The purpose of this paper was to study trends in life expectancy in Malawi since independence and offer possible explanations regarding its inter-temporal variations. Descriptive analysis has shown that life expectancy in Malawi has trailed below Sub Saharan Africa’s average. From the 1960s through early 1980s, life expectancy improved due to rising incomes and absence of HIV/AIDS. After early 1980s life expectancy declined tremendously and never improved due to the spread of HIV/AIDS, the economic slump that followed the World Bank’s Structural Adjustment programmes (SAP) and the widespread corruption and poor governance in the era of democracy. It is found that at the turn of the new millennium, Malawians were no healthier than their ancestors at the dawn of independence, though such a trend somehow started changing for the better after 2004. In order to meet her health Millennium Development Goals by 2015, Malawi needs to put good governance, agricultural performance and increases in health expenditure at the heart of development policies.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number
11949.
Length: Date of creation: 01 Dec 2007 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Malawi Medical Journal 4.19(2007): pp. 154-158 Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:11949
Find related papers by JEL classification: O11 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health