Your article (Malawi president declares half of country damaged by cyclone, 20 March) fills many of us with despair. The conditions of Malawi, the poorest country in English-speaking Africa, have been gradually worsening over the last 40 years. This is in part due to global climate change, but also to too much aid, which has been misinterpreted as development.
Aid has discouraged local agency at all levels. According to the NGO Explorer website, there are over 900 NGOs working in Malawi registered with the Charity Commission in the UK. Then there are all the Irish, German and American NGOs and their projects. Floods and cyclones have affected the country in the last 20 years. Having more voluntary agencies coming into Malawi with their individual recipes to save the country is simply not going to help.
