Malawi

The Southern African nation of Malawi contains Lake Malawi, one of Africa's largest, longest lakes, and is bordered by Mozambique to the south and west, Zambia to the east, and Tanzania to the north. Malawi became a fully independent member of the Commonwealth on the 6th of July 1964.

Malawi is in the process of conducting the national Population and Housing Census 2018. The current estimated population is 18 million (2016)

GDP (PPP): USD 5.4 billion

Unemployment: 5.9%

Inflation (CPI): 11.4%

Malawi Health System Challenges

Malawi faces a range of challenges to sustainably finance and efficiently manage the delivery of high-quality health services. There is a severe shortage of adequately trained health personnel across all professional cadres, and it is difficult to train, retain, supervise, and manage existing workers within the health system. There are also critical gaps in supply chain management, information systems, and infrastructure.

Donors provide the majority of total health expenditures in Malawi, making the country’s health sector one of the most donor-dependent in the world. Securing more sustainable financing and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of current spending through improved health sector governance is extremely has been important but challenging  for Malawi

Malawi Global Health Priorities

Universal Health Coverage:The goal of the Health Sector Strategic Plan II is to move towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) of quality, equitable and affordable quality health care with the aim of improving health status, financial risk protection and client satisfaction.

Health Service Delivery: Increase equitable access to and improve quality of health care services.

Infrastructure & Medical Equipment: Improve the availability and quality of health infrastructure and medical equipment.

Human Resources: Improve availability, retention, performance and motivation of human resources for health for effective, efficient and equitable health service delivery.

Medicines & Medical Supplies: Improve the availability, quality and utilization of medicines and medical supplies.

Health Information Systems: Generate quality information and make it accessible to all intended users for evidence-based decision-making, through standardized and harmonized tools across all programmes.

Governance: Improve leadership and governance across the health sector and at all levels of the health care system.

Health Financing: Increase health sector financial resources and improve efficiency in resource allocation and utilization.

Malawi Health Sector Strategic Plan:

www.health.gov.mw/index.php/policies-strategies?download=47:hssp-ii-final