The rapid population growth experienced in the country is threatening economic growth in the long run.<\/p>\n
According to United Nations projections, Malawi population is expected to grow to 41.2 million by 2050.<\/p>\n
The observation was made during the launch of the 2015\/16 Malawi Demographic Health Survey at Bingu International Conference Centre in Lilongwe on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The survey indicates some improvements in child survival, maternal health and family planning.<\/p>\n
Minister of Finance, Goodall Gondwe, said while the results are positive and showing great improvements in some areas, the results are also contradictory in terms of economic growth.<\/p>\n
Gondwe said rapid population growth threatens economic growth as there is a need to improve in a number of sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means we have to improve our productivity and also industrialise rapidly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe statistics from the survey will give us a direction, yes, but we have to come up with action,\u201d Gondwe said.<\/p>\n
He further said the issue of population growth does not only affect Malawi but the region as a whole.<\/p>\n
Gondwe said the problem with African countries as opposed to those in the West is that their major focus is on politics unlike development and growing the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a government, we are trying to make strides in growing our economy, but you will find that the civil societies are focusing and pushing on totally different agendas that will not grow the economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The minister also urged the participants to analyse the data carefully and take action and not just pile the report on their shelves.<\/p>\n
Usaid Mission Director, Littleton Tazewell, said the MDHS are more than just data.<\/p>\n
He said data is a valuable tool for allocating resources to the most successful healthcare interventions and activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cData does not improve the lives of millions of Malawians. Rather, data becomes a tool to inform our programmatic decisions. With accurate and timely data, we can better direct our limited resources to the most efficient and effective health interventions. At the same time, data tells us which approaches are ineffective, which approaches need modification and which approaches need elimination,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tazewell further said if Malawi can voluntarily reduce its fertility rate further, it could harness what is called the demographic dividend, by which the youthful population in Malawi grows into one dominated by working age adults, allowing the economy to grow more quickly than it would otherwise.<\/p>\n
\u201cA youthful population provides Malawi with an opportunity to achieve socio-economic development, provided the growth rate can be further slowed,\u201d Tazewell said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The rapid population growth experienced in the country is threatening economic growth in the long run. According to United Nations projections, Malawi population is expected to grow to 41.2 million by 2050. The observation was made during the launch of the 2015\/16 Malawi Demographic Health Survey at Bingu International Conference Centre in Lilongwe on Tuesday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42619,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42617\/revisions\/42619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}