NGOs, corn and sunshine

Lilongwe is similar to what I imagined it would be, but also very different. I was told that when you arrive in Lilongwe (the capital of Malawi) you are more likely to see cornfields than skyscrapers. This is true – the building housing the ministry of finance is about 12 stories high, but I don’t think it quite reaches the Malawian sky. However, there do seem to be fields around every corner waiting for the rains to sprout this year’s crop of maize, the lifeblood of the Malawian diet and economy.

To my surprise, however, Lilongwe in fact is not just a rural town. Along with the dirt roads, shack-style vegetable markets and chickens running about, is a pack of another type of wild animal. Much more dangerous than most other wildlife that roams this city (including the nasty hyena), this rare species known as the SUV seems to fill every stretch of Lilongwe’s well maintained cement road infrastructure. Moving quickly across the road only seems to provoke their innate instinct to accelerate right towards you, so it’s best to keep a safe distance, rather than to approach these creatures.

Yes, in this rural town you actually get stuck in “rush hour” traffic quite regularly (which is shocking considering how really rural Lilongwe is!!). Lilongwe is not the business capital of Malawi. Blantyre, located in the South, is Lilongwe’s business brother. But, there is money in Lilongwe; not so much from business, but rather it actually comes from you – your Canadian aid dollars, along with the numerous other donors that are injecting significant resources into Malawi. The majority of it starts in Lilongwe with a local NGO (non-governmental organization), a government agency, an international organization, and of course, a massive SUV that is needed to navigate rural Malawi’s dirt roads. The presence of donor money, as seen through the acronyms (UNICEF, DFID, FUM, CDC, WV, etc.) decorating these SUVs is what I did not expect. The NGO that I’m working for – the Farmer’s Union of Malawi (FUM) – doesn’t own an SUV, rather we use two F150 pickup trucks. Sweet!

A little background. Malawi is a country of approximately 14 million people, most of whom are rural farmers. There are four major cities – Lilongwe (700,000), Blantyre (700,000), Mzuzu and Zomba, but as described above there are more corn fields than sky scrapers. Lake Malawi, covering approximately a third of Malawi’s geography, is the third biggest lake in Africa and the 11th largest in the world.

Maize – maize is life in Malawi. The vast majority of the population grow maize for food consumption (i.e. survival). Some do sell a little of their crop, mostly to buy fertilizer for the next year, but unfortunately 95% also have to purchase maize in order to feed their family for the year (i.e. Malawians are not food self-sufficient). Other important crops for the average Malawian include legumes – peanuts, beans, soy; cabbage; potatoes; and other simple garden vegetables. They will of course eat meat and fish if they have access to it, but most don’t.

Besides maize, tobacco is the 2nd most important crop for Malawians. Others that are significant include tea, sugar, coffee and paprika. But really, tobacco is Malawi’s lifeline to foreign currency. There is some manufacturing in Malawi, but not a lot and it is not a very significant part of the economy.

FUM (the Farmer’s Union of Malawi) is the local NGO that I report to, but I’m actually paid by a Canadian NGO, World University Services Canada (WUSC), which gets the money from the Canadian International Development Agency (i.e. you). FUM is a new organization that was started in 2003. It was the brainchild of the Swedish Co-operative Society which felt that farmers needed representation at the national level. FUM thus aims to represent farmers’ interests by conducting research on farming policy, advocating the national government, strengthening farmers’ ability to advocate at the district and village level, and strengthening farmer producer organizations across Malawi. Currently FUM has a staff of 11 – an Executive Director, two Program Directors, one Finance Directors, an IT Officer, two office assistants, a driver and three international volunteers (two of which finish in December).

My role with FUM is to help them answer a very simple question, “is FUM achieving what it aims to achieve (help farmers to have a greater voice in the decisions made in their country, and in turn, improve their standard of living) through its work in research, advocacy, and supporting farmer organizations. And if so, why? And if not, why not?” For the year I will be working in Malawi, I will support FUM to develop a monitoring system so that they will be able to be able to answer these questions, and others, on an ongoing basis. This will help them to improve the work they do, and to assure their constituents (i.e. farmers) and their donors (i.e. you) that what FUM is doing is worthwhile.

General Impressions of Lilongwe and Malawi (keeping in mind I’ve only been here for three weeks!):

Jobs in NGOs, not the private sector or government, are the most lucrative in Malawi. When Elene and I ask what people are studying – the vast majority say accounting. All NGOs need to account I suppose.

Friendly, friendly people who are willing to go out of their way to chat, or give you a hand (other than two very cute little girls that followed Elene and I yelling, “go home whites!”)

Really wealthy people in walled compounds with electric fences, dogs and guards. Yes, we will also be one of them soon. We found a great place that we move into January 1 – it has a nice high wall and we plan to employ two night guards. The house also has a beautiful garden, small staff courters and a great patio. Unfortunately, Malawi has one of the highest inequality ratings in the world, and this most definitely contributes to the high incidence of house break-ins – hence the need for fences and dogs.

Lilongwe is really expensive. Malawi is approximately the 5th poorest country in the world. A crappy car in Lilongwe costs about $2,000, but a half decent one costs at least $5,000. If you used a cell phone regularly, it would cost probably close to $5 a day. Food is pretty close to Canada, although you can get almost anything that you can get in Canada. A taxi is also about the same as in Canada, however, gas is about twice as expensive.

Malawians use unique surnames – Master, Precious, Brilliant, Fantastic and Blessings, but also more common names such as Fred – the manager of our hostel and also just a great, smart guy.

And the weather – pure sunshine!