Helping or playing god? an assessment of the impact of foreign aid on economic growth and food security in malawi

Food insecurity and poor economic growth continue to be the major challenge for Malawi despite increasingly growing foreign aid. Between 2007 and 2015, Malawi received over US$1.3 billion, but real GDP growth went down. Today, over 2.8 million Malawians are affected by hunger due to poor maize harvest. While one would expect foreign aid to boost Malawi’s economy and stabilize food security, the situation for Malawi is different. Most attribute food insecurity and poor economic growth to poor agricultural production due to unpredictable climatic conditions. However, this explanation seems weak considering that Malawi is endowed with myriad rivers that provide an alternative for irrigation agriculture. In addition, knowledge about unpredictable climatic conditions is not new to Malawians, and this should have awakened Malawians to scale up irrigation agriculture. This study argues that foreign aid is the main reason for Malawi’s poor economic growth and food insecurity.