Northern Region (Malawi)

The Northern Region of Malawi is with an area of ​​26,931 km ² and with nearly 1.7 million inhabitants, the smallest of the three administrative divisions, which are located between the state at the top level and the respective districts on the lower level. Each region is represented by a Regional Administrator. The administrative capital of the Northern Region is the 128 432 inhabitants, Mzuzu.

Geography

The Northern Region is bounded on the west by Zambia in the north and in the east of Tanzania and Malawi. The south adjacent territorial organization is the Central Region, followed by the Southern region.

Districts

The Northern Region was divided into six districts that listed from north to south from

• Chitipa with 179 072 inhabitants,
• Karonga with 272 789 inhabitants,
• Rumphi with 169 112 inhabitants,
• Mzimba with 724 873 inhabitants,
• Nkhata Bay with 213 779 inhabitants and the smallest district
• Likoma made ​​with 10,445 inhabitants.

Likoma includes only the two small islands of Likoma and Chizumulu in Lake Malawi, located as an enclave within the territory of Mozambique. The districts are led by a District Development Committee ( DDC) chaired by a District Commissioner. The political decision-making is decentralized in these districts and in the two larger cities of Mzuzu and Karonga in the so-called town or city assemblies instead, but not at the regional level.

Population

The Census of 2008 counted at 1,698,502 inhabitants of the Northern Region represented only 13% of the total population of Malawi has dar. the northern region by far the lowest population density in the country with an average of 63 inhabitants per km ². 48.5 % are male and 51.1 % female, but only 47 % of the population is 18 years and older. The high number of children in the total population is on the one hand by the high population growth rate of 37.7 % in the years 1998-2008 and is but on the other hand also caused by the high death rate due to HIV / AIDS in the adult population. Only 36.9 % of women and 42.6 % of men have currently sufficient knowledge about HIV prevention.

59.8 % of children up to 17 years living with both parents. 17.6 % do not live with their biological parents, and 11.2 % are orphans who have lost one or both parents.

In addition to the official languages ​​of English and Chichewa throughout the country, exists in the north of the country even the Bantu language Chitumbuka as a lingua franca. The language is primarily spoken well 750000-1000000 people who come from the ethnic Tumbuka people.

Economy

People in the Northern Region live mainly from agriculture and the growing of tobacco. Industry, there is no here. Only in the north, 52 kilometers west of Karonga was on 17 April 2009 officially a uranium mine, Kayelekera uranium mine opened. In the estimated 11 years of operation to 1,500 tonnes of uranium oxide (VI ) oxide U3O8 measured as uranium ( V ) are obtained per year. Other estimates are based on only seven years. It is estimated that could be up to U.S. $ 120 million annual export earnings and thus uranium would account for about 15 % of total exports. Uranium would be the second most important export product after tobacco. NGOs such as the Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation in Malawi have already pointed out the problems and hazards of uranium mining.

The tobacco export is still the foreign exchange earner of the Malawian economy. The cultivation of tobacco are in the Northern region mostly west towards the town of Mzuzu to the border with Zambia. Coffee and tea is, however, mainly grown in the highlands. The first coffee plants came in 1878 to Malawi, but only participated in the 1920 African smallholders of the coffee production. Larger inflow got the coffee growing but then in the 1950s, when the Malawian government smallholders has been distributed in the Misuku Hills in the district Chitipa seedlings. This led to the formation in 1957 as an example of Misuku Coffee Growers Cooperative Society, which supported the Farmer et al in the marketing of green coffee. Similar examples followed, so that today coffee is mostly grown by small farmers in the districts of Chitipa, Rumphi, Mzimba and Nkhata Bay and produced today in Mzuzu a coffee roasting high quality coffee for the international market.

On the shores of Lake Malawi and the two islands in the district of Likoma there is a modest tourism. The Nyika National Park and the Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve are further tourist attraction.

Farming the one hand represents the main source of income of the rural population and also serves well as their own supply. Agricultural products are not exported. There are five agro-ecological regions in Malawi, of which there are two in the Northern Region, the northern highlands and the lake shore region of Lake Malawi. In these regions, inter alia, Cassava (manioc ) grown. Cassava is grown in the north of the country, depending on the district between 50 % and 90 % of the households themselves, is recognized as a staple food. From the districts of Nkhata Bay and Karonga is well known that this rate is almost 90 %. The cassava root is also considered the so-called "cash food" that lets you easily and quickly something can make money on the markets.