Who Covers the Cost of Care for Older Persons in Malawi?

The dominant focus on long term care for older persons in Malawi has been on family support. Whilst the Malawian government with the assistance of foreign agencies including the World Bank, Irish Aid, EU, KFW and others have introduced a growing number of food and social assistance support to older person households, this reaches only a minority of the 1 million older persons in Malawi. Family care for older persons in Malawi is extremely challenging in a context of massive food insecurity and inadequate access to health care services. By drawing on community meetings and semi-structured interviews with older persons and their caregivers, this paper reveals how older persons at the community meetings listed natural disasters, currency devaluation and limited seed/fertiliser support as the main reasons families were unable to support each other. Assigning more responsibility to families and expecting families to carry the everyday consequences of a deepening financial crises is unrealistic and unfair. In a context of ongoing poverty and inequality, and in the aftermath of reoccurring climate-related disasters, greater support is required.