Countries | Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index

Key data for Malawi

NCI7th HRCI13th HANCI8th

HANCI compares 45 countries for their performance on 22 indicators of political commitment to reduce hunger and undernutrition. All the countries compared in the index have high rates of hunger and undernutrition. The comparative approach of the index means that country scores are calculated in relation to the political commitment of the other countries in the index.

1South Africa
2Brazil
2Peru
4Guatemala
5Indonesia
6Philippines
7Burkina Faso

8Malawi
9Nepal
10Mali
10Rwanda
12Tanzania
13Viet Nam
14Kenya

15Bangladesh
15Madagascar
17Benin
18Niger
19Pakistan
20China
21Côte d’Ivoire

22The Gambia
23Sierra Leone
23Zambia
25India
26Burundi
27Ghana
28Uganda

29Senegal
30Congo, DR
30Ethiopia
32Cambodia
32Nigeria
34Myanmar
35Mauritania

36Mozambique
37Afghanistan
38Cameroon
39Yemen
40Liberia
41Lesotho
42Sudan

43Angola
43Guinea‑Bissau
45Togo

Existing rates of: Stunting: 39% Wasting: 1.3% Proportion of population underweight: 1.3% Source: Government of Malawi (SMART,2018)

Strong Performance

Spending on agriculture (11.7% of public spending in 2018) meets government commitments set out in the African Union’s Maputo Declaration (10% of public spending).
The Government encourages varied agricultural research and extension services, and local farmer organisations are involved in setting policy priorities. The extension system is effective and properly reaches out to poor farmers. Government policies, strategies and mechanisms seek to ensure gender equity in access to extension services.
Relative to other HANCI countries, Malawi’s medium/long term national development policy (Malawi Growth and Development Strategy III) assigns strong importance to nutrition.
Malawi instituted a separate budget line for nutrition, enabling transparency and accountability for spending.
The National Nutrition Policy/Strategy identifies time bound nutrition targets and a multisectoral and multistakeholder policy coordination mechanism has been set up.
Policymakers in Malawi benefit from regular nutrition surveys that are statistically representative at national level. The last survey was published in 2015-2016.
The Government of Malawi promotes complementary feeding practices.
In Malawi 97.6% of women aged 15-49 were visited at least once during pregnancy by skilled health personnel in 2017.
In Malawi, constitutional protection of the right to food is strong.

Areas for improvement

Malawi’s spending in its health sector (9.8% of public spending in 2017) does not fully meet (15%) commitments set out in the Abuja Declaration.
In Malawi, the law does not give women economic rights equal to men. Men and women have equal legal access to agricultural land, but this is not effectively enforced and discriminatory practices against women continue, increasing their vulnerability to hunger and undernutrition.
Weak access to improved sanitation facilities (55.1% in 2016) obstructs better hunger and nutrition outcomes.
In Malawi, constitutional protection of the right to social security is weak.
Social safety nets in Malawi are basic and only cover few risks for a limited number of beneficiaries.
Civil registration rates are weak (67% in 2015-2016) and potentially hold back children’s access to critical public services such as health and education.

Hunger Reduction Commitment Index (HRCI)

Public Spending	Score	Year	HRCI rank of 45
Public spending on agriculture as share of total public spending ? 2014-2019 government expenditures on agriculture as share of total government expenditures (Percentage) Green if >=10 Yellow if <10 and >=7.5 Red if <7.5 IFPRI (SPEED database), ReSAKSS calculations using IMF Government Statistics and African Union http://www.resakss.org/map https://www.ifpri.org/publication/2019-global-food-policy-report	11.7%	2018	2nd
Public spending on health as share of total public spending ? 2017 government expenditure on health as a share of total government expenditure (Percentage) Green if >=15 Yellow if <15 and >=11.25 Red if <11.25 WHO Global Health Observatory Data Repository https://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.HEALTHFINANCING	9.8%	2017	8th

