This chapter sets out the objective of this thesis to take forward contemporary policy debates
in Malawi regarding the most appropriate combination of policy instruments for overcoming
vulnerability to hunger in the country. The distinction is made between production oriented
instruments, exemplified by the agricultural input subsidy programme; and consumption
oriented instruments, exemplified by the Mchinji social cash transfer scheme. The chapter
provides a brief summary of evolving policy ideas in relation to poverty and vulnerability
reduction, as well as an overview of key features of the Malawi economy. Research questions
to be addressed by the thesis are set out.
The thesis proceeds as follows. In Chapter 2, the background ideas that inform the thesis are
explored in relation to the wider literature. The economic rationale and the historical
experience of inputs subsidies are examined, including changing views about them up to the
present time. In similar fashion, evolving ideas about social welfare policies, and the different
forms that social transfers can take are summarised. Ambiguities that occur around the term
social protection and its scope are discussed, and clarification for the purposes of the thesis is
provided. Finally, the chapter shows how social protection, vulnerability and agriculture are
interwoven at the conceptual level, as well as in the reality that the most vulnerable people in
a country like Malawi are food deficit poor farmers.
Chapter 3 provides essential information about Malawi that is important for the argument of
the thesis. The chapter contains an agricultural policy history of Malawi, oriented especially
to the role of fertilizer subsidies in Malawi agricultural policy over past decades. The chapter
also provides a history of social transfers and social transfer policies in Malawi, including
public works programmes associated with the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), and the
adoption of a National Safety Net Policy. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of
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The progression of vulnerability in Malawi at the turn of the 21st century is elaborated in Chapter 3, Section 3.4
politics in Malawi, and the way decentralised public administration is organised in the
country.
Chapter 4 is concerned with research methods. The thesis comprises three sets of methods.
The first involves making use of data collected by the Malawi government; the second
involves village and household level research covering 90 households in Mchinji district; and
the third involves key informant interviews with stakeholders, often with a view to
triangulating the interpretation of policy options provided by different respondents with
differing ideas. The chapter summarises the collection methods for various data series
produced by the Malawi government that play important roles in the thesis. It also describes
the community selection and sampling approach to fieldwork, and the organisation of key
informant interviews.
The agricultural input subsidy programme (ISP) is examined in Chapter 5. The chapter
provides an overview of the programme, details of its organisation (and how this has evolved
since the programme has been in operation), economic features of the programme (coverage,
effect on fertilizer use, amount of subsidy in successive years, cost of delivery, findings of
programme evaluations), and a consideration of the programmes strengths and weaknesses in
terms both of its own criteria and the interests of this thesis in vulnerability reduction. The
chapter contains an extended section on the likelihood that maize output levels since the ISP
was introduced have been as high as officially recognised. Price behaviour in the maize
market in 2007 and 2008 suggests that official maize output levels are infeasible in economic
terms, and an exercise is conducted to assess how large this discrepancy has been.
The Malawi social cash transfer scheme, also often referred to as the Mchinji scheme from the
district in which it was first introduced is examined in Chapter 6. This chapter provides an
overview of social cash transfers in Malawi, the details of how the Mchinji scheme was
implemented, how this organisation has evolved, what evaluations have had to say about the
scheme, and strengths and weaknesses that are identified from secondary sources. The chapter
contains an extended section that critically examines the 10 per cent principle which has
capped the number of beneficiaries in the Mchinji scheme. Spatial patterns of poverty and
ultra-poverty are examined, and the income distribution implications of providing the Mchinji
level of cash transfers are considered.
The ISP and the social cash transfer scheme in Malawi are independent programmes but
operate side by side in some communities, including using community targeting to select
beneficiaries. In Chapter 7, empirical investigation of a sample of 90 households is utilised to
examine how these programmes interact at household and community level. The chapter
looks specifically at three main dimensions: (a) organisation and beneficiary selection; (b)
food security differences between cash transfer recipients and non-recipients; and (c) the
impact of ISP coupon receipt on farmer input behaviour, comparing coupon recipients with
non-recipients, and households that received both coupons and cash transfers.
Chapter 8 draws the threads of the thesis together in a particular way. It examines how the
vulnerability reduction attributes of input subsidies and social cash transfers differ from each
other, and reveal different strengths and weaknesses. It also widens out the social transfer side
of the picture to consider other transfers such as social pensions. The chapter examines the
ability of the Malawi government to afford subsidies or transfers, given the structure of and
balance of government income and expenditure. The historical and current budgetary cost of
input subsidies is examined. An exercise is conducted to show how the same budgetary outlay
could be allocated in different ways to provide a diverse portfolio of vulnerability reduction
policies.
Chapter 9 is the final chapter of the thesis. The chapter returns to the objective of the thesis,
and reviews this in the light of what the thesis has discovered. It then proceeds to summarise
how the thesis has tackled the six research questions set out in this chapter, and the findings
that have emerged under each of those headings. Finally, the chapter seeks to put forward a
balanced assessment of the implications of the findings of the thesis for future vulnerability
reduction policy in Malawi.
Chapter 2: Input Subsidies, Social Protection and Vulnerability
In document
EL CAMINAR DEL CREYENTE.pdf
(página 39-45)