A 2016 survey (available here) showed that almost 80% of people in Malenga Mzoma lived on little more than 50p a day. This is absolute poverty, where income is so low that basic needs can’t be met and where one in eight people eat only once a day.
Highly-developed economies are able to afford services and infrastructure because they have significant tax revenue and they are able to borrow on international money markets at favourable rates.
Neither of these options are available to Malawi.
For decades the hope has been that funding development would raise everyone out of poverty. Alas, this approach doesn’t reach the bulk of the population directly.
International aid might help prop up the education system, while capital projects such as upgrading the road to Mzuzu (one of Malawi’s ‘big four’ cities and the nearest to Malenga Mzoma) have communications benefits, but such programmes don’t give impoverished local families a living.
The funding ticks gross domestic product (GDP) up a notch, but it doesn’t directly help people at the grassroots.