Policies	Score	Year	HRCI rank of 45
Access to land (security of tenure) ? 2005-2019 Assesses the existence of an institutional, legal and market framework for secure land tenure and the procedure for land acquisition and accessibility to all. The Ratings Scale goes from 6 (high) through 1 (low), as follows: 6 - Good for an 3 years 5 - Good 4 - Moderately Satisfactory 3 - Moderately Unsatisfactory 2 - Unsatisfactory 1 - Unsatisfactory for 3 years Green if >=4 Yellow if between 2.99 AND 4 Red if <=2.99 The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) https://www.ifad.org/documents/38714170/41133079/Annex_A.pdf	Moderate	2019	Joint 25th
Access to agricultural research and extension services ? 2004-2019 This indicator assesses to what extent the agricultural research and extension system is accessible to poor farmers, including women farmers, and is responsive to the needs and priorities of the poor farmers. Coding is done in the same manner as for the ‘security of access to land’ indicator. Green if >=4 Yellow if between 2.99 AND 4 Red if <=2.99 The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) https://www.ifad.org/documents/38714170/41133079/Annex_A.pdf	Strong	2019	8th
Civil registration system — coverage of live births ? 2010-2019 Percentage of children under five years of age who were registered at the moment of the survey. Green if >=90 Yellow if between 70 AND 90 Red if <=70 UNICEF: DHS/MICS https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/birth-registration/	67%	2015-2016	23rd
Functioning of social protection systems ? 2018-2020 10 = Social safety nets are comprehensive. 7 = Social safety nets are well developed, but do not cover all risks for all strata of the population. 4 = Social safety nets are rudimentary and cover only few risks for a limited number of beneﬁciaries. 1 = Social safety nets do not exist. Green if >=7 Yellow if between 3 AND 6 Red if <=2 Transformation Index of the Bertelsmann Stiftung (BTI) http://www.bti-project.org/en/home/	Weak	2018	Joint 26th

Laws	Score	Year	HRCI rank of 45
Level of constitutional protection of the right to food ? 2014-2019 Strong = 3 Explicit all citizens, specific groups or incorporated under living standards AND/OR Ratified international law (automatically assigned equal status as constitutional law) Moderate = 2 Implicit as part of a broader right in constitutional law. Weak = 1 Directive Principle (not justiceable) OR Likely or confirmed equality of ratified international lay to national legislation Green if 3 Yellow if 2 Red if 1 FAO information paper and FAO web database on Right to Food (FAOLEX). http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/ap554e/ap554e.pdf ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a0511e/a0511e00.pdf http://www.fao.org/faolex/country-profiles/en/	Strong	2019	Joint 1st
Equality of women’s access to agricultural land ? 2015-2019 Score based on women’s legal rights and de facto rights to own and/or access agricultural land. Value based on the following scale: 1: Women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to land assets, without legal exceptions regarding some groups of women. Customary, religious and traditional laws or practices do not discriminate against women’s legal rights. 0.75: Women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to land assets, without legal exceptions regarding some groups of women. However, some customary, religious or traditional practices or laws discriminate against women’s legal right. 0.5: Women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to land assets. However, this does not apply to all groups of women. 0.25: Women and men have the same legal rights to own land assets; but not to use, make decisions and/or use land assets as collateral. 0: Women do not have the same legal rights as men to own land assets (note: in HANCI calculation, the scoring used in the original source is reversed for consistency) Green if 1 Yellow if 0.5 Red if 0 Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) accessed via OECD’s Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB) https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?datasetcode=GIDDB2019	In Law, not in Practice	2019	Joint 3rd
Equality of women’s economic rights ? 2019 The extent to which women have equal economic rights in law and in practice. 0: there were no economic rights for women in law and systematic discrimination based on sex may have been built into law. 1: women had some economic rights under law, but these rights were not effectively enforced. 2: women had some economic rights under law, and the government effectively enforced these rights in practice while still allowing a low level of discrimination against women in economic matters. 3: all or nearly all of women’s economic rights were guaranteed by law and the government fully and vigorously enforces these laws in practice. Green if 3 Yellow if 1 OR 2 Red if 0 The Cingranelli-Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Data Project http://www.humanrightsdata.com/	Not in Law	2019	Joint 16th
Constitutional right to social security ? 1996-2019 The Constitution clearly references a right to social security (see Annex II of the source document). 0= No; 1=Yes Red if 0 Green if 1 FAO information paper and other sources ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a0511e/a0511e00.pdf	No	2014	Joint 33rd

Nutrition Commitment Index (NCI)

Public Spending	Score	Year	NCI rank of 45
Separate budget for nutrition ? 2017-2019 0 = no budgets or where no confirming information could be found; 0.5 = sectoral budgets for nutrition; 1 = separate budget line for nutrition Red if 0 Green if 1 SUN Compendium of fiches; IDS Nutrition Governance; Save the Children Nutrition Barometer; WHO Landscape Analysis; Global Nutrition Report (N4G tracking tables). http://globalnutritionreport.org/the-report/nutrition-for-growth-tracking-tables/ http://scalingupnutrition.org/	Yes	2019	Joint 1st

