Mvula therefore summed it up that if the country is to transform, policies should drive investments towards the rural and agriculture sectors to induce productivity and reduce poverty. Under the MW2063, secondary cities were earmarked to drive urbanisation as a transformation pillar along with agricultural commercialisation and industrialisation but the National Planning Commission budget tracking report finds financing distortions affecting progress. "For instance, in agriculture, irrigation and subsidy inputs dominate while mechanisation, structured markets, anchor farms, diversification, and research remain underfunded," the report states.

WIRE — Kingsley Jassi: Malawi is struggling to make traction in urbanization, a key pillar in the Malawi 2063 development blueprint as the rural population is swelling in poverty, signalling policy failure to utilize the rural resources for transformation. The National Statistical Office (NSO's) Integrated Household Income Survey report for 2026 shows the rural population, as a section of the whole population, has expanded to 83 percent from 81.5 percent in 2024. Experts have warned that this could be the driving force of inequality that sees poverty rising in the rural areas amid economic growth that only results in wealth concentration in the urban areas. The survey further found that the population is youth dominated at 61 percent aged 24 years or below and more than half within the working age demographic. While poverty is endemic in the rural and the youth, the NSO report has challenged policy makers to devise policies that utilize the labour resource these sections present to the country in order to fuel growth and transformation and not nurture poverty. "To effectively leverage this potential, policy initiatives must be designed to accelerate employment opportunities across all sectors of the economy, with particular focus on labour intensive growth sectors capable of absorbing large numbers of young workers," the NSO report reads. Agriculture expert, Tamani Nkhono Mvula, echoes the NSO recommenda t ion, urging policy makers to focus on investing in the rural agriculture productivity to trigger the needed rural transformation and overall growth. He argued that any 1 percent increase of GDP as a result of any production increase or investment in the agriculture sector results in 6 percent increase in the consumption pattern of the lowest 10 percent of the poorest in an agrarian society. "Any change in the GDP that is coming from the agriculture sector indicates that rural poverty is transforming. In other words the growth in the GDP is coming directly as a result of an investment in the sector that holds the majority of the poor," he explains. Nkhono-Mvula therefore summed it up that if the country is to transform, policies should drive investments towards the rural and agriculture sectors to induce productivity and reduce poverty. Under the MW2063, secondary cities were earmarked to drive urbanisation as a transformation pillar along with agricultural commercialisation and industrialisation but the National Planning Commission budget tracking report finds financing distortions affecting progress. "For instance, in agriculture, irrigation and subsidy inputs dominate while mechanisation, structured markets, anchor farms, diversification, and research remain underfunded," the report states.

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