Donors shape Malawi's food policies, says report

Donor ideologies and programmes implicitly shape Malawi's food security policies, says a USAID-commissioned report that laments a lack of local ownership. "Donor advice on growth, agriculture and poverty reduction changes, depending on international development trends," said the report, which cited the controversial sale of the Strategic Grain Reserve in 2000 at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an example. The IMF recommended the sale as part of its privatisation model, leaving the country with no stockpiles when it faced one of its worst food shortages later that year. A subsequent presidential inquiry into the deal found not only serious conflicts of interest and possible evidence of personal enrichment by senior officials, but also the IMF and the World Bank at fault for pressurising the government. "The country unfortunately does not have much choice [in its policies], as most of its programmes are funded by donors," suggested one aid worker. Donors financed 83 percent of Malawi's 2004/05 development budget, leaving major uncertainties among Malawians about the explicit or implicit conditions attached to so much financing, said the USAID report. Malawian NGOs and analysts echoed similar concerns. "The dependency culture is particularly poignant now, when Malawi is in the grip of its worst drought in a decade," commented an aid worker. The current shortages have been compounded by the late delivery of fertilisers and seed. Given Malawi's traditional reliance on external funding, it was not clear whether the government was in charge of the policy-making process, noted political analyst Boniface Dulani. "To the extent that [agricultural] policy follows the money, the twists and turns of policy formulation mirrors the ebb and flow of resources as well as international donor trends," commented the USAID report. "Donor advice on policies impacting upon economic growth, agriculture and poverty reduction has been characterised by shifts and turns, depending on the development models currently in fashion in Brussels, London or Washington." An aid worker pointed out that "there are constant battles between donor consultants and certain government officials, who decide to stick with existing policies - sometimes there is a compromise; most of the times there is uneasy compliance". Various donors have taken charge of the country's agricultural policies: the European Union (EU) has conditioned its new funding according to its own set of development indicators. The EU currently is financing the preparation of a Food and Nutrition Security Policy, "in which we see a European emphasis on economic rights, which has created a lot of uneasiness - there is nothing Malawian about it," said a relief worker with a local NGO. The UK Department for International Development influences policy on fertiliser subsidies; World Bank assistance is conditioned upon progress made in restructuring the state grain marketer, ADMARC, observed the USAID report. With so much donor influence on policy, ordinary Malawians could not hold the government accountable, NGOs and aid workers commented. "Feeble national ownership of strategy makes it difficult to implement policy, because it belongs to no one in particular," said USAID.