Trip Report: Malawi

Our Chair of Trustees shares reflections from his recent trip visiting Partners in Malawi.

In early 2024, I was honoured to take on the role of Chair of The Egmont Trust – an organisation I had long admired for its commitment to locally led development.

I’ve had a longstanding connection with Africa, beginning in 1978 when I was a secondary school science teacher in Nandom, Ghana with VSO. I later served as VSO’s Treasurer and remained closely involved in its Africa programmes.

More recently, as a businessman, I oversaw Associated British Foods’ investment in Illovo Sugar across southern Africa – including Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Eswatini, and Tanzania – from 2014 to 2023. This brought me closer to the rural estates and the communities they supported.

Despite that background, I felt it was important to see Egmont’s work first hand. In June 2025, I joined Egmont’s founder and CEO, Jeremy Evans, on a week-long visit to Malawi. We met four of our nine Partners there, along with our Head of Programmes, Nomuhle Gola, and Portfolio Analyst, Jake Westlake.

As we travelled, I found myself returning to four key questions I imagine many donors would also ask:

How great is the need?
Do the funds reach those they are intended for?
Do we really change lives – and is the change lasting?
Are our funds used effectively?

1. How great is the need?

Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world. In 2023, the UN estimated GDP per capita at just $500. With a population of over 22 million – growing at around 2.6% annually – the country faces significant pressure on land, resources and services.

Over 80% of Malawians live in rural areas, often far from even basic amenities. We visited communities accessible only via rough, unpaved roads. Homes built from mud bricks with thatched roofs dotted landscapes with no electricity or piped water. Most people live at subsistence level, and hunger is widespread between January and March when food stores run low. The tyranny of distance is a major challenge to healthcare. Many clinics are hours away by foot – the only available transport for many.

HIV prevalence among adults is over 11%, affecting more than 1.6 million people. We met grandmothers caring for grandchildren after the deaths of their own children, some of them also living with HIV. Others had taken in orphans from neighbours or extended family. With limited education and no resources, these guardians are trapped in extreme poverty. Many cannot afford school fees – even basic ones – or the inputs needed to grow food.

2. Do the funds reach the intended beneficiaries?

Egmont’s approach gives me confidence that they do. Our model centres on supporting local organisations rooted in their communities. There is no top down direction.

Egmont’s Partners work closely with existing local structures and resources – such as Traditional Authorities, chiefs, village headmen and elders etc. – to identify households most in need. We visited schools, clinics and agricultural training sites that are part of these community-based efforts. In every location, it was clear that funds were reaching the front lines.

And most powerful of all were the people we met who expressed, often with emotion, the difference Egmont support had made in their lives. I recall one woman, head of a singing group that welcomed us, who, in a quiet moment, caught my eye – her face lined with emotion. That quiet exchange has stayed with me.

Does Egmont's support really change lives - and sustainably?

Yes – without question. And the word ‘transform’ is no exaggeration.

We met families who had received a single piglet and basic agricultural training through Egmont support. From that small start, they had grown sustainable smallholdings. Some had sold piglets to buy school uniforms or roofing materials; others had invested in crops or installed solar panels. These were families previously stuck at subsistence level – now generating modest, independent income.

Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSALs) were another powerful example. Groups of around 25 households contributed small savings (as little as 200 kwacha or 10p) and could access loans from the collective pot. No banks, no formal finance – just a simple, trusted mechanism that allowed families to meet pressing needs. The system works because it is owned and governed by the community; by the neighbours, friends and family members that make up the groups.

In education, we saw the impact of Egmont-supported initiatives working to reduce drop-out rates – especially among girls – by changing attitudes and investing in support for parents, students and local schools.

The breadth and appropriateness of each Partner's work, tailored to local context, was impressive throughout.

Are the funds used effectively? Is there value for money?

The drive for evidence and value was a clear theme across all meetings. Partners tracked concrete outcomes; from school attendance rates and ARV adherence to income gains and food security.

One story brought this into sharp focus. Margret - a grandmother - received a piglet, seeds and training from an Egmont Partner. We estimated the total cost of that support at around $80. The resulting improvements in income, food, shelter and school access affected not just her but the six grandchildren in her care. That investment of ~$12 per head has transformed the trajectory of an entire household - permanently.

The need is undeniable. Egmont’s approach ensures that funds are applied at the grassroots – with rigour, trust and local ownership. The change we help create is real, lasting and cost-effective.

I came away convinced not only of the impact of Egmont’s work, but of its potential to do more. We must scale our support – not simply as charity, but as an investment in the resilience, dignity and energy of local people working to improve life for their communities.

The people of Malawi do not ask for pity or handouts. But with even modest support, they are showing – through their dedication, ingenuity and hard work – how much can be achieved.