PRO-POOR GROWTH IN MALAWI: A MULTIDIMENSIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The study analyses pro-poor growth (economic growth that is particularly beneficial to be poor) in Malawi from a multidimensional perspective. The study was premised on the background that most of the measurements of pro-poor growth in Malawi have been done from the monetary (consumption) side. This thesis presents a departure from this thinking and measures pro-poor growth from the non-monetary perspective using non-monetary welfare indicators. The study used data from the Second (2004) and the Third Integrated (2010) Household Survey (IHS).Specifically, the study had four objectives; firstly to measure pro-poor growth from monetary perspective using consumption, secondly to measure pro-poor growth from non-monetary perspective using education (maximum and average schooling years) and to measure pro-poor growth the non-monetary perspective using health (stunting and productive days lost due to illness). The study found that there was pro-poor growth in the weak absolute sense but not in the relative and strong absolute sense on income (consumption per capita). In addition, there was no pro-poor growth in all areas in the health sector and only pro-poor in the unconditional sense on education implying that the income-poor experienced growth that was not pro-poor. The findings have policy implications in that they indicate that there is need to have policies that specifically address the income-poor households if pro-poor growth is to be achieved and not just implementing blanket policies because the income-rich have more access to social services unlike the income-poor.