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Southern Africa / Malawi

Summary

Sanitation Verdict 17/20
Water Verdict 13/20
WASH % of gov. budget 1.01% (2010)
Key Facts
HDI Position (UNDP) 160/177
Population (millions, World Bank) 14.8
Child mortality rate (UNICEF) 100/1000
Annual child diarrhoea deaths (UNICEF) 10,300

The majority of data on this country page was provided by Phaniso Kalua from WaterAid Malawi phanisokalua@wateraid.org

Sanitation Policy

(Monitoring the eThekwini declaration)

Last edited by Traffic Lights Publication 2011 at UNICEF/WaterAid/WSP 7 months ago

See regional summary

Key:

2
= Good progress
1
= Some progress
0
= No progress
n/a
= Don't know
Category Criteria Rating Justification
Verdict (out of 20) 17
Policy Is there one national sanitation plan to meet the MDG target? 2 Is there one national sanitatio n plan to meet the MDG target?
Is there a national sanitation policy? 2 Developed and adopted by government in 2008
Did they sign eThekwini? 2
Institutions What profile is given to sanitation within the PRSP? 2 It is the 9th priority among priority among priorities within the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy which is a successor to the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).
Is there a principal accountable institution to take leadership? 2 The Department of Sanitation and Hygiene within the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development is mandated to take leadership
Is there one coordinating body involving all stakeholders? 2 The National Sanitation and Hygiene Coordinating Unit (NSHCU), with representation of key sector players has been established and is operational, chaired by the Ministry of Health.
Finance Is there a specific public sector budget line for sanitation? 1 Discussion are underway with the ministry of finance to create a dedicated budget line for \Sanitation and Hygiene
Is there a sanitation monitoring and evaluation (M+E) system? 1 Plans are underway to establish one with funding from AfDB.
Is 0.5% of GDP allocated to sanitation? 1 There is commitment by government and donor partners to raise the status of sanitation and Hygiene promotion and increase the level of funding.
Monitoring Do institutional sanitation programs include gender aspects? 2 The inclusion of Ministry of Gender, Child and Community Development in the NSHCU was meant to give prominence to the mainstreaming of the issues of Gender in the activities of Sanitation and Hygiene subsector.
Verdict (out of 20) 17

Water Policy

(Monitoring the Sharm el-Sheikh declaration)

Last edited by Phaniso Kalua at WaterAid Malawi 12 months ago

See regional summary

Key:

2
= Good progress
1
= Some progress
0
= No progress
n/a
= Don't know
Category Criteria Rating Justification
Verdict (out of 20) 13
Policy Are there specific measures in the plan for targeting poor people, and addressing the interests of women? 1 Yes, the programmes by National Water Development Programme has specific target areas such as rural, town centres, market centres etc. further, Ministry of Gender is at the centre of championing the interests of women.
Is there a plan for meeting the water MDG target or equivalent? 2 The development of Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) for the Water and Sanitation sector is in progress. The progress on MDGs is also being tracked annually through Joint sector Reviews and annual assessments by Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation
Is there a comprehensive policy for water supply? 2 Malawi National Water Policy is in place
Institutions Is there a lead ministry responsible for water supply? 2 Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development has the overall responsibility for the sector in Malawi
Is there clear separation of institutional roles? 2 Through the Decentralization Policy, different roles have been allocated to different institutions. All programme at the district are coordinated through the Water Officer. At national level, funds for water come in different forms such as Constituency development Funds, Faith based organizations and some through central government allocation.
Are donors harmonising their support behind national sector plans? 1 Donors and development partners are working towards supporting the sector through SWAp and other pool funding such as Local development Fund (LDF). However, since SWAp is still in infancy stage donors are utilizing the Sector Working Groups Meetings in efforts towards harmonizing support.
Is there provision within the policy for water supply sector capacity development? 1 Capacity development is one of the areas of focus. however there are limited resources interms of human and finances to address challenges of the sector.
Finance Are actors responsible for delivering water supply services adequately resourced, particularly if local governments? 1 financing for the sector is still a major challenge. Local governments in particular are faced with huge capacity gaps because not much is allocated to them in terms of development budget for water supply. currently, local governments rely on local development fund (LDF) for such services
Is there a sector investment plan for water supply? 1 The work on development of sector investment plan for water supply is in progress.
Monitoring Is there an effective framework for performance monitoring? 0 Performance Monitoring Framework is not yet sytematically in place. There are efforts currently in place to come up with a monitoring framework for the sector.
Verdict (out of 20) 13

WASH Finance

Gov. WASH Budget (local currency, millions)

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Gov. WASH Budget as % of total budget

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Financial indicators 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Gov. WASH Budget as % of total budget 0.421 1.04 1.14 1.73 1.01 N/A
Gov. WASH budget as % of GDP 0.153 0.396 0.456 0.698 0.396 N/A
Gov. WASH budget (current $US, millions) 4.74 13.7 18.6 33 20 N/A
Gov. WASH Budget (local currency, millions) 644 1,920 2,620 4,650 3,010 N/A
Gov. budget for sanitation only (local currency, millions) N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Total Gov. budget (local currency, millions) 153,000 184,000 229,000 268,000 297,000 N/A
GDP (current $US, millions, IMF) 3,100 3,460 4,070 4,720 5,040 5,490
Average $US exchange rate for that year (xe.com) 136 140 141 141 151 153
Download Spreadsheet (csv) Read more about how this data is collected and calculated

Remarks

from DFI research for WaterAid (contact John Garrett). All data is expenditure apart from 2008 and 2010 (which are budgeted) as expenditure data not available

Malawi: Access To WASH (JMP 2010)

Water Sanitation
80% 56%

There are a number of ways to measure the proportion of people that have access to sanitation and water in a country. Governments often use a combination of management information systems and household surveys.

The official data which the UN uses to monitor progress on the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) comes from the WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP). JMP aggregates data from household surveys carried out by governments.

WASHwatch.org shows JMP data because it is comparable across countries and uses the MDG definitions of access to sanitation and water. Some Governments prefer to quote the latest data from their household surveys, the best source of this information is the national statistics bureau or equivalent.

Read more about Monitoring Access

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