Marie Michael Library

'Making less last longer' informal safety nets in Malawi

Devereux, Stephen

This paper examines the role of informal safety nets in providing protection against recent livelihood shocks in Malawi, drawing on secondary sources and a survey undertaken in rural and urban communities in the south of the country. A key finding is that informal transfers, either between rich and poor or among the poor themselves, appear to be declining over time, partly as a general consequence of commercialisation and partly because deepening poverty means that the economic basis for redistribution is contracting.