Poverty alleviation in rural Malawi: Is there a role for artisanal mining?

Abstract

This paper argues that a formalized and supported artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector could alleviate significant poverty in rural Malawi. It questions the efficacy of the government's decision to continue promoting a "farm first" strategy to address the country's poverty problem, given the limited capacity of smallholder agriculture to alleviate rural hardship on its own. More dynamic approaches to tackling rural poverty are desperately needed in Malawi. A strategy that fosters increased support to ASM could prove invaluable on this front, and would likely be well received because thousands of rural Malawians have already begun "branching out" into the sector. The biggest barrier to supporting this movement is at the policy level, where there may be some reluctance to sideline conventional "farm first" poverty alleviation strategies in favour of what may be perceived to be more radical, untested approaches. This is particularly significant for ASM, since Malawi has never been considered to be a "mining country" or to have any meaningful mineral potential. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.