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Introduction

Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 Methodology 4 3.0 Section One 5 3.1 Development Indicators 6 3.2 Statistical Analysis 10 3.3 Summary 12 4.0 Section Two 13 4.1 Criteria Identification 14 4.1.1 Health 14 4.2 Government Strategies, Evaluation and Recommendations 15 5.0 Conclusion 20 6.0 List of References 21 7.0 Appendix 23 List of Figures and Tables Figure 1: Map of the World highlighting Malawi and the United Kingdom 2 Figure 2: Map of Malawi 3 Figure 3: Graph of Gross Domestic Product per capita for Malawi and the United Kingdom 8 Figure 4: Graph of Infant Mortality for Malawi and the United Kingdom 8 Figure 5: Graph of Life Expectancy for Malawi and the United Kingdom 9 Figure 6: Graph of Literacy Rate for Malawi and the United Kingdom 9 Table 1: Comparison of Development Figures between Malawi and United Kingdom 6 Table 2: Summary of Government Health Strategies, Evaluation and Recommendations 15 1.0 Introduction The majority of the world's population is concentrated into periphery countries throughout Africa, Asia and South America. These countries suffer from poverty, lack of health and education and social issues. The Republic of Malawi is a small periphery country of southeastern Africa, surrounded by Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. Malawi is landlocked but lies directly on Lake Malawi, which plays a crucial role in the lives of Malawians by providing a source of food and water. Malawi became a complete independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1964, formerly controlled by the United Kingdom. In recent years, Malawi has been devastated by famine, particularly in 2005 when one quarter of the population were without food to survive for the year. As a densely populated country, it has experienced many development problems including high population growth, low education and health levels and serious famine. Much global and local effort is required to help Malawi break out of the cycle of poverty. ...read more.

Middle

Also, women may suffer complications during childbirth more readily than in the United Kingdom because of poorly resourced health services. A lower life expectancy also leads to lower productivity, which also influences a lower GDP per capita. From this analysis, it is clear that Malawi is seriously struggling with development when compared to the United Kingdom, in particular in the key area of health. 3.3 Summary The data collected has been analysed in several different ways and has proven that Malawi is a periphery country struggling with serious developmental issues in comparison to the United Kingdom. This section has provided evidence that Malawi is in serious need of help. It has also suggested that health is a major determinant of development. The following section, Section Two, will now focus on health as a developmental issue in need of attention. 4.0 Section Two 4.1 Criteria Identification It has been clearly identified in Section One that Malawi is seriously struggling with development issues. Malawi can be seen as having drastic health problems, which is one of the major causes for the low level of development. Some current strategies that have been put in place by the government to improve health will be investigated. These strategies will then be evaluated and recommendations suggested. 4.1.1 Health The current state of the health problems suffered by Malawi can be highlighted by the statistics in Table 1. Malawi has an alarming Infant Mortality rate of a total 94.37 deaths per 1000 live births. This figure is extremely high when compared to developed countries. The Life Expectancy of Malawian people is a shockingly low 41.7 years. These two figures highlight the quality of life and reflect the efficiency of the health services provided. The fertility rate is 5.92 children per woman. This can be attributed to 'insurance births' as the high infant mortality rate means that some infants will die. From these statistics it is evident that Malawi is struggling from a lack of health and health resources and desperately needs better government funding and more appropriate planning. ...read more.

Conclusion

needed US$10,500,000 to spend on health and nutrition in 2006. The health and nutrition funding was to be spent on * Treating malnourished children and pregnant or lactating women, * Expanding support to community-based therapeutic centres, * Continued monitoring system for feeding centres, * Preparing emergency drugs for disease outbreaks, * Procuring and distributing mosquito nets to children and women * And undertaking prevention, care and support programmes for HIV/AIDS. (http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/malawi_31292.html) * UNICEF has a very detailed strategy regarding amounts and plans for funding. * However, they do not state whether they will target urban or rural dwellers. * UNICEF should help in the training of barefoot doctors that would be able to improve the level of health in their community through simply teaching hygiene and simple health practises. * UNICEF should fund education programmes on health related topics. * If young children and youths are educated on the importance of family planning, health and hygiene now, then they will carry this knowledge into the future. They will hopefully pass this knowledge onto their own children in the future. 5.0 Conclusion Overall, Malawi is gravely suffering from a chronically low level of development. This has been proven by the statistical analysis in Section One, which highlighted six critical development indicators of Malawi. Health was identified as a particular developmental issue. Malawi suffers from a range of health problems such as a high infant mortality rate and low life expectancy. The government strategies in place to help improve Malawi's level of development in relation to health are fairly appropriate, but do not target some much-needed areas, such as rural communities. Non-government organisations have stepped in to help the government tackle the health problem and are implementing appropriate activities compared to the government. It is imperative that further investment is placed in Malawi's struggling health system and also into education, water and other services. Few other African countries have emerged from such a serious lack of development, though there is still hope for Malawi to evolve with the help of the humanity. For Malawi's next generation, hope can only come with action. 6. ...read more.

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