Report highlights impact of UK Aid on lives in Malawi & warns of cuts delaying much-needed economic change

With the UK “materially ending its direct support for ten countries in Africa”, Center for Global Development (CGD) Consultant Graham Symons has written a paper entitled “What Results Has UK Aid Achieved in Malawi over the Long Term?”

Acknowledging that its conservative approach, using publicly available information likely underestimates the full scale of the positive impact on people’s lives, the report finds that “while Malawi’s economic fortunes have not transformed and it remains an extremely poor country” the £1.6bn of UK taxpayers’ money spent in the period 2009 -2025 has “made an enormous difference to people’s lives.” The reports goes on: “Many of those results will continue to be felt – thousands of Malawians are still living the lives saved, feeling relief from the justice they received and using reading and writing skills UK aid paid for.”

Impacts are summarised as:

Health

• 3.1 million people (14 percent of the population) reached with Essential Health Package medical services, likely giving the equivalent of a healthy year of life to a population group (2.4 million) more than twice the size of Birmingham.

• Over 2 million unintended pregnancies and over 525,000 unsafe abortions avoided.
• 7,143 maternal deaths averted between 2011-2024 and 8,440 under-five deaths averted between 2018-2024 (both likely substantial under-estimates of overall achievement).

Humanitarian, food and water

• More than 3.5 million people provided with humanitarian assistance, more than the combined populations of Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Edinburgh and Liverpool.
• 730,000 people gained sustainable access to improved sanitation, 720,000 people access to improved hygiene, 530,000 people access to clean drinking water (over 2011-2015).

Climate

• More than 385,000 people, possibly over 745,000 people, supported to cope with the effects of climate change, including through cash transfers, early warning systems, climate-smart technologies and support for resilient housing.

Education

• Over 400,000 children, mostly girls (roughly equivalent to the total population of Leicester) supported by UK aid to gain a full, ‘decent’ education.
• Over 3 million children reached with a new mathematics curriculum with well-evidenced numeracy benefits.

Economy

• Through a single programme, net income boosted for over 1.8 million people and approximately $10 million of additional private investment leveraged.

Governance

• Over 1.1 million households and businesses experiencing significant improvements in their access to public goods and services.
• 400,000 women and girls given improved access to security and justice services.

(pp.3-4 what-results-uk-aid-malawi.pdf)

In addition to the above benefits, the report further disaggregates a number of important results for women and girls. (p.12)

The report concludes that “the results UK assistance supported likely made significant contributions to important development progress Malawi made over the period, including in boosting life expectancy, reducing child and maternal mortality, tackling diseases, lowering fertility rates, expanding participation in education, not least for girls, and increasing its quality.”

The paper warns that reductions in aid now will “potentially withhold assistance that could enable much-needed economic change” and that despite the UK’s ongoing work to leverage support through multilateral institutions “Such a removal of support comes at a time when Malawi is facing acute fiscal pressures, when other key donor countries are scaling back their assistance, and when Malawi’s development challenges are in many respects intensifying.”

Read a 16 September 2026 blog post on the report here by Ian Mitchell, Co-Director, Europe and Senior Fellow - CGD Europe.

Read the full report here.