World Bank’s Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture rankings are unlikely to benefit the world’s smallholder farmers, but could instead facilitate corporate land grabs.
Malawi
Finance
News
Malawi’s cash-gate scandal
The IMF has restarted its programme in Malawi after alleged looting of government money in 2013, releasing a $20 million disbursement. NGOs have voiced their dissatisfaction with the IMF, as well as the government over the failure to publish an audit upon which Fund's decision was based.
Conditionality
News
IMF-sanctioned reforms "hurting Malawians"
Voice Mohne, chair of the council for non-governmental organisations in Malawi, declared to President Joyce Banda at a May public meeting that the adoption of the "full set of IMF reforms" by Banda's government was "too much for an average Malawian to absorb", because "there is no meaningful safety net mechanism".
Finance
News
Malawians feel the pinch of IMF reforms
Demonstrations have taken place throughout Malawi prompted by the rising cost of living and the increasingly unpopular leadership of president Joyce Banda who has been closely following a US$156 million three-year programme approved in July, 2012 by the IMF's Extended Credit Facility (ECF).
Finance
News
IMF urges donors to pay up in Malawi
In mid January, the IMF took the unusual step of asking a group of donors to release budget support grants to Malawi, which they have been withholding until a new IMF programme is approved.
Social services
News
IFC and health "unsubstantiated claims"
In a December report financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that over the next decade $25 to $30 billion will be needed to meet the needs of Africa's health care and announced that it will coordinate $1 billion, in equity investments and loans to finance private sector health provision in Sub-Saharan Africa
Rights
News
World Bank pushes Malawi agriculture privatisation
World Bank manoeuvres to ensure parliamentary approval of a controversial agriculture privatisation policy demonstrates the continued influence of the Bank and the problems with Poverty and Social Impact Analysis.
Land
News
IFI role in Southern Africa famine condemned
A new study from Oxfam questions why, after years of World Bank and IMF-designed agricultural sector reforms, Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique face chronic food insecurity.
Land
News
What was IMF role in Malawi famine?
The worst famine in fifty years has resulted in several thousand deaths in Malawi in early 2002.
Rights
News
Malawi Economic Justice Network Civil Society Briefing Issue 16
Malawi Economic Justice Network Civil Society Briefing Issue 16
Land
News
Bank fingered in Malawi famine
According to Action Aid, famine in Malawi has been compounded by World Bank-guided food policies.
Conditionality
News
Malawian PRSP concerns
The Malawian Economic Justice Network released a statement in early September.
