An Assessment of Wholistic Empowerment Initiatives to Create Wealth Through the Work of Non-Govermental Organizations For Sustainable Development in Malawi

by Clifford Kuyokwa
June 4th, 2022

The purpose of this project is to assess, establish, understand, and adopt wealth creation initiatives that can help to improve the livelihood of people living in the southern rural region of Malawi and beyond. The factors that would determine the success of wealth creation initiatives have been analyzed. The Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach was used as opposed to the handouts of aid, which encourages dependency syndrome on the donors. This study was conducted in the southern rural region of Malawi. I personally conducted data collection from the NGOs that are working in the rural communities from the southern region of Malawi. Data for this project was collected from 10 executive directors of NGOs through one-on-one face-to-face interviews and 50 who participated in five focus group discussion (FGDs) sessions. The data collection was conducted with the support of research assistants. The Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach was significantly discussed and utilized. The results of this study showed that there are some wealth creation initiatives that have been key and successful to improve the livelihoods of poor rural community members. Thematically, some examples of successful wealth creation initiatives were Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA), investments in small and medium enterprises, livestock support, e.g., goats pass-on strategy, irrigation projects using solar pump or diesel engines, educational support through bursaries, vocational skills development, e.g., sewing, carpentry, and tailoring. The findings of the study gives hope that it is possible to have a paradigm shift from depending on development aid as handouts to getting wholistically empowered to create one’s own wealth for sustainable development in the rural communities of southern region of Malawi.