[Malawi] Bringing Change to Malawi Through a Sense of Self-Motivation and Creativity

August 14, 2019

Malawi is an inland country in the southern region of Africa. Hugging the shoreline of Lake Malawi, the third largest lake in Africa, the country is long and thin, and approximately half as large as mainland Japan. Since becoming independent from the United Kingdom in 1964, Malawi has remained free of war, civil unrest, civil war and other conflicts, and is thus known as a peaceful country, nicknamed the "warm heart of Africa."

On the other hand, however, the country is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 190th in gross national income per capita out of 191 countries. Approximately 80% of its citizens work in agriculture, but the majority of these are poor, smallholder farmers and they are not able to provide enough food for the entire population. In 2014, JICA started to expand its support program for smallholder farmers that is ongoing in various countries in Africa to Malawi, trying to bring in new ways of thinking to shift towards a "market-oriented agriculture."

Since 1971, Malawi has received more than 1,800 Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, the most of any country in the world. They have been supporting Malawi's development across many areas, including primary education and teachers' training.

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Lake Malawi, the third largest lake in Africa, comprises a fifth of the total area of Malawi, and is a registered World Heritage Site