Malawi is located between Mozambique and Zambia and borders Tanzania in the north. The country has one of the poorest economies in the world; in 2016, gross domestic product (GDP) was $295 and gross national product (GNP) was $350 per capita per year. The economy depends on substantial financial subsidies from the IMF, the World Bank and individual donor nations. In 2016, 70.4 percent of Malawians had to live on less than $1.90 per day. The country ranked 172nd out of 189 on the 2018 Human Development Index.

​​

Malawi is repeatedly afflicted by severe natural disasters, most recently in March 2019 by the foothills of Cyclone Idai, which caused severe devastation and many deaths, particularly in neighbouring Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

​

Before Malawi introduced free primary education in 1995, only half of the children of school age went to school. Since then, the number of primary school students has risen from 1.9 million to 3.4 million - 80 percent of the children.

 

A major problem in village schools is the lack of teachers. Around 80 children are taught in one class. Over the past decade, many teachers without teaching degrees have been hired and many former teachers have been brought back to improve the situation. Despite these efforts, the shortage of teachers was even greater in 2006 than in 2001 because many older teachers quit their jobs. In 2015, the literacy rate was 65.8 percent.