Lilongwe, December 23, 2008 - Government of Malawi, with support from UNDP has released the 2008 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Report indicating significant positive change in the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger and the achievement of Universal Primary Education.

The report says poverty head count was reduced to from 54 percent in 1990 to 40 percent in 2006, prevalence of underweight children was reduced from 28 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2007 and the proportion of ultra poor population reduced from 24 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2007.

Chief Economist in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development and Planning, Ms Veronica Geresomo attributed the positive change to Malawi Government Farm Input Subsidy Programme as a significant contributor to the improvement of the goal.

 “Poverty is closely related to availability or not of food. The subsidy programme has improved the food security situation in the country as we have had a considerable food sufficiency for the past three years,” Geresomo said.

She also attributed the improvement to irrigation farming which, she said, government is encouraging even at household level. 

On achieving universal primary education Malawi has increased the primary net enrolment rates from 58 percent in 1992 to 75 percent in 2007 while the proportion of pupils starting grade one and reach grade five has increased from 64 percent 1992 to 86 percent in 2006.

Youth literacy has increased from about 68 percent in 2000 to about 82 percent in 2007 with the proportion of pupils starting grade one without repeating a grade increasing from 64.4 percent in 1990 to 86 percent in 2006.

Geresomo said the trends are improving in the education sector owing to factors such as availability of improved learning materials and teaching aids in primary and secondary schools in the country. She said good infrastructure and the school feeding prgramme are additional factors that are positively impacting on the improvement of the Universal Access to Primary Education Goal.

The report also indicates that Malawi has improved on child mortality, combating HIV and AIDS, Malaria and other diseases and Environmental Sustainability.

On promoting gender equality and empowerment and maternal mortality, the report indicates that Malawi has performed dismally.

High dropout rate especially among girls in primary school due long distances to school posing as a security problem in the face of sexual abuse and gender based violence has been cited as a challenge in education empowerment of the girl child.

On developing global partnership for development, Geresomo said government is working towards improving ways of covering data to feed into the indicators of the goal.