On the Road in Malawi: The Challenge of Traffic

Our projects are often located far from major cities. To visit these sites, meet with partners, or transport materials, we regularly travel hundreds of kilometers on Malawian roads.

What is rarely visible – but represents one of the biggest challenges – is road traffic. Infrastructure in Malawi is in poor condition in many areas: potholes, unprotected road edges, and heavily damaged or even completely washed-out road sections are common.

On top of that, the roads are used by a wide variety of traffic participants – large trucks, small cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and many pedestrians, often walking along unlit rural roads. There are hardly any sidewalks or bike lanes. Driving here requires maximum concentration – often for hours at a time. It’s not just exhausting, but also dangerous.

Road traffic in Malawi is, in fact, one of the country’s major safety risks. In 2023, over 1,000 people were officially reported to have died in road accidents – many of them pedestrians and cyclists. By comparison, in Germany – with more than 30 times as many registered vehicles and much denser traffic – around 2,800 people died in road accidents in the same year. Adjusted for population size, the risk of dying in a traffic accident in Malawi is about five times higher – and significantly more so for pedestrians.

For us, it’s clear: this danger is part of traveling through Malawi, even if it's rarely visible in the photos from our project visits. Each journey reminds us just how vital safe infrastructure is – not just for transportation, but for sustainable development as a whole.