Suchergebnisse

Malawi is a low-income country that is actively working toward achieving universal health coverage (UHC). The government is committed to provide adequate health care, commensurate with the health needs of Malawian society, and international standards of health care as outlined in the Constitution. This UNICO case study explores how Malawi has been able to increase population coverage and financial protection by implementing these two supply-side reforms. The study reviews the situation before the two reforms, what the two reforms envisioned, management arrangements, what the reforms delivered (including positive and negative effects), and the long-term scope for achieving UHC in Malawi.

AbstractMeasures of attention and memory were evaluated in 6‐ to 9‐month‐old infants from two diverse contexts. One sample consisted of African infants residing in rural Malawi (N = 228, 118 girls, 110 boys). The other sample consisted of racially diverse infants residing in suburban California (N = 48, 24 girls, 24 boys). Infants were tested in an eye‐tracking version of the visual paired comparison procedure and were shown racially familiar faces. The eye tracking data were parsed into individual looks, revealing that both groups of infants showed significant memory performance. However, how a look was operationally defined impacted some—but not other—measures of infant VPC performance.Research Highlights
In both the US and Malawi, 6‐ to 9‐month‐old infants showed evidence of memory for faces they had previously viewed during a familiarization period.
Infant age was associated with peak look duration and memory performance in both contexts.
Different operational definitions of a look yielded consistent findings for peak look duration and novelty preference scores—but not shift rate.
Operationalization of look‐defined measures is an important consideration for studies of infants in different cultural contexts.

This article explores the connections between sexual violence, gender inequality, & HIV transmission. Beginning with the premise that HIV/AIDS is a gendered pandemic, the article demonstrates the ways that patterns of HIV transmission are structured by gender & social inequalities. This is due in part to the ways in which women's sexual & reproductive health choices are dominated by socio-cultural expectations & impacted by women's subordinate status in society. Using a country case study from Malawi, Africa, this research demonstrates how the nature & scale of sexual violence impacts both on women's vulnerability to HIV infection & on women's sexual & reproductive health rights. In particular, the article focuses on the conceptualization of sexual violence, the transaction of sex within the local economy & fish industry, & the construction of sex & sexuality as this influences cultural practices & women's vulnerability to HIV transmission. This research finds that Malawian women are situated in a social, legal, & political-economic environment that sustains unequal gender power relations that tolerate the perpetuation of violence against women & leave them more vulnerable to HIV infection & the infringement of their sexual & reproductive health rights. References. Adapted from the source document.

This study was inspired by the observation that despite the considerable efforts in financialliberalization in Malawi from the late 1980s, the apparent results were mediocre, especially with regardto the persistence of high intermediation margins (spreads). The central objective of this study is to tryto investigate why. The key hypothesis is that if one does not take into account of bank behavior interms of how banks react vis-à-vis their incentives and constraints during the process of financialliberalization, the results are likely to be disappointing. The study shows that in an economic situationcharacterized by macroeconomic instability, banks have less incentive to be more efficient from amacroeconomic perspective, i.e., by enhancing financial deepening through higher credit to the privatesector. On the contrary, while acting rationally, they are tempted to look for easy and safe returnscoming from financing government deficits. This allows them to accomplish two objectives: maximizingprofit and minimizing credit risk, notably by pushing the "external constraints" imposed by economicconditions - including high rediscount rates- to their customers through a combination of an increasein interest rates on loans and a smaller increase in interest rates on deposits.Keywords: financial liberalization, bank behavior, intermediation margins, bank ; Notre étude a été inspirée par l'observation que malgré les efforts considérables en matière de la libéralisation financière au Malawi à partir de la fin des années 1980, les résultats apparents étaient plutôt médiocres, notamment en ce qui concerne la persistance de marges d'intermédiation (spreads) élevés. L'objectif central de notre travail est d'essayer d'élucider pourquoi. Notre hypothèse centrale est que si l'on ne tient pas compte du comportement des banques en matière de leurs réactions vis-à-vis de leurs incitations et leurs contraintes dans la mise en place de la politique de la libéralisation financière, on est voué à la déception en matière des résultats. ...

The (ab)use of public resources during elections in Malawi is a recurrent phenomenon. The judicial mediation of the (ab)use of public resources has, however, not been extensive. In instances where courts have intervened, their pronouncements have done little to stem the practice, especially by incumbents. This paper interrogates the judicial regulation of the (ab)use of public resources during elections in Malawi. Among other things, it establishes that state media remains one of the most highly contested resources during elections. The paper demonstrates that the judicial understanding of public resources is narrow and may shield politicians from censure. In addition, political actors in Malawi seem interested in questioning the (ab)use of public resources only in the period immediately preceding polling without concern about any (ab)use during the rest of the electoral cycle.

ABSTRACTIn recent years, 'African homophobia' has become a spectacle on the global stage, making Africa into a pre-modern site of anti-gay sentiment in need of Western intervention. This article suggests that 'homophobia' in post-2009 Malawi is an idiom through which multiple actors negotiate anxieties around governance and moral and economic dependency. I illustrate the material conditions that brought about social imaginaries of inclusion and exclusion – partially expressed through homophobic discourse – in Malawi. The article analyses the cascade of events that led to a moment of political and economic crisis in mid-2011, with special focus on how a 2009 sodomy case made homophobia available as a new genre of social commentary. Employing discourse analysis of newspaper articles, political speeches, the proceedings of a sodomy case, and discussions about men who have sex with men (MSM) as an HIV risk group, I show how African homophobia takes form via interested deployments of 'cultural' rhetoric toward competing ends. This article lends a comparative case study to a growing literature on the political and social functions of homophobia in sub-Saharan Africa.

AbstractThis article critically assesses the economic impact an emerging artisanal and small‐scale mining (ASM) sector has had in rural Malawi, where it now flourishes alongside smallholder agriculture. It examines the linkages between subsistence agriculture and ASM, sharing perspectives from miners themselves on the contribution of both sectors to their livelihoods. Because of its potential to alleviate poverty in the country, a supported ASM sector must receive greater policy focus in Malawi. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Recently gender discourse in Malawi changed dramatically when Joyce Banda ascended to the office of president following the sudden death of the incumbent, Bingu Wa Mutharika. A relentless women's rights advocate, Joyce Banda became the first woman president in Southern Africa and the continent's second woman leader, after Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. President Banda has told the nation that gender equality and women empowerment shall remain the central policy priority of her government. She affirms her government's commitment to increasing representation of women in decision making positions and is promising to scale up women's economic empowerment activities. Against this backdrop this article examines the existing National Gender Machinery in Malawi within the context of having a gender activist as president. Will her passion for gender equality make a difference for gender policy and planning in Malawi? The article reports on a study that critically examines the existing National Gender Machinery and proposes mechanisms to improve its harmonization, coordination, and impact. The study finds that the reluctance by government decision makers to invest adequate resources or create relevant frameworks, strategies, mechanisms and accountability systems for implementing gender-related policies and programs is impeding the achievement of gender equality in this male dominated society. Finally the article provides an analysis of how a woman president might accelerate the process of gender mainstreaming and women empowerment in Malawi.