News stories by Claire Ngozo, page 2

A campaign to stop people buying merchandise from street vendors is gaining momentum in Malawi’s main cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu after the small-scale traders went on a rampage undressing women and girls wearing trousers, leggings, shorts and mini-skirts.

Malawi is experiencing a drug shortage as the country’s international donors remain reluctant to release aid meant for the health sector.

For the last two weeks, Malawi’s president has been running the country’s 22 ministries on his own after firing his entire cabinet. But political and economic analysts say that his delay in appointing a new cabinet is detrimental to the country’s development. Some analysts say government has come to a standstill because of this, while others say the situation shows that the president has lost control.

Malawi is reducing the production of tobacco following huge losses by smallholder tobacco farmers and commercial estates trading the crop on the country’s only official tobacco markets, the auction floors.

Malawi’s attempts to improve trade and investment in the country have taken a huge step backwards following a decision by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a United States government foreign aid agency leading the fight against global poverty, to put on hold 350.7 million dollars meant to improve the country’s flawed energy sector.

Unless Malawi’s government does something to find solutions to its economic and governance problems, the country will see more nationwide protests like the ones last week where 18 people were killed and 275 arrested, analysts say.

The decision by the Malawian government to introduce value-added tax (VAT) of up to 16.5 percent on products such as bread, meat, milk and dairy products is being blamed for losses incurred by small-scale businesses. The move comes in response to a loss of revenue due to regional trade commitments.

'The future for least developed countries lies in trade, productive capacity and governance more than in aid,' said Cheick Sidi Diarra, United Nations High representative for the Least Developed Countries, responding to criticism of the plan of action put forward as the U.N. conference on the world's poorest nations drew to a close in Istanbul.

Civil society groups have vowed to mobilise citizens of the world’s poorest nations to take to the streets, rejecting the Istanbul Programme of Action agreed today by the Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries.

'Women in LDCs bear the brunt of economic and social hardships,' said Wubitu Hailu, managing director of an Ethiopian NGO, Kulich Youth Reproductive Health and Development Organisation. The failure to provide access to basic services like clean water and electricity is a major factor preventing women from realising their full potential.