[{"bbox": [130, 136, 386, 160], "category": "Section-header", "text": "# 1 CONTEXT ANALYSIS"}, {"bbox": [130, 178, 402, 206], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 1.1 Context description"}, {"bbox": [129, 218, 1100, 362], "category": "Text", "text": "Malawi is a low-income country with a population of approximately 17.5 million and persistent poverty and underemployment. Humanitarian crises are happening regularly due to a combination of unfavourable policies, climate change and rapid population growth. Fertility rates are among the highest in the world with about 5 children per women. 51 % of Malawians are 18 years or younger according to the last census (2018)."}, {"bbox": [129, 376, 1100, 578], "category": "Text", "text": "Progress in social and human development as well as important economic and structural reforms to sustain its economic growth rates have been made over the last decade. Nevertheless, poverty remains widespread, and the economy is undiversified and vulnerable to external and natural shocks. The country's natural resources are underused or used in a non-sustainable way, and Malawi attracts limited foreign investment. The country still faces serious challenges in regards to education, training, private sector growth, and employment as a result of systemic and structural shortcomings in the country."}, {"bbox": [129, 590, 1100, 735], "category": "Text", "text": "After a period of high fiscal deficits and high inflation, Malawi has shown over the past two years that it could regain macroeconomic stability, reflecting in a stable currency, falling inflation and controlled fiscal deficits. This was achieved with the support of two IMF programmes, on and off track. Public debt remains at moderate risk of distress, although it displays a rising trend. Interest rate payments eat up nearly a third of the budget."}, {"bbox": [129, 747, 1100, 975], "category": "Text", "text": "The Malawian market is small, the population has limited purchasing power and regional integration is not yet sufficiently developed. Agriculture is hampered by low productivity and unconducive policies. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) make up approximately 1.7 million people or 38 % of the working age population. At the same time, Malawi's private sector is still developing and is characterised by a high level of informality (the informal economy accounts for over 4 million jobs against 500,000 formal jobs). The informal economy is characterised by insecurity, lack of an adequate wage or social protection and unfulfilled rights at work."}, {"bbox": [129, 990, 1100, 1278], "category": "Text", "text": "The Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training (TEVET) sector is currently not producing enough graduates to meet labour market demand nor do the graduates have the skills required by industry. There is a lot of demand from industry for skilled labour, especially in the construction sector, but the quality and relevance of the current TVET training, although it has improved recently through STEP interventions, still needs support to live up to industry requirements. The overall management of the TEVET sector remains very weak and there are still issues in regards to quality and relevance of the training provided. At the same time, the system does not equip the TEVET graduates with required competences to start their own entrepreneurship ventures, and both the formal and informal TEVET training systems are biased in favour of men."}, {"bbox": [129, 1310, 1100, 1542], "category": "Text", "text": "There are important options for self employment within the construction sector but access to financing remains the biggest challenges for start-ups. It is therefore crucial to provide TVET graduates with not only technical skills but also technical and financial support, and management skills necessary to start their own businesses. Self-employment is a good option for many unemployed youth and TVET graduates are the best placed to pursue this avenue. With business skills virtually absent amongst the youth and a limited supply of business development services, it is necessary to strengthen entrepreneurship support, in particular focusing on the needs of the youth and female entrepreneurs."}, {"bbox": [607, 1666, 623, 1689], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "4"}]