Sample Project Background- Malawi

The project background is an important part of every proposal. It can be very similar to the project rationale or the project justification. It shows your donor that you did your homework and that your project is planned well. But where can you get the information and data for your project background? And how does one actually look like?

Here you have an example project background for Malawi. If you are planning or working in Malawi then you are welcome to use this blueprint. Be sure to add more specific information about your own project though, and add updated data according to the region and place.

Project Background of Malawi

Malawi is a landlocked country, covering the area of 11484 sq km. It ranks among the least developed countries in southeast Africa. It shares borders with Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. Malawi got its independence in the year 1964. After 3 decades it held multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections in 1994.

Limited natural freshwater resources, land degradation, and desertification are the major environmental issues faced by Malawi today. The country is prone to natural hazards such as floods, droughts, and earthquakes. Furthermore, resources such as land, water, and forests are decreasing due to rapid population growth, threatening the durability of the country’s major income sector, which is agriculture. 84.7% of Malawians  living in rural area are engaged in smallholder subsistence farming. Malawi is an agricultural country, it heavily depends on rain-fed agriculture, especially staple crops. Climate change, poor infrastructure, policy inconsistency, macroeconomic instability, rampant corruption, high population growth and a poor education system are the major challenges for economic growth. The GDP of the country in 2017 accounts  to USD6.30 billion.

Malawi is one of the world’s most affected countries by HIV-AIDS. More than one million children are orphans due to the disease. Child and maternal health have been improving in Malawi, but it is less progressive in reducing its high fertility rate. Parental care and skilled birth assistance are received by many mothers and vaccinations to children are provided to both the rural and the urban areas. However, fertility decline in Malawi is in a slow manner, i.e. 7 children per women in 1980s to 4.5 children per women in the present day.

The business performance is moderate, scoring 59.59. Also the country holds the 111^th position for doing business.

If you are looking for more information, you can visit other sources that could be useful, such as OECD, World Bank or the UN.

Unless otherwise indicated, the data was retrieved from  HDR-UNDP

Country: Malawi

Demographics

• Population – 19,842,560 (CIA The world factbook)
• Density – 197.519 sq/km (World Bank)
• Area (Rural/ Urban) – 83.1% / 16.9%  (CIA The world factbook)

Education

• Literacy rate – 62.1%

Health

•  Life expectancy at birth – 61 years (Male), 66.2 years (Female)
• Infant mortality rate – 38.9 deaths/1,000 live births
• Maternal mortality – 634 deaths/100,000 live births
• Stunting (% under five years ) – 37.4
• Fertility rate – 4.5 births per woman.
• HIV Prevalence adult ( % ages 15-49) – 9.2

Economy Most important sectors – Agriculture.

• GDP – $ 6.30 billion (Trading Economics)
• Unemployment rate – 5.9% (Statista)
• National poverty line – 50.7% (HDR-UNDP)

Ecology

• Forest area – 33.379 % (WORLD BANK)
• Number of National Parks – 5  

 Other

• Gender Inequality Index value – 0.619 (HDR-UNDP)
• Human Development Index value – 0.477   (HDR-UNDP)
• Corruption Rank – 122/180  (Transparency)
• 2019 ease of doing business score – 59.59  (World Bank)