Southern Region (Malawi)

Map of the Southern Region of Malawi

The southern region of Malawi is with an area of 31,753 km² and almost 5.9 million inhabitants the second largest, but measured in terms of inhabitants the largest of the three administrative divisions between the state at the top level and the respective districts below lying level are located. Each region is represented by a regional administrator . The administrative capital of the Southern Region is Blantyre , with 661,444 inhabitants the second largest in the country.

geography

The Southern Region is enclosed in the west, south and east by Mozambique . In the north it borders the Central Region and the southern foothills of Lake Malawi .

There are five agroecological regions in Malawi, two of which are wholly and one partially in the Southern Region. The Shire Highlands with their middle elevations between Blantyre and Zomba and the Lower Shire , which extends southwest of Blantyre as the lowest plain of Malawi along the Shire River , belong to the Southern Region. The agro-ecological region, which only partially belongs to the Southern Region, is the lake shore region of Lake Malawi, which extends north-south across all three regions of Malawi.

Districts

The Southern Region was divided into thirteen districts, listed from north to south

Mangochi with 803,602 inhabitants,
Balaka with 316,748 inhabitants,
Machinga with 488,996 inhabitants,
Neno with 108,897 inhabitants,
Mwanza with 94,476 inhabitants,
Blantyre with 338,047 inhabitants,
Zomba with 583,167 inhabitants,
Chiradzulu with 290,946 inhabitants,
Phalombe with 313,227 inhabitants,
Mulanje with 525,429 inhabitants,
Chikwawa with 438,895 inhabitants,
Thyolo with 587,455 inhabitants and
Nsanje with 238,089 inhabitants exist.

The two largest cities in the Southern Region are Blantyre, followed by Zomba with 87,366 inhabitants. The districts are run by a District Development Committee (DDC) chaired by a District Commissioner . Political decision-making takes place in a decentralized manner in these districts and in the larger cities in so-called town or city assemblies , but not at the regional level.

population

The 5,876,784 inhabitants of the Southern Region determined in the 2008 census represent 45% of the total population of Malawi. With an average of 185 inhabitants per km², the region has the highest population density in the country as a region. 48.4% are male and 51.6% female, but only 47.8% of the population is 18 years of age and older. The high number of children in the total population is due on the one hand to the high population increase of 26.8% in the years from 1998 to 2008 and on the other hand to the high death rate from HIV / AIDS in the adult population. Only 47.3% of women and 50.6% of men currently have sufficient knowledge about HIV prevention .

53.9% of children up to 17 years of age live with both parents. 20.3% do not live with their biological parents and 15.3% are orphans who have lost one or both parents.

The official languages in the region are English and Chichewa .

economy

Agricultural production in the south of the country is dominated by cotton and tobacco . In the Chikwawa and Nsanje districts of the Lower Shire Valley , cotton is preferred by small farmers . It is estimated that cotton production on an area of just over 60,000 hectares provides an income for around 120,000 households. Malawi exports up to 98% of its cotton in a pre-processed raw form. Only a cotton mill with a small capacity processes the raw material. The government is currently trying to attract more investors to Malawi for cotton processing.

The tobacco provides for Malawi continues to be the largest source of income. In 2006 there were approximately 375,000 small farmers from growing tobacco, covering 68% of the export income of the country from. Although tobacco is grown throughout the country, cultivation and processing have become more and more concentrated in the Central Region in recent years. In the Southern Region, tobacco is preferably grown east of Blantyre, in the Mulanje district. Around Blantyre and in the Machinga district there is more and more peanut plantations .

In recent years, Malawi has become more and more interesting for mining companies internationally . Since 2008 a French company has been investigating the Chenkumbi Hills in the Machinga district for exploitable limestone deposits . In contrast, phosphate has been found in the Phalombe district . With the raw material it is estimated that the prices for fertilizers in the country can be reduced by about 33%.

One of the most promising energy generation projects in the next few years could be the fairly simple production of fuel from the oil of the jatropha trees. Over two million trees have been planted for this purpose in the last two years. To reduce its dependence on oil imports, Malawi has been producing ethanol from sugar itself since 1982. The production of 11.8 million liters per year is distributed between the two production sites in Chikwawa, in the south of the country and near Dwangwa , in Nkhotakota District in the Northern Region.

The Shire-Zambezi Waterway is an important, but not uncontroversial, infrastructure project for Malawi . It should make the Shire River navigable from the city of Nsanje to the Zambezi and give Malawi access to the Indian Ocean via the Zambezi through Mozambique . The 650 million euro project was recommended by the African Union in 2005 through the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) program . Apart from the technical problems, critics consider the project to be too expensive and recommend expanding the railway lines from Malawi to Nacala or Beira in Mozambique.

swell

Population and Housing Census 2008 - Prelimenery Report , National Statistical Office, Zomba, Malawi, September 2008
Malawi Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2006 - Prelimenery Report , National Statistical Office, Zomba, Malawi, February 2007
Environment and Development in Malawi - National Environmental Action Plan - (accessed December 17, 2009)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Population and Housing Census 2008 - Prelimenery Report , National Statistical Office, Zomba, Malawi, September 2008

↑ ^a ^b NEAP - Environment and Development in Malawi - Department of Environmental Affairs - (accessed December 16, 2009)

↑ Lower Shire Valley ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Malawi Tourism - (accessed December 17, 2009) @1@ 2

↑ Patrick Kambewaa, Misheck Nyembe, Structure and Dynamics of Malawi Cassava Markets , Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA, February 2008

↑ Malawi Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2006 - Preliminary Report , National Statistical Office, Zomba, Malawi, February 2007, page 31

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Investors Guide to Malawi , Malawi Investment Promotion Agency - MIPA, Lilongwe, 2007.

↑ Steven M. Jaffee, Malawi's Tobacco Sector: Standing on One Strong Leg is Better Than on None Africa Region Working Paper Series No. 55 , World Bank Group, Washington, DC, June 2003.

^ Thomas R. Yager, The Mineral Industry of Malawi in: Minerals Yearbook 2008, US Department of the Interior, Washington DC, November 2009

↑ ^a ^b Malawi is looking for better connections to the sea , German Trade and Invest, Cologne, November 20, 2006.

Web links

Official Website of The Government of Malawi - Homepage - (accessed December 17, 2009)
UNDP supported government program - National Research Council of Malawi - (accessed December 17, 2009)
United Nations Developement Program Malawi - UNDP Malawi - (accessed December 17, 2009)

-15.416666666667 35.033333333333Coordinates: 15 ° 25 ′ S , 35 ° 2 ′ E

[c2008-1] Population and Housing Census 2008 - Prelimenery Report , National Statistical Office, Zomba, Malawi, September 2008

[sdnp-2] NEAP - Environment and Development in Malawi - Department of Environmental Affairs - (accessed December 16, 2009)