[Malawi] Mutharika calls for regional poverty plan

from Independenct on Line

Blantyre - Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika said on Tuesday that his impoverished nation will push for a regional agenda to fight poverty at a southern African regional summit in Lesotho this week.

"Malawi's agenda is to fight for poverty elimination... We need a regional framework to work together in the fight against poverty," Mutharika told reporters before leaving for Lesotho to attend an annual summit of the head of states of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Mutharika said the region "needs to move together in terms of development".

"It does not make sense to have one successful neighbour while next door is a poor country."


SADC groups the continent's economic powerhouse - South Africa - with some of Africa's least developed nations.

Mutharika said all countries "should adopt same poverty programmes so that we move together under the African Union".

Mutharika, who succeeded Bakili Muluzi in 2004, has pledged to bring economic stability to develop Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, with an annual per capita income of $210.

About 65 percent of Malawi's 12-million people still live below the poverty line.

Donors have fingered corruption as a major cause of Malawi's endemic poverty, especially during the decade-long Muluzi era when graft was rampant.