Morning Briefing

Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died April 5, may be remembered for corruption and mismanagement, but his "positive legacy" is his creation of "an agriculture-led boom in Malawi, one that pointed a way for Africa to overcome its chronic hunger, food insecurity, and periodic extreme famines," Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, writes in a New York Times opinion piece. Despite "resistance" from the donor community, under Mutharika, "Malawi used its own paltry budget revenues to introduce a tiny [agricultural] subsidy program for the world's poorest people, and lo and behold, production doubled within one harvest season. Malawi began to produce enough grain for itself year after year, and even became a food donor when famine struck the region. Life expectancy began to rise, and is estimated to be around 55 years for the period 2010-15," he says.