Public Financial Management for PRSP - Deutsches Institut für ...

Public Financial Management for PRSP Implementation in Malawi
2005b, vi). One serious problem appears to be that a surge in the number of
private secondary schools has deprived the public primary schools of their
most qualified teachers because they offer higher salaries. The situation is
even worse in rural than in urban schools.
Furthermore, the HIV/Aids pandemic poses major challenges to this sector.
According to the MoE, four to six teachers die per day in Malawi. In addition
to the detrimental effect this has on the quality of education, the ministry also
faces the problem of paying the funeral costs of deceased teachers. Custom in
Malawi requires any employer, in this case the MoE, to cater for the funeral
costs for deceased employees. In the past, however, the education budget did
not provide for these expenses, which can amount to considerable sums. The
policy to place teachers all over the country contributes to high funeral costs,
because the ministry is also expected to pay for transporting the body to the
deceased person’s home village. This problem has been recognised and funeral
costs can now be budgeted for under the item “consumables” in the
sector vote, which consequently is the second biggest expenditure item of the
sector budget. It is expected that the devolution of the responsibility to recruit
teachers to local administrative units will further reduce this problem by
making it possible for teachers to teach in their home district. Besides reducing
funeral costs, this may also contribute to lower HIV infection rates among
teachers as well.
4.3.2 The health sector in Malawi – current situation
Poor health status is both a main reason and an important aspect of poverty in
Malawi. Recent trends have been quite negative. Life expectancy has dropped
from 43 years in 1996 to only 37 years in 2005, mainly due to HIV-AIDS
pandemic (estimated adult prevalence rate in 2005, 14.2 %). Infant mortality
is estimated to have reached 103 deaths in 1,000 births in 2005 (CIA World
Factbook) while the maternal death rate in the same year was 1,120 deaths in
100,000 births, almost double the rate of 1990 (Republic of Malawi 2002).
Malawi's public health care system is structured in three tiers:
— Three central hospitals (in Lilongwe, Blantyre and Zomba) for the delivery
of tertiary services with a semi-autonomous status.
— District hospitals for the delivery of primary and secondary services,
with one hospital per district.
German Development Institute 51