Policies	Score	Year	NCI rank of 45
Vitamin A supplementation coverage for children ? 1996-2018 The percentage of children aged 6-59 months who received 2 high doses of vitamin A supplements within the last year. Green if >=90 Yellow if between 70 AND 90 Red if <=70 MICS Indicators, UNICEF field offices and WHO, author calculations based on government data https://data.unicef.org/topic/nutrition/vitamin-a-deficiency/	75%	2018	20th
Government promotes complementary feeding ? 2010-2019 Whether governments promote complementary feeding practices of children aged 6–9 months and continued breastfeeding of children at ages 12–15 and 20–23 months. 0 = no; 1= yes Red if 0 Green if 1 Sun Reports; world breast feeding trends initiative http://worldbreastfeedingtrends.org/ http://scalingupnutrition.org/	Yes	2012	Joint 1st
Population with access to an improved water source ? 2017-2019 The percentage of population with access to an improved drinking-water source. Green if >=90 Yellow if between 70 AND 90 Red if <=70 Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for water supply and Sanitation - WHO/UNICEF https://washdata.org/data	88.7%	2017	15th
Population with access to improved sanitation ? 2016-2019 The percentage of population with access to improved sanitation facilities not shared with other households. Green if >=90 Yellow if between 70 AND 90 Red if <=70 Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for water supply and Sanitation - WHO/UNICEF https://washdata.org/data	55.1%	2016	16th
Health care visits for pregnant women ? 2007-2019 Percentage of women aged 15–49 years attended at least once during pregnancy by skilled health personnel (doctor, nurse or midwife) Green if >=90 Yellow if between 70 AND 90 Red if <=70 UNICEF: DHS/MICS http://data.unicef.org/	97.6%	2017	Joint 6th
Nutrition features in national development policy ? 2019 The total count of key search terms in a selected policy document divided by the number of pages in the document. Search terms: nutritio.; undernutrition/under-nutrition; malnutrition/mal-nutrition nutrient; diet.; stunt.; wasting/wasted; short-for-age; short for age; height-for-age; height for age; weight-for-age; weight for age; weight for height; weight-for-height; Underweight; under-weight; Low birth weight; Thinness; Micro-nutrient; micronutrient; 1000 days; one thousand days; Breastfeed.; Behavior change; behaviour change; Iron deficiency anaemi/anemi; Zinc; Deworm; de-worm; Vitamin A; Supplementary feed; complementary feed. Green if rank is >=31 Yellow if rank is 16 to 30 Red if rank is <=15 web-based searches.	Strong	2017-2022	8th
National Nutrition Policy/Strategy ? 2019 Whether a national nutrition policy, plan or strategy exists. 1: Yes 0:No Red if 0 Green if 1 EIU Global Food Security Index http://foodsecurityindex.eiu.com/	Yes	2019	Joint 1st
Multisector and multistakeholder policy coordination ? 2019 Whether a multisectoral and multistakeholder coordination mechanism exists: 0 = no; 1 = yes Red if 0 Green if 1 SUN fiches/Country docs and unpublished SUN country documents http://scalingupnutrition.org/	Yes	2019	Joint 1st
Time bound nutrition targets ? 2019 Whether governments identify time bound nutrition targets in public policy documents: 0= no; 1 = yes Red if 0 Green if 1 SUN Movement Annual Progress Reports; Global Nutrition Report http://globalnutritionreport.org/ http://scalingupnutrition.org/	Yes	2019	Joint 1st
National nutrition survey in last 3 years ? 2005-2020 Has there been a Demographic and Health Survey / Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey /comparable national nutrition survey in the past three years? 1: Yes if the survey was dated 2013 or thereafter, or currently underway. 0: No new survey undertaken after 2013. Red if 0 Green if 1 UNICEF, DHS and national nutrition surveys http://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm http://mics.unicef.org/surveys	Yes	2015-2016	Joint 1st

Laws	Score	Year	NCI rank of 45
Enshrine ICBMS in domestic law ? 2019 The extent to which the International Code for Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes is enshrined in law. 4 = ICBMS is fully in law. 3 = Many provisions of ICBMS are in law. 2 = Few provisions are in law. 1 = No legal measures. Green if 4 Yellow if 2 or 3 Red if 1 ‘Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes: National Implementation of the International Code, Status Report 2018.’ https://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/infantfeeding/code_report2018/en/	Many Aspects Enshrined	2019	Joint 19th

Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index Global

Key data for Malawi

Strong Performance

Areas for improvement

Hunger Reduction Commitment Index (HRCI)

Nutrition Commitment Index (NCI)